Fed's Bowman: Balance sheet reduction effort slowing too soon - Federal Reserve Gov. Michelle Bowman said the central bank might have been too quick to take its foot off the gas for its balance sheet reduction efforts.In a Tuesday morning speech at a conference hosted by the Bank of Japan, Bowman noted that the level of reserves — funds held at the Fed by commercial banks — remains roughly unchanged from where it was when the Federal Open Market Committee began its tightening campaign two years ago."In light of these conditions, I would have supported either waiting to slow the pace of balance sheet runoff to a later point in time or implementing a more tapered slowing in the pace of runoff," she said.Later this week, the Federal Open Market Committee will significantly cut the pace of itsbalance sheet reduction effort — known as quantitative tightening, or QT— by lowering the monthly cap on the amount of Treasuries that can come off its books from $60 billion to $25 billion. Bowman said the shift will roughly cut the pace of balance sheet reduction in half. The FOMC voted unanimously to slow the pace of balance sheet reduction during its meeting earlier this month. The Fed will keep the runoff cap on mortgage-backed securities at $35 billion, though these assets have been maturing relatively slowly. Depressed volumes of home sales and mortgage refinancings have made it difficult for the Fed to reach its monthly MBS runoff cap.During her speech, Bowman said QT has progressed smoothly thus far, with the reduction of assets — and therefore liabilities, too — taking place without issue. At some point, she said, this reduction effort will cause the supply of reserves to fall from their current "abundant" level to the "ample" level targeted by the FOMC. Should reserves dip below abundant or become scarce for certain banks, banks could face higher funding costs, potentially disrupting the function of monetary policy. Yet, while avoiding scarcity is important, Bowman said the Fed's priority should still be on rightsizing its holdings."In my view, it is important to continue to reduce the size of the balance sheet to reach ample reserves as soon as possible and while the economy is still strong," she said. "Doing so will allow the Federal Reserve to more effectively and credibly use its balance sheet to respond to future economic and financial shocks."The Fed's balance sheet peaked at $8.9 trillion in March of 2022. It has since fallen to less than $7.3 trillion, though it remains roughly $3 trillion bigger than where it was before the Fed's latest round of quantitative easing, or QE, kicked in at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bowman said the Fed's QE initiative in 2020 helped bolster the economy and enable continued market function through a period of stress, but she questioned whether the policy was too accommodative in light of the various fiscal supports provided by the federal government. She added that, in hindsight, the Fed should have considered ending QE sooner than it did. "My own view is that the FOMC would likely have benefited from an earlier discussion and decision to begin tapering and subsequently end asset purchases in 2021 given the signs of emerging inflationary pressures," she said. "Doing so would have allowed the FOMC the option to have begun to tighten monetary policy earlier by raising the target range for the federal funds rate."Moving forward, Bowman said the Fed has important decisions not only about the size of its balance sheet, but also the composition. She said she encourages the FOMC to maintain its policy of reinvesting any MBS runoff in excess of its $35 billion cap into Treasuries with an eye toward having a balance sheet that consists of "primarily" Treasury securities. She also noted that the Fed could shift the balance of its Treasury holdings toward shorter or longer term securities, depending on its policy goals."It will be important to consider such potential costs and benefits to the Federal Reserve's Treasury securities maturity structure and the best ways to achieve the desired maturity structure over time," she said.
Cleveland Fed taps Goldman Sachs veteran Beth Hammack as new president — The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland announced Wednesday that Beth M. Hammack will be its next president and chief executive officer after current president Loretta Mester retires at the end of June.Hammack, 52, joins the Cleveland Fed after three decades at Goldman Sachs. She is slated to vote on monetary policy decisions as of August 21, when her term officially starts.For the July meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee will be voting in place of the Cleveland Fed. At every Fed meeting, 12 Fed officials vote, seven of whom are from the Fed’s board of governors. Aside from New York Fed President John Williams, the remaining votes are from an annually rotating panel of regional Fed presidents. Goolsbee is currently an alternate voter and otherwise would not have voted until 2025. Goolsbee has been a bit more optimistic than some of his colleagues regarding the progress he expects on getting inflation back down to the Fed’s 2% target. However, it’s unclear where Hammack stands on monetary policy. The central bank is currently mulling when to begin cutting interest rates after raising them to a two-decade high last summer. Inflation stalled earlier this year, which prompted the Fed to delay the timing of its first rate cut, but weaker-than-expected figures on employment and spending thrust rate cuts back into the conversation.Through her three-decade career at the Wall Street bank, Hammack has developed experience working with policymakers and serving on advisory boards, according to a release from the Cleveland Fed.She was chair of the federal government’s Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee and a member of the Financial Research Advisory Committee and the Treasury Market Practices Group. She’s also currently the chair of the board of the nonprofit organization Math for America.“Beth has a deep understanding of financial markets and the monetary policy transmission process, expertise in leading complex business lines, and a proven commitment to mission-focused work,” said Heidi Gartland, chair of the presidential search committee and the Cleveland Fed’s board of directors, in a release. Mester, who has been president of the Cleveland Fed since 2014, has typically had so-called “hawkish” views, or pronounced concerns about inflation. She recently said monetary policy is currently in a good place, and that there is no rush to cut rates at the moment.
Cleveland Fed taps former Goldman Sachs exec as next president - The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland has tapped a former Goldman Sachs executive to be its next president and CEO. Beth M. Hammack, 52, will take the reins at the reserve bank on August 21, replacing current President Loretta J. Mester, who is set to step down at the end of next month due to the Federal Reserve System's age and length of service requirements. As president, Hammack will oversee the reserve bank's various activities, which include research, financial services and supervision of member banks in the Federal Reserve's Fourth District, which includes all of Ohio as well as parts of Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia. She will also have a rotating seat on the Fed's monetary policy arm, the Federal Open Market Committee. "I am honored to become the next president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. It is a great privilege to serve the Fourth District, and the country, in fulfilling our mission of fostering a strong, stable economy in which all Americans have the opportunity to prosper," Hammack said in a statement issued by the Cleveland Fed. "I look forward to meeting the people who work and live in the Fourth District, both as their representative on the FOMC and as their neighbor.." Hammack worked at Goldman Sachs for more than 30 years, starting her career with the bank as a capital markets analyst before moving on to the bank's interest rate trading products desk and then into various leadership positions. She became a managing director in 2003 and a partner in 2010. In 2018, she was named the bank's global treasurer and in 2021 she became co-head of its financial group. Hammack stepped down from the bank in February. In a LinkedIn post, she said she intended to "take a break for several months" and spend more time with her family. Outside of work, Hammack also served on several prominent advisory boards, including ones for the U.S. Department of Treasury and the broader financial sector. She also holds board positions with the New York-based hospital group Northwell Health and the food rescue organization City Harvest.
Money supply ticks positive as inflation sticks above 3 percent -- Annual growth of the U.S. money supply in April advanced into positive territory for the first time since November 2022, pushing against the effects of elevated interest rates as inflation hovers above 3 percent. The comprehensive money supply, known as M2, rose by 0.59 percent annually in April to hit $20.8 trillion after contracting by as much as 4.5 percent a year ago, the Federal Reserve reported Tuesday. The program of dramatic quantitative easing in response to the pandemic — consisting of dropping interest rates to zero and boosting the money supply — likely staved off a serious depression as the economy was shut down by the pandemic. Huge amounts of stimulus from both the Trump and Biden administrations also played a major role in averting that downturn. But all that extra money in the system allowed corporations to raise their prices, fueling a surge of inflation that has yet to be licked despite a subsequent program of quantitative tightening by the Fed. “The increase in the [money supply] stock was so huge that excess liquidity and savings are still likely permeating through the system,” Deutsche Bank researcher Jim Reid wrote in a Wednesday commentary. The money supply started coming down in April 2022, the same time the Fed started raising interest rates. But the M2 has been rising again since October, notwithstanding an uptick caused by bank failures that led the Fed to extend an extra line of credit to the financial industry. Inflation has been sticking around 3 percent for as long as the money supply has been increasing. It is still above its pre-pandemic trend but is likely to normalize around the end of the year, analysts predict. “What happens then is a big outstanding question,” Reid wrote. “To maintain economic growth at current levels, the money supply will likely have to start growing faster again soon. The main ways this could happen is by the Fed loosening policy (rates or balance sheet activity), banks lending more, or more expansionary fiscal policy.”
Q1 GDP Growth Revised Down to 1.3% Annual Rate - From the BEA: Gross Domestic Product, First Quarter 2024 (Second Estimate) and Corporate Profits (Preliminary) Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the first quarter of 2024, according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2023, real GDP increased 3.4 percent. The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the "advance" estimate issued last month. In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was 1.6 percent. The update primarily reflected a downward revision to consumer spending (refer to "Updates to GDP"). The increase in real GDP primarily reflected increases in consumer spending, residential fixed investment, nonresidential fixed investment, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by a decrease in private inventory investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased. Here is a Comparison of Second and Advance Estimates. PCE growth was revised down from 2.5% to 2.0%. Residential investment was revised up from 13.9% to 15.4%.
Eyewitnesses describe horrific scenes after Israeli strike on Rafah camp - The Washington Post — A deadly Israeli airstrike on a tent camp in Rafah late Sunday drew widespread international condemnation Monday — focusing further scrutiny on Israel’s controversial offensive againstHamas in the south and the desperate plight of Gaza’s civilians.Witnesses described a horrific scene late Sunday as fires tore through the makeshift encampment in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, killing at least 45 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Parents were burned alive in their tents while children screamed for help. Doctors recounted struggling to treat gruesome shrapnel wounds with dwindling medical supplies.In an address to parliament Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Rafah strike a “tragic accident.” It was a departure from public statements by the Israeli military, which had previously referred to a targeted strike on a Hamas compound using “precise munitions” and “precise intelligence.”The Israel Defense Forces said two militants were killed in the attack, including the commander of Hamas operations in the West Bank. “There were many measures taken before the attack to minimize harm to non-involved people,” the IDF said Monday, adding that the incident was under investigation.A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said the images from Rafah were “heartbreaking.” “Israel has a right to go after Hamas,” the spokesperson said, noting the killing of the two militants, but “Israel must take every precaution possible to protect civilians.” The United States has yet to weigh in publicly on Friday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice ordering an immediate halt to Israel’s offensive in Rafah. Nearly a million Palestinians have been displaced this month, the vast majority from Rafah, which had been a place of last refuge for tens of thousands of families.On Sunday night it was the site of one of the most horrifying scenes of the war. Mohammad Al-Haila, 35, was headed to buy some goods from a local vendor when he saw a huge flash followed by successive booms. Then he saw the flames.“I saw flames rising, charred bodies, people running from everywhere and calls for help getting louder,” he said. “We were powerless to save them.”Haila lost seven relatives in the attack. The oldest was 70 years old. Four were children.“We were not able to identify them until this morning because of the charred bodies,” he said. “The faces were eroded, and the features were completely disappeared.”
'US-Backed Massacre' at Rafah Camp Intensifies Fury Over IDF's Gaza Assault -- International rights groups and leaders who for months have demanded a cease-fire in Gaza expressed renewed horror as images emerged from Israel's Sunday bombing of a tent camp that had been set up by forcibly displaced Palestinians in Rafah, with women and children making up the majority of the 45 people who were reportedly killed in the attack. Emergency workers told NBC News that the death toll was likely to rise, as many people had been trapped in the encampment as it was engulfed in flames. NBC reported that the strike took place less than a mile away from a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical facility, where at least 180 injured people arrived on Sunday. "We are horrified by this deadly event, which shows once again that nowhere is safe," said MSF on social media. Muhammad Al-Mughir, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense, told NBC that the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood that was attacked had been designated a "humanitarian area" in Rafah, from which more than 800,000 people have been forcibly displaced this month as Israel has launched a ground invasion. More than 1 million people have been forced to flee to Rafah since October, when Israel began its siege in Gaza. The bombing came two days after the International Court of Justiceissued its latest order to Israel regarding its assault on Gaza, telling the government that it "must immediately halt its military offensive or any other action in the Rafah governorate" and that the ICJ was not convinced by Israel's claims that it was taking steps to protect civilians.Israeli officials offered familiar statements regarding the attack, saying the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had been aiming for two senior Hamas leaders, that it had made efforts to prevent civilian harm, and that reports of the refugee camp going up in flames were "under review." Humanitarian leaders around the world were not convinced, withFrancesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, saying Israel's latest "cruelty, along with blatant defiance of the international law and system, is unacceptable."
US Appears To Justify Israel's Rafah Massacre That Killed 45 Palestinians - The White House on Monday appeared to justify the Israeli strike on displaced Palestinians in Rafah that hit a tent camp and killed at least 45 people, including many women and children.In a statement on the massacre, a White House National Security spokesperson called it “heartbreaking” but also said Israel had the “right” to go after Hamas and backed Israeli claims that the strike also killed two Hamas fighters.“The devastating images following the IDF strike in Rafah last night that killed dozens of innocent Palestinians are heartbreaking,” the spokesperson said, according to CNN. “Israel has a right to go after Hamas, and we understand this strike killed two senior Hamas terrorists who are responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians.”According to Doctors Without Borders, the Israeli strike hit a camp in western Rafah that was designated a so-called “safe zone” by the Israeli military. Gaza’s Health Ministry said the dead included at least 12 women, eight children, and three elderly people.Another three bodies were burned beyond recognition. Footage that surfaced online showed large fires in the camp and severely burned corpses being pulled out. One video showed a man holding the body of a headless child.Axios reported that the US is assessing whether or not the massacre crossed President Biden’s “red line,” although it’s not clear if he really set one. After Biden warned he would withhold heavy bombs from Israel if it launched a major attack on “population centers” in Rafah, the US ended up supporting the Israeli attack on the city.After Israel initially claimed the Rafah massacre was a targeted attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “tragic mistake” and said Israel would investigate the strike. Israeli officials have previously claimed they would investigate civilian casualties, but there’s usually no follow-up, and the US appears to be happy to stay ignorant of Israeli war crimes.
Israel Massacres Children, Which The Western Press Says Is Fine -by Caitlin Johnstone -- Israel has not only completely disregarded the orders of the International Court of Justice to cease its assault on Rafah as we expected it to do, but has actually ramped up its ruthlessness as though trying to make a point. There were reportedly more than 60 Israeli airstrikes on the southernmost city in the Gaza strip in the 48 hours after the ICJ ruling, including a horrifying massacre on a displacement camp full of civilians in tents.The ABC reports:Israeli air strikes have killed at least 35 Palestinians and wounded dozens in an area in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah designated for the displaced, Palestinian health and civil emergency service officials said.Gaza’s Health Ministry said women and children made up most of the dead and dozens of wounded.The strike took place in Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood in western Rafah on Sunday, local time, where thousands of people were taking shelter after many fled the eastern areas of the city where Israeli forces began a ground offensive over two weeks ago.The video footage coming out about this massacre is extremely graphic and will stay with you for the rest of your life if you choose to watch it. It shows charred and dismembered bodies, and small children whose heads are missing and partly missing. On social media I’ve seen numerous people observing that the lies about Hamas beheading babies on October 7 have been used by Israel to justify atrocities in which actual babies are really being beheaded. Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah notes that this was at a camp which just days ago Israel had told civilians was a safe zone that they should move to.The Gaza media office reports that the attack took place next to an UNRWA logistics base, which is about as clear an answer to the UN court’s order to cease its genocidal massacres in Rafah as you could possibly ask for. As Maya Angelou said, when someone shows you who they are, believe them.This happens to have occurred at precisely the same time viral attention is coming to an article The Atlantic published a few days ago which includes the assertion that killing children is legally permissible under certain circumstances. Writing that allowing journalists into Gaza would be a “risk” for Israel because “war is ugly”, The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood uses the phrase “legally killed child” to argue that journalistic footage of dead children which Israel killed lawfully would still be damaging to Israeli PR interests.“To rebut Hamas’s allegations by letting journalists see the war up close would be a calculated risk,” Wood writes. “Even when conducted legally, war is ugly. It is possible to kill children legally, if for example one is being attacked by an enemy who hides behind them. But the sight of a legally killed child is no less disturbing than the sight of a murdered one.”Think about the kind of worldview which could publish something like that. This made it through the entire editing process in a mainstream liberal publication.Anyone who’s been following the Gaza genocide on social media today will be seeing this phrase “legally killed child” alongside footage of children ripped apart by Israeli military explosives in a civilian displacement camp — a pairing which, if you have a beating heart in your chest and a functioning empathy center in your brain, will spark a very special kind of rage inside you.The way these two points dance together just says so much about what we’re dealing with here, when you take a step back and really look at it. It says so much about Israel. It says so much about western civilization. It says so much about the western press in general and liberal war propaganda rags like The Atlantic in particular. It says so much about the kind of mainstream political worldview which could allow for such a thing to exist. And it says we live in a civilization that has gone completely, utterly insane.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Israel's Rafah strike: 'An indefensible atrocity' --Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) blasted an Israeli strike on Rafah that killed at least 45 people over the weekend as “an indefensible atrocity,” as criticism rises of the Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city.The Israeli strike on the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah targeted a humanitarian zone filled with tents, where Israel’s military previously instructed displaced Palestinians to shelter from the ongoing war against militant group Hamas, the Gaza Health Ministry said. The Israeli military claimed the strike killed two senior Hamas leaders.“The IDF’s attack on a tent camp of innocents in Rafah is an indefensible atrocity,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote Monday on the social platform X. “This was done in open defiance of President Biden’s red line and the ICJ’s call for a ceasefire.”She added that it is “long past due” for Biden to “live up to his word” and stop military aid shipments to Israel, following through on a threat made earlier this month in an attempt to prevent Israeli attacks on Rafah.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike a “tragic mistake” and called for an investigation into the civilian deaths Monday.“Despite our utmost efforts not to harm innocent civilians, last night, there was a tragic mistake,” Netanyahu said Monday in an address to Israel’s parliament. “We are investigating the incident and will obtain a conclusion, because this is our policy.”The attack comes just days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to stop its operations in Rafah, the last remaining major settlement in Gaza that has not been invaded by the Israeli military.The strike was widely denounced, as criticism rises on the Israeli military operation in Rafah. A White House National Security Council spokesperson told Axios on Monday that the attack was “heartbreaking.”“Israel has a right to go after Hamas… but as we’ve been clear, Israel must take every precaution possible to protect civilians,” the spokesperson said. “We are actively engaging the IDF and partners on the ground to assess what happened.”French President Emmanuel Macron used the strike as an opportunity to again call for a cease-fire in the conflict.“These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians,” Macron wrote in a post on X. “I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire.”
Dua Lipa again calls for immediate Gaza cease-fire: ‘Burning children alive can never be justified’ -Pop star Dua Lipa called for an immediate cease-fire in the war in Gaza again Tuesday, according to multiple reports.“Burning children alive can never be justified,” Lipa said in an Instagram post Tuesday that came alongside a graphic from the group Artists4Ceasefire, according to multiple outlets. “The whole world is mobilising to stop the Israeli genocide. Please show your solidarity with Gaza.”A recent strike by Israel on the southern city of Rafah in Gaza that set fire to a displaced persons camp and killed 45 Palestinians and injured 200 has resulted in international fury aimed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his country.Lipa, alongside fellow pop musicians like Selena Gomez, Zayn Malik and the band MUNA, had previously signed the Artists4Ceasefire open letter to President Biden that calls for “an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost.”In an interview with Rolling Stone published back in January, Lipa said there were “just not enough world leaders that are taking a stand and speaking up about the humanitarian crisis that’s happening, the humanitarian cease-fire that has to happen” in Gaza.“I think there’s no kind of deep discussion about war and oppression. It just is something that we’ve seen happen time and time again,” the “Houdini” singer said in the Rolling Stone interview.“I feel like just being a musician and posting about something doesn’t make enough of a difference, but hopefully, just showing solidarity, which is sometimes all you feel like you can do, is important,” Lipa said.
White House signals Rafah strike doesn't cross 'red line' - The White House on Tuesday indicated an Israeli strike that killed dozens of Palestinians in Rafah did not cross a “red line” that would lead to a change in U.S. policy.Multiple administration officials in press briefings Tuesday described the images out of Rafah as “heartbreaking,” “tragic” and “horrific.” But there was no sign of an impending policy change as a result, because it was an airstrike and not a major ground operation.“We still don’t believe that a major ground operation in Rafah is warranted. We still don’t want to see the Israelis, as we say, smash into Rafah with large units over large pieces of territory. We still believe that, and we haven’t seen that at this point,” White House spokesperson John Kirbytold reporters.“As a result of this strike on Sunday, I have no policy changes to speak to,” he added. “It just happened. The Israelis are going to investigate it. We’re going to be taking great interest in what they find in that investigation. And we’ll see where it goes from there.”
US Says Rafah Massacre Won't Change Its Support for Israel - The Biden administration made clear on Tuesday that the Israeli bombing of a tent camp in Rafah that killed 45 displaced Palestinians, including many women and children, would not change US support for Israel. Both the White House and the State Department claimed Israeli operations in Rafah are not the “full-scale” assault that the US claims it would oppose even as Israeli tanks push further into the city, and the UN says around one million Palestinians have fled Rafah.“We still don’t believe that a major ground operation in Rafah is warranted. We still don’t want to see the Israelis, as we say, smash into Rafah with large units over large pieces of territory. We still believe that, and we haven’t seen that at this point,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. “As a result of this strike on Sunday, I have no policy changes to speak to.”Brutal scenes from the Sunday night massacre surfaced online, outraging the world, including video of a headless child and charred bodies being pulled out of the fire caused by the Israeli strike. When asked how many charred corpses would be enough to make President Biden change his policy, Kirby said he was offended by the question.
- Reporter: How does this not violate the red line the president laid out
- Kirby: We don’t want to see a major operation we haven’t seen one
- Reporter: How many more charred corpses does he have to see before he considers a change in policy
- Kirby: I take offense at the question
Israel Used US-Made Bombs in Rafah Tent Camp Massacre - Investigations from CNN and The New York Times found that the bombs Israel dropped on a tent camp in Rafah on Sunday were made in the US.Weapons experts examined debris that was filmed at the scene of the strike and identified it as a GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, a munition manufactured inside the US by Boeing.The Israeli military said it used two munitions that had small warheads, each packed with 17 kilos of explosives, which is the traditional payload of a GBU-39. The GBU-39 is designed for precise targeting, but weapons experts say there’s always a risk of mass casualties when dropping the bomb on such densely populated areas.At least 45 displaced Palestinians were killed in the massacre, including 12 women, eight children, and three elderly people. Despite claiming to oppose a major attack on Rafah, the Biden administration has made clear that the tent camp bombing won’t impact US support for Israel.US officials are also claiming ignorance about whether or not a US-provided bomb was dropped on the camp. When asked about the possibility, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby deferred to the Israeli military.“I can only point you to what the IDF said therefore I cannot confirm whether or not it was a GBU 39 that delivered the payload on that bomb. You’d have to really talk to the IDF about that,” Kirby said. Footage of the aftermath of the Israeli strike that surfaced online showed large fires in the camp and severely burned corpses being pulled out. One video showed a man holding the body of a headless child. Kirby was asked on Tuesday how many charred bodies it would take for Biden to reconsider his policy and said he was offended by the question.
Biden administration won’t confirm Israel used US weapons in Rafah strike -- The Biden administration on Wednesday refused to confirm Israel used U.S. bombs in the deadly strike over the weekend that killed dozens of displaced Palestinians at a camp in Rafah.CNN first reported that the remains of the American produced GBU-39 small diameter bomb (SDB) were found at the scene, according to four explosive weapons experts who reviewed video shared on social media.Weapons experts and visual evidence The New York Times also reviewed reached the same conclusion that the bombs were GBU-39s, which are designed and sold in the United States.“We’re not going to speak to individual payload loadouts on individual Israeli aircraft,” White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday. “The [Israeli military] should speak to their conduct of this particular operation, and that would include … discussion of what was used.”At least 45 people were killed and more than 240 others wounded after the Israeli military used aircraft to strike the outskirts of Rafah, causing a fire to break out. The majority of those killed were women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.Kirby added that Israel has already said publicly it used precision guided munitions with a payload of about 37 pounds, which, if true, “would certainly indicate a desire to be more deliberate and more precise in their targeting.” And asked Tuesday about the munitions used in the Rafah strike, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters, “I do not know what type of munition was used in that airstrike. I’d have to refer you to the Israelis to speak to that.”U.S. officials have been pushing Israel to use more precise bombs with a smaller payload, or explosion, which they say claim can reduce civilian casualties.The Israeli military has also declined to specify the type of bomb used, though an Israeli military spokesperson told The Hill the armament was “an accurate and specific type of munition that carries a low amount of explosives.”He added that the Israeli military is “getting precise types of munitions from allies which they know is a very accurate weapon. And this is why we want to use them as much as possible to mitigate casualties as much as possible.”Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a press conference Tuesday that the strike was conducted “using two munitions with small warheads” containing 17 kilograms of explosive material, “the smallest munition that our jets can use.”
Biden caved on ‘red line’ warning in Rafah, Democrats say - Liberal Democrats are going after President Biden for his approach to Israel’s incursion into Rafah, accusing the president of caving on his “red line” warning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to storm into the city for fear of outsize civilian casualties. The Democrats say Netanyahu has clearly crossed that line, as Israeli tanks have reportedly reached the center of Rafah and Israeli missile strikes have killed dozens of Palestinian civilians seeking refuge in what Israel describes as the last Hamas stronghold. They want the president to make good on his vow to halt the delivery of certain weapon systems to Israel as a result of those military operations — a step the administration has so far refused to take. “It absolutely has crossed the red line, perhaps even before this,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) told The Hill in an interview. “I am frustrated by the reluctance to hold Netanyahu accountable for what I believe is just worsening security and peace for Israelis and Palestinians. And I see this as dragging the United States into Netanyahu’s war.”Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, questioned what Biden’s true red line is, after Israeli forces carried out operations that led to conditions the president had feared.“He was worried about people being displaced; that has already happened, a million people have already been displaced. He was worried about tanks going into the city; that has already happened. He was worried about strikes on dense areas; that had already happened,” Jayapal said. “So I really don’t know what the red line is anymore, because it feels fairly clear that this has certainly crossed the red line, and anything more than this would be a complete devastation of people, and at that point, it’s too late. And so, I already feel like this is somewhat late.”Other liberals are piling on. “The IDF’s attack on a tent camp of innocents in Rafah is an indefensible atrocity,” Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on the social platform X. “This was done in open defiance of @POTUS’s red line and the [International Court of Justice’s] call for a ceasefire. It is long past time for the President to live up to his word and suspend military aid.”Biden earlier in the month announced he would halt the delivery of some weapons to Israel if Netanyahu sent troops into Rafah, a densely populated city in southern Gaza where Hamas militants remain in control and where many people displaced from other parts of Gaza have sought refuge in.“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem,” Biden told CNN on May 9. The Israeli military, nonetheless, continued its offensive into Rafah over the weekend, striking a displaced persons camp in the southern Gazan city — which set fire to the area — killing roughly 45 Palestinians and injuring 200 others.Faced with growing outrage over the deadly strike on civilians, administration officials have expressed concerns but also emphasized that they don’t consider Israel’s operations in Rafah to meet the criteria of the “major ground operation” that would violate Biden’s red line. “A major ground operation is, you know, thousands and thousands of troops moving in a maneuvered, concentrated, coordinated way against a variety of targets on the ground,” White House national security communications adviser John Kirby told reporters this week.“We haven’t seen that at this point,” he added when pressed on the matter.
USAID Contractor Forced Out Over Presentation on Palestinian Maternal and Child Mortality - A contractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was forced out of his job over a disagreement on a presentation he prepared on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, The Guardian reported on Thursday.Alexander Smith worked for USAID as a senior advisor on gender, maternal health, child health, and nutrition. He was scheduled to present the paper on mortality at an internal USAID conference, and it was initially cleared. But it caught the attention of officials in the USAID’s Middle East department, who asked for redactions to be made.Smith told The Guardian that the edits they requested involved removing a slide describing the applicable international law and removing any language that implied the recognition of a Palestinian state, including names of UN agencies that include the word “Palestine.” USAID leadership ended up canceling the presentation altogether and claims it was outside of Smith’s area of responsibility, but he said his expertise on maternal and child health is relevant to all humanitarian crises. Two days after his presentation was canceled, Smith was told by his direct employer, the Highbury Defense Group, which has government contracts with USAID, that his contract would be terminated early.
Another State Department Official Resigns Over Biden's Support for Israel - Another State Department official has resigned over President Biden’s support for Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. Stacy Gilbert, a career official who worked in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, said in a resignation email to her colleagues that she disagreed with a State Department report that claimed Israel has not been blocking aid deliveries into Gaza. The State Department report also said that Israel was likely violating US and international law with US-provided weapons but claimed there was not sufficient evidence to prove it. The conclusion of the report, which was issued under a new national security memorandum, allows the US to continue shipping weapons to Israel. Gilbert resigned on Tuesday, and Josh Paul, who resigned from the State Department back in October, pointed to the fact that it was the same day the Biden administration made clear Israel’s bombing of displaced Palestinians at a tent camp in Rafah wouldn’t impact US support. “On the day when the White House announced that the latest atrocity in Rafah did not cross its red line, this resignation demonstrates that the Biden administration will do anything to avoid the truth,” Paul wrote on Linkedin.
Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix: It's Actually Amazing How Stupid The Propaganda Is Getting - by Caitlin Johnstone -- The correct thing to do when someone tries to tell you that opposing an active genocide is discriminatory against Jews is to laugh uproariously and then ignore everything else they say for the rest of their lives. Jewish Zionists are like “Excuse me, it’s actually against my religion for you to oppose genocide. You need to stop religiously persecuting me with peace activism.”So many westerners say they support Israel and also support a two-state solution, which is a nonsensical position when Israel is aggressively opposed to a two-state solution. If you actually support the creation of a Palestinian state you are directly at odds with every meaningful power structure in Israel.It’s like saying you support Biden but want him to lose the election. It’s like saying you support unions but also support aggressive union busting. It’s an entirely self-contradictory position that can only be reconciled without cognitive dissonance if you don’t really care about a two-state solution.US intelligence estimates that Israel has only killed 30–35 percent of Hamas fighters in Gaza so far, and that Hamas has meanwhile been recruiting thousands of new fighters in the wake of Israel’s onslaught. After more than seven months of unfathomable horror, Israel has come nowhere remotely close to accomplishing its stated goals in Gaza. Israel must therefore necessarily either (A) inflict much, much, much more horror upon Gaza for a very, very long time, or (B) revise its official goals.And of course there’s also option (C), which is that Israel has been lying about its stated goals this entire time and is actually accomplishing exactly what it set out to accomplish.
Rough seas damage US-built Gaza pier; deliveries suspended -The U.S.-built pier on the Gaza Strip coast will be removed for repair after it was damaged by rough seas, causing Washington to temporarily suspend aid deliveries to starving Palestinians via the structure, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. The pier, which was damaged earlier Tuesday, will be removed from its anchored position on the coast over the next 48 hours, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters. The structure will be towed to Ashdod in southern Israel where U.S. Central Command will conduct repairs, which are expected to take “at least over a week” before it can be re-anchored to the coast of Gaza, she said. “I can’t predict weather patterns, I can’t predict that there won’t be high seas again. But from when it was operational, it was working. And we just had sort of an unfortunate confluence of weather storms that made it inoperable for a bit,” Singh added. “Hopefully, just a little over a week, we should be back up and running.” The incident highlights the many difficulties around conducting the humanitarian assistance operation via the quickly built, $320 The pier’s suspension comes after more than 1,000 metric tons of food aid was delivered through the pier, though U.S. officials have stressed that structure won’t make up for the aid that could be getting through land corridors. Only about 500,000 Palestinians could be fed with the supplies from the pier, with the Biden administration pushing for more checkpoints to open for humanitarian trucks so the remaining 1.8 million civilians can be fed. The U.S. has continued to provide airdrops of food, but Singh said there are no current plans to increase the airdrops while the pier is being repaired.
US-Constructed Pier Off Gaza Breaks Apart - The US-constructed pier off Gaza broke apart on Tuesday due to heavy seas, suspending aid deliveries indefinitely, in the latest setback for the disastrous project that was ordered by President Biden.The Pentagon said that the pier, which cost $320 million for the US to build, was damaged and sections of it need to be repaired. According toCNN, it will be removed from the coast of Gaza over the next 48 hours and taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod for repairs.Just a few days earlier, four vessels supporting the pier broke off their moorings due to heavy seas. Two of them washed up ashore, while the other two were able to drop anchor. Before that, the Pentagon said three US troops suffered non-combat injuries on the pier, which were likely also caused by rough seas.CNN previously reported that the pier could only be safely operated in a maximum of 3-foot waves and winds less than approximately 15 miles per hour. Heavier conditions caused a delay in the first aid deliveries through the pier, which only began on May 17, and were suspended for a few days due to distribution issues.Biden ordered the construction of the pier instead of pressuring Israel to open more land border crossings to aid deliveries, which is by far the most efficient way to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza. Barely any aid has been entering the Strip since Israel captured the Rafah border crossing on May 7.Besides being an incredibly expensive and inefficient project, the pier also risks a major escalation of US involvement in Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. About 1,000 troops have been supporting the project just off the coast of Gaza, putting them in range of Hamas rockets. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has acknowledged that there’s a risk of the US troops deployed for the pier mission coming under attack and said they would be able to shoot back.
US and UK Launch Round of Heavy Airstrikes on Yemen - The US and the UK launched multiple airstrikes in Yemen, the first time the two countries launched a joint heavy bombing on the country in over three months.Yemeni media reported that five airstrikes hit Yemen’s Red Sea province of Hodeida and that a radio building was hit in one of the strikes, and at least two people were killed in the al-Hawk district. A communications network in the neighboring Taiz province was also reported to be targeted.US Central Command said that its forces “alongside UK Armed Forces conducted strikes against 13 Houthi targets” in Houthi-controlled Yemen, which is where most Yemenis live. CENTCOM said that it also conducted unilateral strikes that it claimed destroyed eight Houthi drones in Yemen and over the Red Sea.The British Defense Ministry said that its forces “participated in a joint operation with US forces against Houthi military facilities to degrade their ability to persist with their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.”The bombing marks the fifth time that the US and the UK launched joint airstrikes on Yemen since January. The US has also launched hundreds of unilateral strikes, which have done nothing to deter Houthi attacks on shipping that began in response to Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.The latest round of US-UK airstrikes came after the Houthis struck a ship in the Red Sea and said they downed a US MQ-9 Reaper drone for the sixth time since November 2023. The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, have made clear they will not stop their attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and a lifting of the Israeli siege.The US backed a brutal Saudi/UAE war against the Houthis from 2015-2022 that involved heavy airstrikes and a blockade, and the Houthis only became more of a capable fighting force during that time.The war killed at least 377,000 people, with more than half dying of starvation and disease caused by the siege. A ceasefire between the Houthis and Saudis has held relatively well since April 2022, but new US sanctions are now blocking the implementation of a lasting peace deal.
Biden Unveils Israeli Ceasefire Offer - President Joe Biden has announced a new Israeli ceasefire proposal to Hamas, claiming the move could lead to a “comprehensive” deal that ends the war in Gaza. Details of the offer remain murky, however, and it’s still unclear whether the terms will be acceptable to either side.Biden unveiled the latest offer in a speech from the White House on Friday afternoon, calling for a “durable end to the war,” the return of all hostages, and a long-term political settlement. He added that Qatari mediators had already communicated the proposal to Hamas.In a statement issued soon after Biden’s address, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that negotiators were cleared to “present an outline” to Hamas. Still, it insisted “the war will not end until all of [Israel’s] goals are achieved, including the return of all our hostages and the elimination of Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities.”The statement stopped short of confirming any details put forward in Biden’s speech, however, leaving it unclear exactly where Tel Aviv stands on the specifics.Sources close to Netanyahu offered a less optimistic take in comments to Sky News, saying the Israeli government does not “wholly recognize or agree with” the plan outlined by Biden on Friday. They added that the new offer was made without the PM’s “cooperation,” but did not elaborate.The deal endorsed by Washington would take place in three stages, according to Biden. The first phase would last six weeks, and aim to produce a “full and complete ceasefire” and a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza’s “populated areas.” During that time, Tel Aviv would free “hundreds” of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the bulk of the hostages still held by Hamas.Should negotiations take longer than six weeks, the deal would still hold so long as talks continued. However, Biden went on to warn that “Israel can resume military operations” at any time if it determines Hamas failed to meet its commitments.The second stage would involve a full Israeli pull-out from Gaza and further prisoner exchanges, in hopes that the “temporary” ceasefire would then become permanent. The third and final leg of the deal would then see a “major reconstruction plan” in the Gaza Strip, which is in ruins after eight months of bombing.While the president said his administration would help to ensure Israel held up its end of the bargain, he did not explain how. Biden has largely refused to condition military aid on Tel Aviv’s conduct in Gaza, and Israeli officials have consistently ignored US requests throughout the conflict.Hamas has yet to respond to the latest offer, though it recently said it would only negotiate after Israel ended military operations in Gaza. The group nonetheless stated it was ready for a “complete agreement,” including a “comprehensive exchange deal” for hostages, but its terms were quickly shot down as “delusional” by Tel Aviv.
Biden marks ‘decisive moment’ as Israel offers roadmap for Gaza cease-fire - President Biden announced the terms of an Israeli-led proposal Friday that includes a three-part roadmap toward an end to fighting and the release of all remaining hostages taken Oct. 7, giving the strongest indication yet for a potential end to the war between Israel and Hamas. “After intensive diplomacy carried out by my team, my many conversations with leaders of Israel, Qatar and Egypt, and other Middle Eastern countries, Israel has offered a comprehensive new proposal. It’s a roadmap to an enduring cease-fire and the release of all hostages,” Biden said. He said that while the proposal has been transmitted to Hamas via Qatar, he indicated the U.S.-designated terrorist organization that runs the Gaza Strip had not yet formally accepted the plan. “This is truly a decisive moment. Israel has made their proposal. Hamas says it wants a cease-fire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it. Hamas needs to take the deal,” Biden said. Biden also pleaded from the White House podium for Israelis to back the deal, arguing the military has devastated Hamas since the war began in way in which Oct. 7 cannot be repeated. While adding he knows there are Israelis who may not agree with the negotiated deal, he warned against allowing for an indefinite war. “I know there are those in Israel who will not agree with this plan and will call for the war to continue indefinitely. Some are even in the government coalition. They’ve made it clear they want to occupy Gaza, they want to keep fighting for years, the hostages are not a priority for them,” he said. “I urge Israel to stand behind this deal, despite whatever pressure comes.” When questioned if Biden meant that Israel has effectively won the war against Hamas, senior administration officials on a call with reporters after Biden spoke said Israel has had success in “degrading Hamas’ military capacity.” The official added that the offer wouldn’t have been possible three months ago. Biden laid out the proposal in three phases: An initial phase would include a six-week cease-fire, then a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza, and the release of all remaining hostages taken from Israel on Oct. 7. It also includes parameters for internally displaced Palestinians to return to their homes and reconstruction efforts of the devastated coastal enclave. According to the arrangement, each of the three phases would be about 42 days long, a senior administration official outlined.
Houthis Say They Downed Another US MQ-9 Reaper Drone - The Houthis said Wednesday that their forces downed another US MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen and also claimed attacks on several ships as their campaign in response to Israel’s onslaught in Gaza continues.The Associated Press reported that it analyzed images showing a US MQ-9 on its belly in a desert and noted that the aircraft looked relatively intact. The Houthis said the drone was downed over Yemen’s Maarib province and released footage that showed an aircraft being hit with surface-to-air missiles.A Pentagon official told AP that “the US Air Force has not lost any aircraft operating within US Central Command’s area of responsibility” and did not elaborate further. AP noted that MQ-9 Reaper drones are sometimes operated by the CIA.The incident marks the sixth time the Houthis said they downed a US MQ-9 Reaper drone since November 2023. The drones cost about $30 million a piece, putting the cost for the US at about $180 million, on top of the over $1 billion it spent on munitions in its bombing campaign in Yemen and other operations in the region since October.The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, also claimed that its forces targeted six ships in three different seas: the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Arabian Sea. The only attack that was confirmed was a missile attack on the Laax, a Greek-owned bulk carrier.While the Houthis say they’re targeting Israeli-linked shipping, the Laax’s security company, LSS-SAPU, said the vessel had no connection to Israel, and shipping data showed its destination was Iran. LSS-SAPU said the ship and crew were safe and headed for their destination.
'US Expected To Resume Sale of Offensive Weapons to Saudi Arabia -The US is expected to resume the sale of “offensive” weapons to Saudi Arabia, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.US officials told the paper that President Biden was expected to lift a ban on the sale of offensive weapons to Riyadh that he put in place over three years ago, although US support for Saudi Arabia has continued.In February 2021, President Biden said he would end “offensive” support for Saudi Arabia’s brutal war in Yemen and paused a bomb sale to Riyadh. However, the US continued to support the Saudi bombing campaign, as it was revealed a few months later that the US was still servicing Saudi warplanes.President Biden also continued to push forward arms deals for Saudi Arabia, including a $650 million air-to-air missile deal, which the administration claimed was for defense. Before the Saudis and the Houthis reached a truce at the end of March 2022, Riyadh launched heavy airstrikes in Yemen, and it was one of the deadliest periods of the war for Yemeni civilians.Saudi Arabia and the Houthis have negotiated a peace deal, but it hasn’t been finalized as new US sanctions are blocking it from being implemented. The US has said it would lift the sanctions and stop its new bombing campaign in Yemen if the Houthis halted attacks on commercial shipping, which the group started in response to the Israeli onslaught in Gaza. But the Houthis say they will only stop once there’s a ceasefire in Gaza, which Biden refuses to call for.The US has been in talks with Saudi Arabia about a potential deal that would involve the normalization of Saudi-Israeli ties. In exchange, Saudi Arabia is looking for a mutual defense commitment from the US and assistance in establishing a civilian nuclear program. But there are major impediments to the deal, as the Saudis want Israel to make commitments toward a Palestinian state, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out the idea of Palestinian statehood in any post-war scenario.
Blinken Hints US Will Allow Ukraine To Strike Russian Territory With US Missiles - Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday hinted that the US may allow Ukraine to strike Russian territory with US-made missiles, which would risk provoking a major response from Moscow.Blinken made the comments during a visit to Moldova and repeated a line that he’s said before about the issue, that the US doesn’t “encourage or enable” Ukrainian attacks inside Russia and that where to strike is ultimately up to Ukraine. But he added that the US would “adapt and adjust” his position on the battlefield.When asked if that meant the US would support Ukrainian attacks inside Russia, Blinken replied, “Adapt and adjust means exactly that.”Blinken’s comments came a week after The New York Times reportedthat he was leading the charge within the Biden administration to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of US weapons so they can strike Russian territory. The push to escalate the proxy war is a response to Russia’s offensive in Kharkiv, which was launched from Russia’s Belgorod Oblast.Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday that there would be “major consequences” for NATO countries that support long-range strikes on Russian territory. US and British missiles have been used in strikes on Crimea, which has been under Russian control since 2014, but not on the Russian mainland.During his visit to Moldova, Blinken also announced $135 million in aidfor the country in the name of countering Russia. According to AP, Blinken said $85 million would go toward energy infrastructure, and $50 million would be spent on overhauling the energy and farming industries and “deterring disinformation.”
Biden Gives Ukraine Permission To Strike Inside Russia With US Weapons - The Biden administration has given Ukraine permission to use US-provided weapons to hit targets inside Russian territory, POLITICO reported Thursday, a step that marks a significant escalation of the proxy war.US officials said Ukraine will be able to use US weapons to shoot down Russian missiles inside Russia that are fired toward Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. They will also be able to hit Russian military units that are just over the border in Russia’s Belgorod Oblast.The US officials insisted Ukraine would not be able to use US-provided missiles for attacks on civilian infrastructure or for long-range attacks on military targets that are deep inside Russia. “The president recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use US weapons for counter-fire purposes in Kharkiv so Ukraine can hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them,” a US official told POLITICO. The official insisted the US still would not support long-range strikes on Russian territory.Ukraine needs support from the US for targeting when it fires US-provided missiles, which means the US will now be directly supporting strikes inside Russia. The escalation risks provoking a major response from Russia, as Moscow recently warned the UK that it would target British military sites in Ukraine and “beyond” if British missiles were used in strikes on Russian territory. Over the past year, both US and British missiles have been used to target Crimea.The news comes a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted that the US was preparing to change the policy, saying the US will “adapt and adjust” when asked if Urkaine could strike Russian territory with US weapons.The New York Times previously reported that the restrictions on Ukraine’s use of US weapons were put in place as part of President Biden’s plans to “avoid World War III.” But throughout the war, the US and other NATO countries have taken escalations they previously ruled out due to fear of provoking Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that any NATO countries that let Ukraine strike Russia with their weapons would face “major consequences.”
Netherlands Says Ukraine Can Use F-16s To Strike Targets Inside Russia - The Dutch foreign minister said that Amsterdam does not object to Kiev using F-16s to strike targets inside Russia once the advanced aircraft reach Ukraine. The announcement is a major escalation as F-16s are capable of carrying nuclear weapons.On Friday, the Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot gave a green light to Ukraine to hit Russian military targets with F-16s. “If you have the right to self-defense, there are no borders for the use of weapons. This is a general principle,” she said, adding that Ukraine may also use Danish-supplied F-16 jets for operations in Russian territory.The Danish FM, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, confirmed that allowing Ukraine to attack Russia with F-16s was the Netherlands’ policy. “The short answer is yes.” He continued, “We made it clear from the very beginning… that this is part of self-defense so that it would also be possible to attack military targets on the aggressor’s territory.”The statement comes as a growing number of NATO members, including the US and Germany, have given Ukraine approval to use their weapons to attack Russian territory. After London gave Kiev the green light earlier this month, the Kremlin issued a stern warning to the UK. “Any British military facilities and equipment on the territory of Ukraine and beyond could be a response to Ukrainian strikes with the use of British weapons on the territory of Russia,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The ambassador was called upon to reflect on the inevitable catastrophic consequences of such hostile steps by London.”Moscow will likely see attacks on Russian soil by F-16s as even more provocative as the aircraft is capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has explained that the Kremlin views F-16 deliveries to Ukraine as a “nuclear” threat.Last year, President Joe Biden signed off on a NATO proposal to train Ukrainian pilots on the F-16, then transfer dozens of the aircraft to Kiev. However, the program has faced several delays and a shortage of pilots. Ukrainian officials have said the setbacks mean the F-16 will have little impact on the battlefield once they arrive, as Moscow has had time to prepare for the deployment.
Putin Warns West of 'Major Consequences' If Ukraine Strikes Russian Territory With NATO Missiles - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned Western countries against allowing Ukraine to use long-range NATO missiles in strikes on Russian territory.Putin pointed to comments from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who recently suggested NATO members should lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of their weapons.“This constant escalation can lead to serious consequences. If these serious consequences occur in Europe, how will the US behave, bearing in mind our parity in the field of strategic weapons? Hard to say. Do they want global conflict?” Putin said during a visit to Uzbekistan, according to RT.The Russian leader said that long-range strikes would require NATO support and that it would take “highly qualified specialists” from the West to do the targeting. A recent German military leak revealed that British soldiers are “on the ground” in Ukraine helping fire Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of about 155 miles.“So, these representatives of NATO countries, especially in Europe, especially in small countries, must be aware of what they are playing with,” Putin said.This week, Sweden said Ukraine could use Swedish weapons to hit Russian territory, although Stockholm has not provided long-range missiles like the US and the UK have. London had previously given Ukraine the green light to use British weapons on Russian territory, which prompted a strong warning from Moscow. Russia said it would hit UK military sites in Ukraine and “beyond” if British weapons hit its territory, and there have been no reports of British missiles targeting the Russian mainland. Both US and British-provided weapons have been used in attacks on Crimea over the past year.The calls to allow Ukraine to strike Russian territory with NATO weapons have increased since Russia launched its offensive in Kharkiv, which Putin said was a response to Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s Belgorod Oblast. He warned of another escalation if long-range NATO weapons hit Russia.“What caused this? They did, with their own hands,” Putin said, referring to the Kharkiv offensive. “Well, then, they will reap what they have sown. The same thing can happen if long-range precision weapons are used.”
Rep. McCaul Leads Congressional Delegation to Taiwan After Major Chinese Military Drills - Rep. Michael McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is leading a bipartisan congressional delegation in Taiwan, a trip that came after China concluded two days of major drills around the island that it launched in response to the inauguration of President William Lai.Lai, a member of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), took a more confrontational tone toward the mainland in his inauguration speech than his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, also a member of the DPP.Beijing launched military exercises that it said were a “punishment” for “separatist acts,” referring to Lai’s speech. The exercises involved simulating a blockade on Taiwan, marking the most extensive drills around the island since then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) traveled to Taiwan in August 2022.China is against all congressional visits to Taiwan and strongly criticized McCaul’s delegation. “In disregard of China’s strong opposition, relevant members of the US Congress still decided to visit Taiwan, which violates the one-China principle, the three China-US joint communiqués, and the US government’s own political commitment,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.McCaul made provocative comments during the start of his visit, warning that Congress could declare war on China if it attacked Taiwan. “If the island in an unprovoked manner was invaded, then it would be to the American people and the United States Congress, and my committee that has the power to declare war, how to deal with that,” he said.McCaul added that for now, his job is to seek “deterrence” to avoid war, but the strategy the US is pursuing is raising tensions in the region and making a conflict seem more likely. Increased US military and diplomatic support for Taiwan in recent years has put the island under significantly more Chinese military pressure.The congressional delegation vowed that more US weapons are on the way to Taiwan. The US has sold weapons to Taiwan since Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 but only began providing military aid last year, marking a significant escalation in US support for the island.The $95 billion foreign military aid bill President Biden signed into law last month included about $8 billion for military aid to Taiwan and other spending in the region. The $8 billion for the Asia Pacific region received more support in the House than aid for Ukraine and Israel, passing overwhelmingly in a vote of 385-34.
Lawmakers vow support, weapons for Taiwan as tensions with China intensify --A congressional delegation, which traveled to Taiwan Monday to meet with newly elected Taiwan President William Lai Ching-te, vowed support for the island nation against increasing tension with China.Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), the co-chair of the Taiwan caucus, said the U.S. is committing to supporting Taiwan’s military both diplomatically and economically, The Associated Press reported.“There should be no doubt, there should be no skepticism in the United States, Taiwan or anywhere in the world, of American resolve to maintain the status quo and peace in the Taiwan Strait,” Barr said at a new conference in Taipei after meeting with Lai.Days ago, China launched new military exercises around Taiwan, just after the self-governing island swore in Lai. China criticized the new leader of escalating tensions in his inaugural address and the military drills, which include ships and aircraft, followed.Lai called the U.S. delegation’s visit an “important gesture of solidarity” at a critical time, the AP reported.Reps. Young Kim (R-Calif.), Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and Chrissy Houlahan(D-Penn.) were joined by Rep. Michael McCaul, the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on the trip.Their visit follows the approval of a military aid bill, which sends U.S. funds to countries in need, including Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.China’s Foreign Ministry Mao Ning said in a press conference Monday that the lawmakers’ visit sends a signal to China, who “firmly opposes” the trip and made “serious protests to the U.S.”“China firmly opposes military contract between the US and Taiwan and any attempt to arm Taiwan,” Mao said. “We urge relevant members of the US Congress to stop playing the ‘Taiwan card,’ stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, stop supporting and conniving at ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces, and stop undermining China-US relations and cross-Strait peace and stability.”Lai won the election in January after campaigning on closer relations with Washington, despite the U.S. not formally recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation due to its one China policy.In January, China warned that it would not make “any concession or compromise” on the self-governing nation.The Biden administration said Saturday that U.S. officials are “deeply concerned” about the drills and warned China to “act with restraint.” Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said the military exercises were jeopardizing peace and stability in the region.
China Condemns US Deployment of Previously-Banned Missile System to the Philippines - The Chinese Defense Ministry on Thursday strongly condemned the US deployment of an intermediate-range missile system to the Philippines during military drills that were conducted in April and the first half of May.During Washington and Manila’s annual Balikatan exercises, the US deployed a Typhon launcher, a covert system that is concealed in a 40-foot shipping container and fires Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles.The Typhon system would have been banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a treaty between the US and Russia that the US scrapped in 2019. It prohibited land-based missile systems with a range between 310 and 3,400 miles.Tomahawk missiles can hit targets up to about 1,150 miles away, making any land-based variant banned under the INF. The SM-6 missiles have a range of 290 miles, and US officials believe they could be effective against Chinese ships.US officials previously told The New York Times that the purpose of developing and deploying the Typhon launcher is to prepare for a war with China, whether over Taiwan or the South China Sea.Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said the deployment of the Typhon system increased the risk of conflict. “The United States and Philippine practices put the entire region under the fire of the United States (and) brought huge risks of war into the region,” Wu said, according to Reuters. “Intermediate-range missiles are strategic and offensive weapons with a strong Cold War color.”
U.S. urged to stop provocations --Washington's provocative moves in the waters off China's doorstep were among the top concerns raised by Beijing at the recently concluded second round of China-U.S. consultations on maritime affairs. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the meeting was held via video link on Friday. Analysts noted that the meeting was among a number of recent significant official dialogues between Beijing and Washington, including the first meeting of the China-U.S. Intergovernmental Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence earlier this month in Geneva. Such talks are helpful in minimizing miscalculations and for rolling out necessary crisis management measures on sensitive topics or aspects, such as the Taiwan question and the South China Sea issue, they added. The co-chairs of the maritime dialogue were Hong Liang, director-general of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, and Mark Baxter Lambert, the U.S. State Department's China coordinator and deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs. "The two sides exchanged views on the maritime situation and ocean-related issues", and the two countries agreed to "carry forward dialogue and communication, avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation, and manage and control risks at sea", the ministry said. China voiced its solemn concern over the U.S. violating China's rights and the U.S.' provocative acts in waters around China. It urged the U.S. to "seriously respect China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and refrain from meddling in maritime disputes between China and its neighbors", the statement said. Beijing asked Washington not to gang up with allies to contain China using the oceans, and not to undermine the peace and stability of the region. On the Taiwan question, China emphasized that the one-China principle is the political foundation of China-U.S. relations and an important basis for dialogue between the two sides on maritime issues. Beijing stressed that so-called "Taiwan independence" activities are the biggest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. The U.S. should immediately stop supporting and condoning the forces of "Taiwan independence" and put into practice its commitment to not supporting "Taiwan independence", it said.
The US Is Discrediting All Arguments For Why It Should Lead The World by Caitlin Johnstone -- One by one, the US empire is discrediting all of its own arguments for why it should lead the world. All the violence, tyranny and injustice it claims to be keeping at bay with its globe-dominating leadership is being inflicted by the empire itself, in more and more brazen and egregious ways each year. The entire premise behind the empire’s containment strategies, military encirclement and cold war brinkmanship with China is that obviously the PRC needs to be stopped from rising and displacing the US as the global leader, and arguments about the need to control Russia and Iran by any means necessary arise from the same premise. These arguments are accepted as a given by many on the basis that the US is a free and democratic country which promotes liberal values and opposes authoritarianism, so of course it’s better to have the US in charge of world affairs.But every point which could be used to bolster that argument is being rapidly eroded by the US itself. The US is making the world a much more violent and dangerous place. The US is assaulting freedom by perpetrating and facilitating more and more injustice and authoritarianism. The US is undermining international law by constantly violating it. Every argument that could be made for the merits of US global leadership gets weaker by the day.As the US backs Israel in routinely committing horrifying massacres in Gaza, it’s clear that the US cannot claim to be making the world a more peaceful and harmonious place.As the US and its allies recklessly ramp up nuclear brinkmanship with Russia over the failing proxy war in Ukraine, it’s clear that the US cannot claim to be making the world safer.As the US denounces the International Criminal Court for applying for arrest warrants of Israeli officials, and supports Israel in dismissing the orders of the International Court of Justice to cease its assault on Rafah, it’s clear that the US has discredited its claim as the upholder of the “rules-based international order”.As online censorship and banned pro-Palestine slogans are increasingly normalized throughout the US-led western world, it’s clear that the US has discredited its claim to being a protector of the freedom of speech.As the US inflicts violent police crackdowns on anti-genocide protesters on university campuses nationwide, it’s clear that the US has discredited its claim to being a protector of the freedom of assembly.As the US backs Israel in murdering a historic number of journalists andshutting down Al Jazeera, while itself imprisoning Julian Assange for journalistic activity exposing US war crimes, it’s clear that the US has discredited its claim to being a protector of the freedom of the press.As the US supports its proxies in Kyiv canceling elections in Ukraine while providing military assistance to most of the world’s dictatorships, it is clear that the US has discredited its claim to being a major promotor of democracy.Whatever argument you could come up with for why the world benefits from US leadership, there are major stories in the news right now which soundly discredit such claims. The evidence is in, and that argument has been lost.This is not some empty rhetorical point I’m just making to show that my worldview is better than those of the mainstream western empire apologist; it is extremely relevant to present and future developments of unparalleled importance to the survival of our species. The US empire has been simultaneously ramping up aggressions against China and Russia as well as in the middle east with increasing recklessness that appears bound for a massive military confrontation with at least one major nuclear-armed state at some point in the coming years. It is doing so because the rise of China means US planetary hegemony will be on its way out the door unless something significant occurs, and the empire managers appear to have calculated that it’s worth risking the life of every terrestrial organism to force that something significant to occur.The only possible argument that this is a sane or reasonable thing to do is that the world is better off with US leadership than without it. But as we just discussed, every possible premise of that claim has been soundly discredited by the actions of the United States. And it’s only getting worse.This to me makes it abundantly clear that the world would be better off without US leadership.Whenever I say this I get empire apologists in my comments furiously arguing that if the US doesn’t dominate our planet then China will, but there’s no evidence that China seeks to supplant the US as a unipolar planetary hegemon, and the assumption that there must always be one unipolar power dominating the globe is ahistorical nonsense. In all of human history there has been only one unipolar planetary hegemon, namely the US empire, and it didn’t exist until the fall of the Soviet Union in the nineties. It is not rational to believe that something which has only happened one single time in all of history must be the norm for our world. Multipolarity has been the norm, not the exception, throughout all the rest of our time on this planet prior to the emergence of US global supremacy some three decades ago.None of this is to suggest that a multipolar world will solve all our problems or give rise to peace and harmony. But it is clear that accepting the emergence of such a world is preferable to a world in which the US empire seeks to suppress and delay its arrival with rapidly increasing amounts of violence and aggression, up to and including ramping up for World War Three and playing insane games of chicken with armageddon weapons.The US empire is too crazy and sick to be allowed to rule the world anymore. There is no argument to be made that the benefits outweigh the costs. There is no reason the world’s great powers cannot come together and collaborate toward a healthy world for the benefit of everyone, if humanity can just shrug off its primitive impulse to dominate and control.
Retired four-star admiral charged with accepting bribes for contracts -- A former U.S. Navy vice chief of naval operations was arrested Friday on charges that he accepted bribes to steer government contracts to a company in exchange for a future job while still in service, Justice Department (DOJ) officials announced in a statement.Retired Navy Adm. Robert Burke, 62, of Coconut Creek, Fla., and two business executives, Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger, both of New York, were each charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery, according to the unsealed indictment.In addition, Burke is charged with “performing acts affecting a personal financial interest and concealing material facts from the United States,” the DOJ statement notes.If convicted, Burke faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, while Kim and Messenger each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.Burke, who has served aboard attack and ballistic missile submarines, rose through the ranks to eventually become the 40th vice chief of naval operations in June 2019 before taking command of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and Allied Joint Forces Command in June 2020.Kim and Messenger, meanwhile, were co-CEOs of a business, referred to by the Justice Department as “Company A” that provided a workforce training pilot program to a small component of the Navy from August 2018 through July 2019. A website for services firm NextJump lists a Charlie Kim and a Meghan Messenger as co-CEOs.The Navy ended a contract with Company A in late 2019 and directed it not to contact Burke.In July 2021, however, while Burke was overseeing thousands of Navy civilians and military personnel in Europe and Africa, Kim and Messenger allegedly met with him in Washington, D.C., in an effort to reestablish Company A’s business relationship with the Navy, according to the statement.“At the meeting, the charged defendants allegedly agreed that Burke would use his position as a Navy Admiral to steer a sole-source contract to Company A in exchange for future employment at the company,” the Justice Department said. “They allegedly further agreed that Burke would use his official position to influence other Navy officers to award another contract to Company A to train a large portion of the Navy with a value Kim allegedly estimated to be “triple digit millions.’”Several months later in December 2021, Burke allegedly ordered his Navy staff to award a $355,000 contract to the company to train personnel under Burke’s command in Italy and Spain, according to the statement.Company A then performed the training in January 2022 and shortly thereafter Burke allegedly promoted the firm in a failed effort to convince a senior Navy Admiral to award another contract to the business.“To conceal the scheme, Burke allegedly made several false and misleading statements to the Navy, including by creating the false appearance that Burke played no role in issuing the contract and falsely implying that Company A’s employment discussions with Burke only began months after the contract was awarded,” the statement said.After retirement in summer 2022, Burke began working at Company A in October that year, starting with a salary of $500,000 and a grant of 100,000 stock options.
Biden’s tariffs, a further stage in the breakdown of the international economic order The decision by the Biden administration to maintain tariffs on Chinese goods imposed under Trump and to vastly extend them with a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles (EVs), together with major imposts on other green technology products, has sent a shock through the global economy. It is being regarded as a qualitative leap in the ongoing breakdown of the international economic order put in place after 1945 aimed at preventing the trade and currency conflicts and the formation of rival economic blocs that fuelled the conditions for World War II. A recent editorial in the Economist, published before the latest Biden decision, said the order that had governed the global economy since the war had been eroded was now “close to collapse” and “war is once again becoming the resort of great powers.” In a paper published immediately after the Biden decision, Bruegel, a Brussels economic think tank, pointed to its far-reaching implications. It said the EV tariffs “depart from the US emphasis on national security to adopt anti-China measures (unless one believes that EVs are meandering Chinese spies), suggesting that all sectors are now in play.” (In the lead up to the decision, Biden had claimed that the smart technology in EVs could be used to send back intelligence information to China.) The paper suggested the decision was a product of the enormous power of the United Auto Workers union as Biden campaigns for votes in the US presidential election. No doubt electoral considerations played a role as Biden tries to present himself as the most pro-worker president ever—in reality the most pro-trade union bureaucracy president—but they are not the central reason. Rather, the trade measures are part of the drive to place the entire US economy on a war footing as it confronts what it regards as the greatest threat to its global dominance—the economic and technological rise of China. The US is advancing its drive for action against Chinese exports and pushing for the European Union to join it with the claim that China is engaged in “unfair competition” because its industries receive massive state subsides. But this fiction is being exposed. No doubt Chinese firms in the green technology sector and other areas receive state backing, but this is not the main reason for their increasing penetration of global markets. According to the analysis by Bruegel: “China’s cost advantage arises from the combination of scale, advanced and lower-cost technology, availability of IT and AI expertise, lower labour costs, and intense competition in the Chinese market, with dozens of domestic and foreign producers active.… The only available and presumably reliable numbers on subsidies received are those declared by Chinese publicly traded companies such as BYD, [one of the main Chinese EV producers] and are small relative to turnover or value added.” These cost advantages saw Chinese EV exports increased by over 60 percent in 2023 to reach 1.2 million units, mainly to Europe. The European Commission is preparing a major report on Chinese exports and will release its findings in the next few weeks. The EU will then decide whether to join the US in its economic war against Beijing as it was urged to do by US treasury secretary Janet Yellen at the meeting of G7 finance ministers in Italy last week.
China issues report on U.S. human rights violations in 2023 -- China's State Council Information Office on Wednesday issued the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2023, revealing the country's deteriorating human rights situation with facts and figures. The report calls on the U.S. government to take concrete measures to tackle its human rights problems, and respond to the expectations of the American people and international concerns. The human rights situation in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2023, the report said, adding that human rights are becoming increasingly polarized in the country. "While a ruling minority holds political, economic, and social dominance, the majority of ordinary people are increasingly marginalized, with their basic rights and freedoms being disregarded," it said. Noting that civil and political rights have been reduced to mere talk in the United States, the report draws attention to worsening problems including gun violence, partisan fights, police brutality and the ineffective police enforcement accountability system, mass incarceration and forced labor, political polarization, election manipulation, and the declining government credibility. "The chronic disease of racism persists," the report said, highlighting that African Americans face serious racial discrimination and inequality in fields such as law enforcement and medical services. Asian Americans have experienced intensified discrimination, the rights of Native Americans have been constantly violated, and "racist ideology is spreading virulently in the United States and spilling across borders," it added. Growing economic and social inequality makes life extremely difficult for the poor, the report said, noting that the United States has been refusing to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Economic, social and cultural rights are stigmatized as "welfare cheese" in the United States, and the phenomenon of "in-work poverty" is widespread, with the gap between the rich and the poor further widening, it added. The United States has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and remains the only UN member state which has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it said, warning of the persistent violations of the rights of women and children in the country. Meanwhile, politicians have "forsaken the rights and welfare of immigrants," it said. Overseas, the United States has long pursued hegemonism, practiced unilateralism and power politics, and created humanitarian crises, it said. "In the United States, human rights is essentially a privilege enjoyed only by a few. The country's various human rights problems seriously threaten and hinder the healthy development of the world human rights cause," said the report.
It's The Immigrants, Stupid? --While the Biden administration insists Americans shouldn't believe their lying bank accounts amid 'strong growth and low unemployment,' guess who's actually been benefiting? (Regular ZeroHedge readers already know) You guessed it - 'the controlled influx of immigrants into the US across the southern border,' as Trend Macrolytics CIO Donald Luskin pens in a WSJ op-ed - though his conclusion was not well received by readers.Consider the 3.2 million increase in the foreign-born adult population in the U.S. in the 21 months since July 2022. We start at that date because it gives us a clean slate, free from the effects of the pandemic lockdown and reopening. And this period captures the full effect of the Biden administration’s loose border policies.Over that period, foreign-born employment has increased 1.8 million—meaning that roughly 56% of the 3.2 million new foreign-born adult population became employed. Setting aside the political matter of how much of this employment is legal, the stereotype that immigrants don’t or can’t work appears to be false.The figures, contained within the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly household survey, are collected through door-to-door census of 60,000 households in which respondents are asked whether they're native or foreign born (but not whether they're here illegally!). Luskin notes that illegal aliens are probably less likely to answer a knock at the door, so BLS probably undercounts them.Even so, foreign-born individuals represent 80% of the 4.1 million increase in America's adult population since July 2022, and 71% of the 2.5 million new jobs. In short, without new foreign-born workers, total US job growth under Biden during this period would have been roughly 86,000 less each month - or 724,000 jobs added vs. 2.52 million. So without illegal immigrants, the economy would have grown less than a third as much since July 2022.According to Luskin;It’s a catastrophe of lawlessness and maladministration. But it appears to have contributed to a strong labor market and to economic growth....[A] border crackdown such as Donald Trump has proposed could end up leading to slower growth. Whoever is president in 2025 will need to take great care in balancing these urgent interests.As we noted in March, there has been virtually zero job creation for native-born workers since the summer of 2018...
Biden taps UAW's Shawn Fain for White House advisory council --President Biden announced Friday he planned to appoint two key union leaders to an advisory committee on international trade, including United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain.The White House announced Fain and Brian Bryant, who serves as the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) president, would be appointed to the advisory group.The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the Business and Economy newsletterThe President’s Export Council serves as the main national committee advising the White House on matters of international trade. The group discusses and works to resolve trade-related issues around business, agriculture and labor.The appointment of Fain is the latest instance of the UAW leader emerging as one of Biden’s closest allies in organized labor. Biden walked the picket line with UAW members in Michigan during a strike last year, and Fain and the group endorsed Biden’s reelection bid in January, citing the president’s solidarity with workers.“This choice is clear. Joe Biden bet on the American worker while Donald Trump blamed the American worker,” Fain said during his endorsement. “We need to know who’s gonna sit in the most powerful seat in the world, and help us win as a united working class.”
Internet providers continuing discounted plans despite federal subsidies ending -- More than a dozen internet service providers have agreed to continue offering discounted internet plans to low-income households through the end of 2024, as the federal program subsidizing the discounts comes to an end, the Biden administration announced Friday. AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Spectrum, Verizon and nine other providers will continue offering their $30 or less plans to those currently enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program and other eligible households. Other participating providers include Allo Fiber, altafiber (and Hawaiian Telcom), Astound Broadband, IdeaTek, Mediacom, MLGC, Optimum, Starry and Vermont Telephone Company. The Affordable Connectivity Program, which provided broadband discounts to more than 23 million households, will halt benefits completely starting Saturday due to a lack of funding. While some households will maintain their low-cost internet plans under the newly announced agreements with providers, the Biden administration called on Congress once again to pass an additional $6 billion in funding to extend the program. “It is regrettable that the Federal Communications Commission must bring to a close the most successful broadband affordability program in our Nation’s history,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel wrote in a letter to Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) on Thursday. Joyce chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. “There continues to be a tremendous need for the ACP and the consistent, reliable benefit it offers to help low-income households in rural, suburban, and urban America get online and stay online,” Rosenworcel added.
Bernie Sanders, Ron Wyden press MultiPlan for information on services, costs - Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) are scrutinizing a data analytic firm over concerns the services it provides to insurance companies are leaving patients with “sky-high medical bills.” The senators issued a letter last week to Travis Dalton, president and CEO of the health care data analytics firm MultiPlan, stating their concerns over reports his company’s negotiation process for out-of-network claims “dramatically reduces plan payments for out-of-network services and leaves patients with sky-high medical bills that they are on the hook for paying.”In the letter, Sanders and Wyden cited a New York Times investigation last month that found that MultiPlan and the insurers it works with benefitted financially by recommending smaller reimbursements for services provided by out-of-network physicians.. “We are concerned that your company’s Data iSight product improperly drives up patient health care costs and, further, that the financial incentives built into the fee for the use of the Data iSight product result in an improper conflict of interest between determining a plan’s liability for out-of-network claims and the plan’s duty to provide promised benefits pursuant to [Employee Retirement Income Security Act],” they wrote. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 sets minimum standards for voluntarily established health plans within the private sector. Denying employees benefits from a qualifying plan or breaching fiduciary duties are considered violations of the ERISA. They noted MultiPlan once negotiated directly with health care providers to determine what rate would be paid under a group health plan, but its Data iSight product now operates as an “opaque process.” “Because your company is paid more when it reaches lower payment amounts, the payments to health care providers are often far lower than the billed amount, with some describing these amounts as ‘crazy low,'” they added. “When the plan is only willing to pay this low amount, patients are on the hook for the remaining bill, which in extreme cases can total hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Wyden and Sanders requested that MultiPlan brief the Senate committees on Finance and on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which they respectively chair, on the allegations in the Times article. They also asked to know if MultiPlan denies ERISA fiduciary status as part of the services it provides. “MultiPlan plays a critical role in the healthcare system by helping lower out-of-pocket costs and reducing or eliminating medical bills for millions of patients,” MultiPlan said in a statement to The Hill. “We are working with the Committees to address their questions and explain the cost and complexity patients can face when obtaining out-of-network medical services, especially when many providers charge many times more than what they charge Medicare and commercial in-network patients for the same services. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) flagged The New York Times article to the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission last month, asking that they investigate the “use of algorithms that collect and process data in the out-of-network insurance payment industry.” MultiPlan is currently facing several lawsuits by health systems in the U.S. who allege the company’s algorithm resulted in reimbursements rates far below what insurers would have paid otherwise. Community Health Systems, one of the largest hospital chains in the U.S., filed its own lawsuit earlier this month. “MultiPlan has created, and continues to orchestrate, an ongoing cartel agreement with competing health insurance companies throughout the United States to bilk healthcare providers out of billions of dollars per year,” Community Health Systems wrote in its complaint.
Wegovy could bankrupt US health system, Sanders says in new report --Blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy could bankrupt the U.S. health care system unless the price drops, according to a staff report released Wednesday from the office of Senate Health Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Unless prices dramatically decline, Wegovy and weight loss drugs could push Americans to spend $1 trillion per year on prescription drugs, the report concluded. “Pricing drugs based on their value cannot serve as a blank check, or the sole determinant for how we understand what to pay for essential goods,” the report stated. As important as these drugs are, they will not do any good for the millions of patients who cannot afford them.” The report ups the pressure from Sanders on Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk to lower the price of Wegovy and Ozempic. In April, Sanders and the Health Committee launched an investigation into why the company is charging Americans substantially higher prices than other countries. Novo Nordisk charges Americans with Type 2 diabetes $969 per month for Ozempic, compared to just $155 in Canada, $122 in Italy, $71 in France and $59 in Germany. The company lists Wegovy for $1,349 per month in the U.S. compared to $186 in Denmark, $137 in Germany and $92 in the U.K. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 42 percent of American adults have obesity, and more than 11 percent of the population has diabetes. If half of American adults with obesity took Wegovy and the other new weight loss drugs, it could cost the health care system $411 billion per year — more than total spending for all retail prescription drugs in 2022, the report found. The committee report noted the company has not yet provided the net pricing data requested as part of the investigation, but staff estimated net prices to be $809 per month after rebates. Many private health insurance plans cover the drugs to some extent, though employers and plans have increasingly restricted access or ended coverage completely as they struggle with the costs. Medicare is prohibited by law from covering drugs solely for weight loss. However, Wegovy was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration to reduce the risk of serious heart problems in people who are overweight or obese. With that new approval, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has opened the door for coverage for more patients.
Sanders, Murray holding hearing on ‘Republican abortion bans’ - Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced a hearing to examine the past two years since the Supreme Court Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade and the impact of the subsequent “Republican abortion bans.” The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which Sanders chairs, will hold the hearing June 4, titled “The Assault on Women’s Freedoms: How Abortion Bans Have Created a Health Care Nightmare Across America.” Witnesses for the hearing have not yet been announced. “In the two years since Roe was overturned, Republican abortion bans have created a full-blown health care crisis — forcing providers to close their doors and shut down their practices, putting women’s lives in danger, decimating access to maternal health care, and forcing women to remain pregnant, no matter their circumstances,” the two senators said in a statement. Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, 14 states have enacted total abortion bans and seven have passed bans within the first 18 weeks of pregnancy. The Senate Judiciary Committee previously held a hearing titled “The Continued Assault on Reproductive Freedoms in a Post-Dobbs America” in March, with Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) among the panelists who testified. “The anti-abortion movement has shown its cruelty and utter disregard for women’s lives again and again, and it is essential that we use every opportunity to continue to make clear exactly how extreme right-wing abortion bans and restrictions on reproductive health care have endangered women, hurt families, and rolled back rights,” Murray and Sanders added. The office of HELP committee ranking member Bill Cassidy (R-La.) did not immediately respond when reached for comment about the hearing.
New study highlights significant health impacts three years after COVID-19 infection - Amid the complete blackout by governments and public health officials on the true state of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a study just published in the journal Nature Medicine by Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly and colleagues reaffirms in the negative the detriments to our health posed by allowing SARS-CoV-2 to infect and reinfect populations under the stated policy of “forever COVID.” One of the most pernicious lies about COVID-19 is that mild or asymptomatic infections cause no damage to the body and are therefore of little concern. Following up on their prior groundbreaking studies, Al-Aly and colleagues address this fallacy head-on and, in distinction to the laissez-faire attitude of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Biden administration, make a cogent warning on the significant long-term damage COVID-19 can wreak on the body. Regardless of how mild the acute course of the disease may be, the sustained impact to numerous organ systems may greatly impede our long-term well-being. The studies led by Al-Aly force the medical sciences to rethink the genesis of chronic diseases and for stewards of public health to accept prevention as a necessary first measure in defending societies from these pathogens. As with their prior studies, the authors utilize the expansive databases of the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The participants of the present study included a cohort of 135,161 US veterans (114,864 non-hospitalized (NH) and 20,297 hospitalized (H)) who survived the first 30 days of their COVID-19 infections and were followed for three full years to estimate their risk of death and incident of PASC throughout the follow-up period. The comparison group consisted of more than 5 million users of the VA healthcare system without any evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. With respect to death, NH participants only saw an increased risk of death in the first year after the acute phase of their infection compared to controls. This amounted to an excess mortality burden of 16.2 per 1,000 persons. However, H participants continued to see their risk of death climb even into the third year from their initial infection. In the first year, these participants saw an excess mortality burden of 58.85 per 1,000 persons compared to non-infected people. That rate continued climbing with an additional 14.15 excess deaths per 1,000 persons in the second year and then 8.16 excess deaths per 1,000 persons in the third year, for a cumulative rate of over 80 excess deaths per 1,000 persons. Translating this, H participants with just one prior infection compared to non-infected controls can expect to see 8 percent more die after three years. Given that estimates place the number of people hospitalized from May 2020 to April 2021 at between 3.25 to 3.95 million people, that would lead to a considerable undercounting of COVID deaths. With respect to PASC (Long COVID), among NH participants the three-year cumulative number reached 378.7 per 1,000 persons. The highest rate occurred in the first year at 212.3, then 125.0 in the second year and 41.2 in the third year. Additionally, the authors found that the cumulative burden of disability-adjusted-life-years (DALYs) due to PASC reached 91.2 per 1,000 persons. Although declining each year, it remained statistically significant and elevated. By comparison, for H participants, the three-year cumulative number of post-acute sequelae reached 2,392 per 1,000 persons and the burden of DALYs due to PASC had reached 766.2 per 1,000 persons or 8.4 times higher than among NH participants.
Nursing home industry sues Biden administration over staffing rule -An industry lawsuit is urging a federal court to overturn the Biden administration’s new mandatory minimum staffing requirements on nursing homes, arguing the federal Medicare agency exceeded its authority. The complaint argues Congress never gave the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the authority “to impose such onerous and unachievable mandates on practically every nursing home in the country,” so the rules are a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. It was filed last week in the Northern District of Texas by the American Health Care Association (AHCA), its Texas counterpart and the operators of three nursing homes in the state. “Setting one-size-fits-all staffing requirements that will require some four-fifths of the nation’s nursing homes to hire additional personnel, even though almost no state has deemed those higher levels necessary … is the height of arbitrary and capricious agency action,” the complaint stated. The lawsuit argues the requirements will force facilities to close or downsize, displacing tens of thousands of residents and “forcing countless other seniors and family members to wait longer, search farther, and pay more for the care they need.” Under the requirements unveiled last month, all nursing homes that receive federal funding through Medicare and Medicaid will need to have a registered nurse on staff 24 hours per day, seven days per week and provide at least 3.48 hours of nursing care per resident per day. The rules will cost nursing homes $43 billion over the next decade, according to estimates from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Group of Black men file racial discrimination lawsuit against American Airlines Lawsuit alleges American Airlines kicked group of Black men off plane citing body odor. Three Black men have filed a lawsuit against American Airlines, alleging it forced them and several other Black male passengers to deboard a flight after a white flight attendant complained that a passenger had body odor. The suit, filed Wednesday in New York, stems from an incident on Jan. 5 when the three plaintiffs — Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph and Xavier Veal — boarded American Airlines Flight 832 from Phoenix to New York. The trio did not know each other and were not seated together. Jackson, a professional musician and music teacher, was heading back to New York after touring in California with his band. Joseph, a professional actor, was heading home after spending the holidays with friends. And Veal had just helped a friend move from New York to the Golden State. Their flight home included a layover in Phoenix. As the men boarded the plane in Phoenix, they say, all seemed normal. But shortly after the pilot announced an anticipated early arrival time, an American Airlines representative approached the plaintiffs one by one and ordered them off the plane without explanation, according to the lawsuit. In total, eight Black male passengers were removed from the plane. Video recordings of the incident show the men demanding to know why they were being removed, with several accusing the staff of discrimination. At least one American representative can be heard saying “I agree” in response to the accusations. When the plaintiffs demanded an explanation as to why they had been removed, a representative said a white male flight attendant had complained about an unidentified passenger’s body odor. At no time were any of the men accused of having offensive body odor, the complaint states. When Joseph stated that the white male flight attendant had treated him differently “just because of the color of [his] skin,” an American representative responded, “Correct. I do not disagree with you.” “What happened to us was wrong. Imagine a flight attendant ordering every white person off a plane because of a complaint about one white person. That would never happen. But that is what happened to us. There is no explanation other than the color of our skin. American Airlines singled us out for being Black, embarrassed us, and humiliated us. Clearly, this was discrimination,” the three plaintiffs said in a statement.
Supreme Court Unanimously Rules For NRA In Free Speech Case - The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the National Rifle Association plausibly alleged that the administration of the state of New York violated the First Amendment by pressuring insurance companies to cut ties with the gun rights organization. The case, NRA v. Vullo, emerged out of the aftermath of the Parkland shooting on Feb. 14, 2018.“A government official can share her views freely and criticize particular beliefs, and she can do so forcefully in the hopes of persuading others to follow her lead,” Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the majority opinion.Justices Neil Gorsuch and Ketanji Brown Jackson filed concurring opinions.“In doing so, she can rely on the merits and force of her ideas, the strength of her convictions, and her ability to inspire others. What she cannot do, however, is use the power of the State to punish or suppress disfavored expression,” Justice Sotomayor added.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had rejected the NRA’s First Amendment arguments and said that regardless, New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo was entitled to qualified immunity.David Cole, who argued for the NRA on March 18, maintained that New York state engaged in a type of coercive activity that violated the First Amendment.“This was not about enforcing insurance law or mere government speech,” Mr. Cole said.“It was a campaign by the state’s highest political officials to use their power to coerce a boycott of a political advocacy organization because they disagreed with its advocacy.”
Attorneys general urge federal probe of Black Lives Matter protest killing after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pardon - A coalition of attorneys general from various states urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) to open a civil rights investigation into the murder of a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protester in 2020 after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) pardoned his killer two weeks ago. The group of attorneys general, all Democrats, said that Garrett Foster, the protestor, was “exercising” his First Amendment right at the time when he was shot. They also slammed the case, saying the facts of it were “egregious.” The group, in their letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland, expressed concern over the “stand your ground” law, which Abbott mentioned when announcing Daniel Perry’s pardon in mid-May. “The undersigned Attorneys General are concerned that these “stand your ground” laws encourage vigilantes to attend protests armed and ready to shoot and kill those who exercise their First Amendment rights,’ the coalition said in the letter dated Wednesday. The Texas governor pardoned Perry, who was convicted of murder for fatally shooting Foster, an Air Force veteran, during a 2020 protest that sparked nationwide following the murder of George Floyd. Perry was found guilty by a jury in April 2023 of murdering Foster. He was found not guilty of an aggravated assault charge.
'This is sexual violence': Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fights AI deepfake porn -Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is emphasizing the need for federal legislation that would add protections around the spread of nonconsensual artificial intelligence (AI) deepfake pornography. In a Tuesday video, Ocasio-Cortez underscored the need for protections, like the bipartisan Defiance Act she is leading in the House, amid a rise in AI-generated nonconsensual porn of prominent figures and regular people. “This is sexual violence,” Ocasio-Cortez said in the video. The congresswoman said she has been personally targeted by nonconsensual AI porn. She spoke about her experience and the fight to combat nonconsensual AI porn in an interview with Rolling Stone published in April. Other prominent figure have also been targets of high-profile incidents of the spread of nonconsensual deepfake porn. Explicit AI-generated images of Taylor Swift that spread online in January highlighted the issue, and the White House weighed in to call it “alarming.” Ocasio-Cortez said the even more concerning issue is how this is increasingly putting “every day people” at risk of “being targeted by this kind of reputational, sexual violence that is at its core exploitative.” “And what is even crazier is that right now there are no federal protections for any person regardless of your gender if you’re a victim of nonconsensual deepfake pornography,” she added. Without protections in place, the White House last week put out a call to action to urge tech companies to make voluntary commitments to disrupt monetization, creation and distribution of image-based sexual abuse. “You might be asking yourself, ‘Why has this not been treated like the emergency that it is?’ Well, maybe that has something to do with the fact that Congress is over 70 percent male and women’s issue kind of whoosh institutionally around here. But we are ending that today,” Ocasio-Cortez said. The bipartisan Defiance Act was introduced in March in both the House and Senate. It would create a federal civil right of action for victims of nonconsensual AI porn to allow them to seek accountability in court.
Supreme Court justices signal wariness of law used for Jan. 6 prosecutions - The scope of a federal obstruction law used against scores of Jan. 6 rioters — and former President Trump — drew scrutiny from the Supreme Court on Tuesday, a signal that the justices may be wary of the Justice Department’s far-reaching prosecution of the Capitol attack. Joseph Fischer, a former police officer accused of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, challenged the law in an effort to eliminate one of several counts he faces: obstruction of an official proceeding. The law, Section 1512(c)(2), makes it a crime to “corruptly” obstruct, impede or interfere with official inquiries and investigations by Congress and carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Jeffrey Green, who represented Fischer, argued Tuesday that law was created to more narrowly address acts that affect the “integrity or availability of evidence” — not acts that get in the way of an official proceeding without affecting any evidence. However, the Department of Justice (DOJ) contended that Fischer’s reading imposed an “atextual limit” on the type of conduct that can be prosecuted under the charge, suggesting that Congress meant for the statute to serve as a “classic catchall” for acts not including the destruction of records, documents or other objects. The charge itself is more than two decades old, enacted in 2002 after the Enron scandal, where top executives at the energy company were imprisoned for fraud and other offenses after the company went bankrupt. Since the Capitol riot, more than 1,300 people have faced charges for their role in the attack — some 353 of whom were accused of obstructing Congress’s official count of Electoral College votes that day. The vote certification is the final step of the presidential election process, where in 2020, President Biden’s win over Trump was formalized. But Fischer and a slew of other Jan. 6 defendants say the charge has been improperly applied to rioters who descended on the Capitol that day. The high court’s conservative justices pressed the Justice Department on whether the charge has ever been used to prosecute actions aside from the Capitol attack. U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the DOJ has used the statute in prosecutions involving actions that exposed the existence of a grand jury or an undercover law enforcement officer. Justice Neil Gorsuch raised hypothetical situations like a heckler in the high court’s audience causing a disruption to arguments or the pulling of a fire alarm before votes in Congress, asking if they’d “qualify” for prosecution under the law. Prelogar purported that if the Justice Department could prove the individual who engaged in those acts did so “corruptly” and with “intent,” then those instances would meet the statute’s requirements. But the solicitor general also zeroed in on the Capitol attack and why the charge maintains importance in those prosecutions. Justice Brett Kavanaugh inquired as to why Fischer’s other six Jan. 6-related charges aren’t “good enough.” Prelogar replied that Fischer’s “root conduct” revolved around Congress’s certification of the 2020 presidential election and his desire to stop it. The Justice Department should be able to hold Fischer “accountable for that conduct,” she said.
Ugly encounters with Alito's wife came after upside-down flag was flown: Neighbors - A Fairfax County, Va., couple claims the worst in a series of ugly encounters with Martha-Ann Alito, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, happened after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the justice’s house, not before, as the justice has said. Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that Alito’s household flew the upside-down flag, which symbolizes the “Stop the Steal” campaign, in January 2021. Alito said the flag wasflown by his wife in a dispute with neighbors.The Times then reported that a second flag associated with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and a Christian nationalist movement was flown at Alito’s New Jersey vacation home in July and September 2023.Alito has been sharply criticized in the aftermath of the reports. Democrats are calling for him to recuse himself from cases related to Jan. 6 and former President Trump. Alito has not commented on the second flag. The Times reported that neighbor Emily Baden and her then-boyfriend, who was not named by the news outlet, engaged in vulgar insults with Martha-Ann Alito over political differences. But Baden, who was living with her mother, Barbara Baden, provided a different timeline from Alito’s and said she did not see the upside-down flag. The Times found that a phone call from Baden’s then-boyfriend to local police was made Feb. 15, 2021, weeks after the flag was taken down, about the dispute. Alito claimed that the dispute began when a neighbor posted an anti-Trump sign in their yard in January 2021. Martha-Ann Alito complained to the neighbor, and the situation escalated. Alito said a male neighbor called his wife the “C-word,” and after the exchange, his distraught wife hung the flag. According to the Badens, Martha-Ann Alito initiated the conflict. “Aside from putting up a sign, we did not begin or instigate any of these confrontations,” Baden told the Times.
Roberts faces calls to press Alito for recusal - House Judiciary Committee Democrats asked Chief Justice John Roberts to detail how the Supreme Court plans to enforce its code of conduct, arguing Justice Samuel Alito violated its policies by raising flags connected to the “Stop the Steal” effort at his two homes. The group accuses Alito of violating one provision that bars justices from endorsing a candidate for office and another that requires recusal when their “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The code of conduct was adopted last year in the wake of another Supreme Court scandal documenting Justice Clarence Thomas’s acceptance of numerous vacations, gifts, and even payment of school tuition for a relative from a conservative mega donor. “Adopting a code of ethics and failing to enforce [it] only serves to reinforce the perception that Supreme Court justices operate without consequences for clearly unethical behavior,” ranking member Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and the committee’s Democrats wrote in the letter. “Do you plan to request Justice Alito recuse himself from any cases related to Donald Trump? If not, why not?” The panel likewise asks Roberts to detail when he learned of Alito’s displaying of flags. The letter comes just hours after Alito rejected calls in the Senate for him to rescue himself from a pending case weighing whether former President Trump retains presidential immunity for actions he took in the lead up to Jan. 6.Shortly after the 2020 election, Alito flew an upside-down American flag, a symbol historically used to signal distress that was also used by those protesting former Trump’s loss and that later became associated with the “Stop the Steal” movement, which tried to prevent the transfer of presidential power based on false claims of election fraud. And in 2023 at his vacation home in New Jersey, he flew an “Appeal to Heaven” flag — which though it has origins in the Revolutionary War, has more recently served as a call for a conservative, Biblical-centered government and was spotted in the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. “While upside down flags can have other meanings, it is difficult to contemplate a situation in which Justice Alito’s inverted flag had any meaning other than to convey political support for Donald Trump,” the letter states.Alito said Wednesday it was his wife’s decision to raise the flag at their home, saying she has a “legal right to use the property as she sees fit” and describing her as “fond of flying flags.”He also confirmed reporting from The New York Times that the couple was engaged in a spat with neighbors. The article separately reported that the feud was over yard signs posted following the election that were critical of Trump. Alito also told Fox News on Wednesday that the display included a “F‑‑‑ Trump” sign.
Raskin argues DOJ can force recusals of Alito, Thomas in Jan. 6 cases - Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) argued that the Department of Justice (DOJ) could force the recusals of Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito in cases it is facing related to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack. “Everyone assumes that nothing can be done about the recusal situation because the highest court in the land has the lowest ethical standards — no binding ethics code or process outside of personal reflection,” the Maryland Democrat said in an opinion piece in The New York Times published Wednesday. “Each justice decides for him- or herself whether he or she can be impartial.” Raskin then noted that Alito and Thomas “could choose to recuse themselves,” but that “begging them to do the right thing misses a far more effective course of action.” “The U.S. Department of Justice — including the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, an appointed U.S. special counsel and the solicitor general, all of whom were involved in different ways in the criminal prosecutions underlying these cases and are opposing Mr. Trump’s constitutional and statutory claims — can petition the other seven justices to require Justices Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves not as a matter of grace but as a matter of law,” Raskin continued. Alito and Thomas Thomas have faced recent calls to recuse themselves from cases related to the Jan. 6 attack due to controversies over flags reportedly flown at Alito’s houses linked to the “Stop the Steal” effort and Thomas’ wife’s reported involvement in that same effort. “The Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland can invoke two powerful textual authorities for this motion: the Constitution of the United States, specifically the due process clause, and the federal statute mandating judicial disqualification for questionable impartiality, 28 U.S.C. Section 455,” Raskin said.
Judge Denies Hunter Biden's "Frivolous" Bid To Halt Delaware Gun Case - A federal judge on Wednesday denied Hunter Biden’s bid to halt the prosecution of his Delaware gun case, deeming it unconvincing and “frivolous.” U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika issued the ruling on Wednesday, rejecting Mr. Biden’s request to enjoin the investigation led by Special Counsel David Weiss. Mr. Biden contended that Mr. Weiss’s appointment violated the Appropriations Clause, arguing that he is not an “independent counsel” and was not approved by Congress.“The Court should enjoin the Special Counsel from continuing to fund his investigation and prosecution of Mr. Biden without an appropriation from Congress or promptly deny the motion so it can be appealed,” Mr. Biden’s motion, filed on May 14, stated.The judge found no merit in Mr. Biden’s claims, stating that the use of permanent appropriations to fund special counsels has been well-established and previously upheld.“Mr. Weiss was lawfully appointed,” under relevant statutes, “to serve as special counsel to conduct investigations and prosecutions relating to this criminal matter,” Judge Noreika wrote in her decision, “and he is an ‘independent counsel’ appointed pursuant to ‘other law’ within the mining of the permanent appropriation.”Judge Noreika ruled that Mr. Biden’s motion was not presented as a “serious request” but rather as a necessary procedural step before he could appeal.Mr. Biden contended that Mr. Weiss lacked authority from Congress because he “is not an independent counsel and that is by design.”In their response motion, the prosecution highlighted that Mr. Biden’s attempts to claim Appropriations Clause violations had been struck down in two district and two circuit courts, using the same arguments. Additionally, they contended that Mr. Biden “now offers no new facts or law” to support his motion for an injunction.Mr. Biden acknowledged that his motion relied on previously rejected arguments. He asked the judge to either enjoin Mr. Weiss “or promptly deny the motion so it can be appealed.”His motion filed on May 14 stated that if the district court found against him regarding his argument of Appropriations Clause violations, “as it did previously,” then he would “have the basis” to take it to the Third Circuit “to address this issue when considering Mr. Biden’s forthcoming petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc.”In calling his request unserious, the judge highlighted the motion’s length, at four and a half pages, and noted that half of it was dedicated to “explaining why the Third Circuit would have jurisdiction over an appeal should this Court deny the requested injunction.”“The Court has no reason to believe that Defendant’s inevitable appeal of this denial of his motion for an injunction is any more meritorious than his prior efforts,” Judge Noreika wrote.Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Mr. Weiss as special counsel on Aug. 11, 2023, to oversee this case and Mr. Biden’s separate tax case in a California court.
Federal Judge Denies Jack Smith's Request For Gag Order Against Trump - U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday denied a gag order request submitted by special counsel Jack Smith in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case.Over the past weekend, Mr. Smith’s team asked Judge Cannon to impose a gag order after President Trump had claimed that recently released discovery documents showed that the FBI agents were armed and were prepared to shoot him during the August 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago property. The FBI last week, however, disputed those claims and said the documents merely suggested the agents were following bureau rules around search warrants.In a paperless order, Judge Cannon denied Mr. Smith’s request without prejudice because, according to her, it is “wholly lacking in substance and professional courtesy.”She added that the special counsel’s motion also “did not adhere to ... basic requirements” and that “any future, non-emergency motion brought in this case—whether on the topic of release conditions or anything else—shall not be filed absent meaningful, timely, and professional conferral.”“Sufficient time needs to be afforded to permit reasonable evaluation of the requested relief by opposing counsel and to allow for adequate follow-up discussion as necessary about the specific factual and legal basis underlying the motion,” Judge Cannon added.Mr. Smith’s team argued that the judge should move to restrict President Trump’s speech after he made the aforementioned claims about the FBI search.“The Government moves to modify defendant Donald J. Trump’s conditions of release, to make clear that he may not make statements that pose a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents participating in the investigation and prosecution of this case,” the filing from Mr. Smith said.After Mr. Smith’s motion to place the order on President Trump, his attorneys responded by saying that the special counsel should be sanctioned because he allegedly violated a rule that says both parties must confer before such filings are made.
Donald Trump hush money trial: Both sides prepare for closing arguments Tuesday --Former President Trump and Manhattan prosecutors are gearing up to make their final pitch to a jury before beginning deliberations over whether to convict Trump for a hush money scheme that led to charges of falsifying business records in New York. Both sides will deliver their closing arguments Tuesday, attempting to weave together testimony from 22 witnesses into a narrative they each believe will persuade the 12 New Yorkers in their favor. Judge Juan Merchan, who oversees the trial, has warned jurors that closings could extend into a second day. “In a case like this, which is a rather long case, summations will not be quick,” Merchan told them. The jurors will return to the courtroom a full week after witness testimony concluded. Merchan reluctantly excused jurors early last week until after the Memorial Day holiday, lamenting to the lawyers that he had never given such a long break. “Unfortunately, the calendar is what it is,” the judge remarked. When the trial does reconvene Tuesday morning, New York state law prescribes that Trump’s lawyers will deliver their closing argument first. Trump attorney Todd Blanche previously told the jury that they would be left with “plenty” of reasonable doubt at the end of the trial and swiftly acquit the former president on all charges. “He’s cloaked in innocence,” Blanche told the jury. “And that cloak of innocence does not leave President Trump today. It doesn’t leave him at any day during this trial. And it won’t leave him when you all deliberate. You will find that he is not guilty.” Many legal experts doubt all 12 New Yorkers would unanimously agree to acquit Trump, suggesting the defense will instead be inclined to hope for a lone holdout who could create a hung jury, which would end with Merchan declaring a mistrial. “If I were advising defense counsel, I would say don’t go for an acquittal,” said John Coffee, a Columbia Law School professor who’s closely followed the case. “You can talk about it, but really emphasize on getting a hung jury, making a speech to each juror that it is your duty, regardless of what others tell you, to decide for yourself,” he continued. To do so, much of the defense’s strategy has relied on attacking Michael Cohen, prosecutors’ star witness who made the hush money payment at the center of the case, portraying Trump’s former fixer as a serial liar. Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records that accuse him of covering up Cohen’s $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels by disguising reimbursements to Cohen as a monthly retainer fee. Trump pleaded not guilty and denies any wrongdoing. Cohen arguably provided the most damning testimony against Trump of any witness, saying the former president was informed about the hush money arrangement and the repayment scheme at every turn. The defense did throw a few punches, highlighting Cohen’s past admission to lying under oath, insinuating he had lied about a key phone call with Trump and having him acknowledge he stole from the Trump Organization.
CNN legal expert says idea of Trump being acquitted in hush money case is ‘out of reach’ -- CNN’s legal expert Norm Eisen said there’s little chance of former President Trump being acquitted in his criminal hush money trial after jury deliberation this week, but that a result is far from decided.Prosecutors allege Trump illegally covered up hush money payments made to an porn actor in the weeks before the 2016 election to cover up a past affair with her. He was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business documents and has denied the claims.“This was a winnable case. It still is not a slam dunk, in my view, having been there every day for the prosecution,” Eisen said in a CNN interview with Jim Acosta on Monday. “I think the odds of conviction are somewhere upwards of 80 percent.”“In part because of this scattershot approach, the defense is not really gunning for an acquittal. That’s out of reach here,” he continued. “What they are hoping for is one angry juror.” “Whether there’s one juror who either feels sympathy for Trump or just for whatever reason does not follow the evidence and the law. The holdout,” the expert added. “That’s what they’re trying for. Just one.”
Trump as hush money jury deliberates: ‘Mother Teresa could not beat these charges’ -- Former President Trump fumed Wednesday just after his New York City criminal case was turned over to the jury for deliberations, blasting the judge in the case and bemoaning that “Mother Teresa could not beat these charges.”Trump spoke to reporters gathered outside the courtroom moments after a jury of 12 New Yorkers began deliberating in the former president’s hush money criminal case.“Mother Teresa could not beat these charges. These charges are rigged. The whole country’s a mess, between the borders and fake elections, and you have a trial like this where the judge is so conflicted he can’t breathe,” Trump said.“It’s a disgrace. And I mean that. Mother Teresa could not beat those charges. But we’ll see. We’ll see how we do,” he added.Strategists said it is to Trump’s benefit to create a narrative that the case is stacked against him, lowering the bar in the event he is convicted or allowing him to declare victory against a “rigged” system in the event he is found not guilty.Trump faces 34 felony charges he falsified business records to conceal a hush money payment made to a porn actress in the final days of his 2016 presidential campaign to keep secret their alleged affair from a decade earlier. The charges are usually brought as a misdemeanor, so to find Trump guilty, jurors must determine Trump acted with the intent to further another crime. The decision on whether or not to convict Trump – or if the case will end in a hung jury if all 12 jurors can’t unanimously decide on all 34 counts – could come at any time. None of the jurors looked at Trump as they passed by him while exiting the courtroom to begin deliberations.
Trump hush money verdict: Guilty of all 34 counts (AP) — Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes Thursday as a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex. Trump sat stone-faced while the verdict was read as cheering from the street below could be heard in the hallway on the courthouse’s 15th floor where the decision was revealed after more than nine hours of deliberations. “This was a rigged, disgraceful trial,” an angry Trump told reporters after leaving the courtroom. “The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people. They know what happened, and everyone knows what happened here.” Judge Juan M. Merchan set sentencing for July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where GOP leaders, who remained resolute in their support in the aftermath of the verdict, are expected to formally make him their nominee. The verdict is a stunning legal reckoning for Trump and exposes him to potential prison time in the city where his manipulations of the tabloid press helped catapult him from a real estate tycoon to reality television star and ultimately president. As he seeks to reclaim the White House in this year’s election, the judgment presents voters with another test of their willingness to accept Trump’s boundary-breaking behavior. Trump is expected to appeal the verdict and will face an awkward dynamic as he returns to the campaign trail tagged with convictions. There are no campaign rallies on the calendar for now, though he traveled Thursday evening to a fundraiser in Manhattan that was planned before the verdict, according to three people familiar with his plans who were not authorized to speak publicly. He’s expected to appear Friday at Trump Tower and will continue fundraising next week. His campaign was already moving quickly to raise money off the verdict, issuing a pitch that called him a “political prisoner.” The falsifying business records charges carry up to four years behind bars, though Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg would not say Thursday whether prosecutors intend to seek imprisonment, and it is not clear whether the judge — who earlier in the trial warned of jail time for gag order violations — would impose that punishment even if asked. The conviction, and even imprisonment, will not bar Trump from continuing his White House pursuit. Trump faces three other felony indictments, but the New York case may be the only one to reach a conclusion before the November election, adding to the significance of the outcome. Though the legal and historical implications of the verdict are readily apparent, the political consequences are less so given its potential to reinforce rather than reshape already hardened opinions about Trump. The case’s general allegations have also been known to voters for years and, while tawdry, are widely seen as less grievous than the allegations he faces in three other cases that charge him with subverting American democracy and mishandling national security secrets. Ahead of the verdict, Trump’s campaign had argued that, no matter the jury’s decision, the outcome was unlikely to sway voters and that the election would be decided by issues such as inflation. Even so, the verdict is likely to give President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats space to sharpen arguments that Trump is unfit for office, though the White House offered only a muted statement that it respected the rule of law. Conversely, the decision will provide fodder for the presumptive Republican nominee to advance his unsupported claims that he is victimized by a criminal justice system he insists is politically motivated against him. Trump maintained throughout the trial that he had done nothing wrong and that the case should never have been brought, railing against the proceedings from inside the courthouse — where he was joined by a parade of high-profile Republican allies — and racking up fines for violating a gag order with inflammatory out-of-court comments about witnesses. After the verdict, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said in television news interviews that he did not believe Trump received a fair trial and that the team would appeal based on the judge’s refusal to recuse himself and because of what he suggested was excessive pretrial publicity. Republicans showed no sign of loosening their embrace of the party leader, with House Speaker Mike Johnson lamenting what he called “a shameful day in American history.” He called the case “a purely political exercise, not a legal one.” The first criminal trial of a former American president always presented a unique test of the court system, not only because of Trump’s prominence but also because of his relentless broadsides on the foundation of the case and its participants. But the verdict from the 12-person jury marked a repudiation of Trump’s efforts to undermine confidence in the proceedings or to potentially impress the panel with a show of GOP support. “While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today in this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors, by following the facts and the law and doing so without fear or favor,” Bragg said after the verdict. The trial involved charges that Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, the porn actor who said she had sex with the married Trump in 2006. The $130,000 payment came from Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer Michael Cohen to buy Daniels’ silence during the final weeks of the 2016 race in what prosecutors allege was an effort to interfere in the election. When Cohen was reimbursed, the payments were recorded as legal expenses, which prosecutors said was an unlawful attempt to mask the true purpose of the transaction. Trump’s lawyers contend they were legitimate payments for legal services. He denied the sexual encounter, and his lawyers argued at trial that his celebrity status made him an extortion target. Defense lawyers also said hush money deals to bury negative stories about Trump were motivated by personal considerations such as the impact on his family, not political ones. They also sought to undermine the credibility of Cohen, the star prosecution witness who pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges related to the payments, by suggesting he was driven by personal animus toward Trump and fame and money.
Trump Guilty on All Counts in Hush-Money Case - The New York Times - Donald J. Trump was convicted on Thursday of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign, capping an extraordinary trial that tested the resilience of the American justice system and will reverberate into November’s election. Mr. Trump was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records by a jury of 12 New Yorkers, who deliberated over two days to reach a decision in a case rife with descriptions of secret deals, tabloid scandal and an Oval Office pact with echoes of Watergate. The former president sat largely expressionless, a glum look on his face, after the jury issued its verdict. His sentencing was scheduled for July 11. The jury found that Mr. Trump had faked records to conceal the purpose of money given to his onetime fixer, Michael D. Cohen. The false records disguised the payments as ordinary legal expenses when in truth, Mr. Trump was reimbursing Mr. Cohen for a $130,000 hush-money deal the fixer struck with the porn star Stormy Daniels to silence her account of a sexual liaison with Mr. Trump. The felony conviction calls for a sentence of up to four years behind bars, but Mr. Trump may never see the inside of a prison cell. He could receive probation when he is sentenced, and he is certain to appeal the verdict — meaning it may be years before the case is resolved. Still, the jury’s decision is an indelible moment in America’s history, concluding the only one of four criminal cases against Mr. Trump that was likely to go to trial before Election Day. Here’s what to know:
- Trump can still be president: Nothing in the Constitution prevents a felon from running for president, or serving in the White House. Mr. Trump — who has long claimed the case against him is politically motivated — is expected to try to leverage the verdict to his advantage on the campaign trail, painting himself as the victim of a Democratic cabal. But the verdict ended Mr. Trump’s run of good fortune with criminal cases.
- Inside the courtroom: Mr. Trump showed little emotion as the verdict was read, shaking his head as the jury’s foreman recited “Guilty” 34 times. The recitation took less than two minutes, a sudden end that came at the end of the second day of deliberations — after the judge in the case said he was planning to send the jury home for the day. Here’s what it was like inside the courtroom.
- Celebration and outrage: Reaction to the historic verdict was immediate. A demonstrator outside the courthouse raised a large “Trump Convicted” sign, while others pumped their fists. Mr. Trump’s campaign emailed out a fund-raising appeal calling him a “political prisoner.” And President Biden’s campaign urged supporters not to sit idle, saying on social media that the only way to keep Mr. Trump out of the White House was by voting. Here’s how voters around the country greeted the verdict.
- A proud prosecutor: The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, thanked the jury for convicting Mr. Trump, who he said had falsified business records to “conceal a scheme to corrupt the 2016 election.” He added, “There are many voices out there but the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury has spoken.” Read an analysis of how prosecutors won the case.
- An 8-year odyssey: The first inkling of the crimes committed by Mr. Trump emerged eight years ago, with a tip to The Wall Street Journal about another hush-money deal: $150,000 to a Playboy model who said she’d had an affair with the man who was then on the cusp of the presidency. Read a reporter’s account of the efforts to untangle the story.
- Trump’s response: Mr. Trump appeared somber during brief remarks outside the courthouse, in which he repeated a litany of complaints about the case, including that the judge, Juan M. Merchan, was biased against him. “The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5, by the people,” he told reporters, without responding to a shouted question about why Americans should vote for a felon.This is what he had to say.
- The jury deliberated for roughly 10 hours: The jurors asked to again hear portions of testimony by Mr. Cohen and David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, who prosecutors say was part of a conspiracy to suppress unflattering stories on Mr. Trump’s behalf during the 2016 campaign. Read about what the jury wanted to hear again.
- Dueling views of the case: A prosecutor from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Joshua Steinglass, said in closing arguments that Mr. Trump had tried to “hoodwink the American voter” Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, told jurors the case hinged on the testimony of Mr. Cohen, whom he called “the greatest liar of all time.” Take a look back at the words that defined the closing arguments.
‘The jury has spoken’: Bragg speaks after guilty verdict. - In February 2022, two months into his tenure, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, made a momentous decision: He would not pursue a criminal case against Donald J. Trump. He was criticized then for seeming to drop his office’s long-running investigation into the former president. He was criticized later that year, when he appeared to have refocused the investigation on a hush-money payment to a porn star who said she’d had sex with him. And he was criticized once more several months later, in March of last year, when he became the first prosecutor to indict an American president, charging Mr. Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records. Critics at the time — including some prominent Democrats — said the case was not strong enough to have brought against a former president. But on Thursday, shortly after 5 p.m., Mr. Bragg won one of the most consequential trials in American history: Mr. Trump was found guilty on all counts. Jurors determined that he had coordinated an unlawful conspiracy to win the White House in 2016 and had falsified records to cover up his scheme. “I did my job, and we did our job,” Mr. Bragg said at a news conference on Thursday after the verdict, when asked about the criticism he received about his handling of the investigation and then the case. “There are many voices out there, but the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury has spoken.”Former President Donald J. Trump faced 34 felony charges of falsifying business records, related to the reimbursement of hush money paid to the porn star Stormy Daniels in order to cover up a sex scandal around the 2016 presidential election.Throughout his office’s investigation and the trial, Mr. Bragg had declined to speak publicly about the facts of the case or Mr. Trump himself. On Thursday, Mr. Bragg answered only a few questions and refused to respond to Mr. Trump’s sharp criticisms of him and his office.Throughout the trial, staff members have said, Mr. Bragg has remained remarkably tranquil, showing little sign of the strain that comes with prosecuting a former president. One staff member who spent time with Mr. Bragg during the last several weeks described him as having been eerily calm.Despite the momentous stakes of the trial, he remained steady on Thursday — though he appeared to be holding back emotion.The legal battle pitted two opposites against each other: Mr. Bragg, a Harvard-trained prosecutor who often dodges the media spotlight, and Mr. Trump, the reality-television star turned Republican former president who craves and shapes it.Mr. Bragg, 50, Manhattan’s first Black district attorney, vowed when he ran for office to bring a new approach to criminal justice in the borough. He said he would take the same approach to prosecuting the rich and powerful as he would to anyone else. And so he brought the case against Mr. Trump, charging the former president with the mundane-sounding crime of falsifying business records.But as is typical of Mr. Bragg — a legal wonk above almost anything else — the case was more complex than it appeared. In New York, charges of falsifying business records are misdemeanors, unless they are used to commit or conceal another crime. And the district attorney determined that the crime could be the violation of a little-known state election measure that forbids anyone from aiding an election by unlawful means.The criminal case, despite its critics and complexity, achieved his goals. The jurors delivered a guilty verdict on all 34 counts after roughly 10 hours of deliberations.“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history,” Mr. Bragg said on Thursday, “we arrived at this trial, and ultimately today at this verdict, in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors: by following the facts and the law, and doing so without fear or favor.”Mr. Bragg grew up on Strivers’ Row in Harlem and graduated from Harvard Law School with a commitment to service, which he displayed first as a federal prosecutor and then as a deputy New York attorney general. At each turn, he impressed his colleagues with his open-minded, careful consideration of the law.In his campaign for district attorney, Mr. Bragg was somewhat less cautious than had previously been his practice. On the trail, he brought up Mr. Trump’s name often and played up his history of taking him on in the attorney general’s office.But asked on Thursday about what sentence he would seek for Mr. Trump, Mr. Bragg sidestepped. His office would answer eventually, he said. It would do so in court.
Ex-president, felon, candidate: 5 takeaways from Trump’s conviction. Donald J. Trump’s conviction, born in the heat of one presidential race, could have an impact on another.Credit...Pool photo by Justin LaneIt was an end like no other for a trial like no other: a former American president found guilty of 34 felonies.The conviction of Donald Trump, read aloud shortly after 5 p.m. by the jury foreman as the former president sat just feet away, ended months of legal maneuvering, weeks of testimony, days of deliberation and several nervous minutes after the jury entered the Manhattan courtroom. The former president and the presumptive Republican nominee was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a scheme to cover up an extramarital tryst with a porn star, Stormy Daniels, in 2006. That encounter — which the former president denied — led to a $130,000 hush-money payment whose concealment gave rise to the 34 counts of falsifying business records that made Mr. Trump a felon.Mr. Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July 11; he has indicated he will appeal. Here are five takeaways from the last day of Mr. Trump’s momentous trial.
- A grueling trial ended suddenly. Thursday, the second day of deliberations, seemed to be moving toward a quiet conclusion. Then, suddenly the word came from the judge, Juan M. Merchan: There was a verdict.Less than an hour later, the headlines reading “guilty” began to be written.The decision came just hours after the jury had asked to hear testimony involving the first witness — David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer — including his account of the now infamous 2015 meeting at Trump Tower where he agreed to publish positive stories and bury negative stories about Mr. Trump’s nascent candidacy.They also wanted to hear testimony from Michael Cohen, whose account closely hewed to Mr. Pecker’s.Those two witnesses may have spelled doom for Mr. Trump’s defense.
- Trump and his supporters are furious.Mr. Trump, 77, was relatively subdued when the verdict was read, wearing a glum expression.That sedate mask fell away. After he left the courtroom, he expressed disgust at the verdict in the hallway and suggested that voters would punish Democrats at the ballot box.“The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” he said. “And they know what happened here.”Allies chimed in. Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative group, suggested that Republican district attorneys should investigate Democrats. “How many Republican DAs or AG’s have stones?” he said in an online post, adding, “Indict the left, or lose America.”
- Alvin Bragg was vindicated.Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, had risked his reputation, reviving a prosecution that was derided by some as a “zombie case.” It was alive, then dead, then alive again.Now, Mr. Bragg has cemented his place in history as the first prosecutor to convict a former president. That victory came after he had been viciously attacked, again and again, by Mr. Trump, who portrayed the case as politically motivated while sometimes personally insulting him.In a news conference late Thursday afternoon, Mr. Bragg was restrained in his remarks, thanking the jury and calling their service the “cornerstone of our judicial system.” He also reiterated that “this type of white-collar prosecution is core to what we do at the Manhattan district attorney’s office.”“I did my job,” he said.
- Trump will now experience life as a felon. Before his sentencing July 11, Mr. Trump will have the same experience as anyone else convicted of a felony in the New York court system.The New York City probation department will conduct an interview and generate a sentencing recommendation for Justice Merchan. During the interview, a convict can “try to make a good impression and explain why he or she deserves a lighter punishment,” according to the New York State Unified Court System.Justice Merchan, whom Mr. Trump has spent the last several months excoriating, could sentence the former president to up to four years in prison. Another option is probation, which would require Mr. Trump to regularly report to an officer.Any punishment could be delayed when Mr. Trump appeals the conviction. It’s unlikely any appeal will get resolved before Election Day, and he could remain free until the appeal is resolved.
- The nation is now in uncharted waters.It’s too early to know how the verdict will affect the presidential campaign. Nothing in the Constitution prevents a felon from serving as president.Both Mr. Trump and President Biden immediately tried to capitalize on the guilty verdict in fund-raising emails, including one from Mr. Trump declaring “JUSTICE IS DEAD IN AMERICA!” and calling himself “a political prisoner.”Mr. Biden also posted a fund-raising appeal shortly after the verdict: “There’s only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: At the ballot box.”Whether the conviction will resonate with voters in November is impossible to predict. One thing is certain: Mr. Trump’s conviction will test the American people, and the nation’s fealty to the rule of law.
What's next for Donald Trump after hush money conviction (AP) — Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts marks the end of the former president’s historic hush money trial, but the fight over the case is far from over.Now comes the sentencing and the potential for a prison sentence. A lengthy appellate process. And all the while, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee still has to deal with three more criminal cases and a campaign that could see him return to the White House.After more than nine hours of deliberations over two days, the Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records in the case stemming from a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.Trump angrily denounced the trial as a “disgrace,” telling reporters he’s an “innocent man.”The big question now is whether Trump could go to prison. The answer is uncertain. Judge Juan M. Merchan set sentencing for July 11, just days before Republicans are formally set to nominate Trump for president.The charge of falsifying business records is a Class E felony in New York, the lowest tier of felony charges in the state. It is punishable by up to four years in prison, though the punishment would ultimately be up to the judge, and there’s no guarantee he would give Trump time behind bars. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to say whether prosecutors would seek prison time.It’s unclear to what extent the judge may factor in the political and logistical complexities of jailing a former president who is running to reclaim the White House. Other punishments could include a fine or probation. And it’s possible the judge would allow Trump to avoid serving any punishment until after he exhausts his appeals. Trump faces the threat of more serious prison time in the three other cases he’s facing, but those cases have gotten bogged down by appeals and other legal fights, so it remains unclear whether any of them will go to trial before the November election.The conviction doesn’t bar Trump from continuing his campaign or becoming president. And he can still vote for himself in his home state of Florida as long as he stays out of prison in New York state.Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who serves as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, said in a Fox News Channel interview on Thursday that Trump would do virtual rallies and campaign events if he’s convicted and sentenced to home confinement.In a deeply divided America, it’s unclear whether Trump’s once-unimaginable criminal conviction will have any impact at all on the election.Leading strategists in both parties believe that Trump still remains well-positioned to defeat President Joe Biden, even as the Republican now faces the prospect of a prison sentence and three separate criminal cases still outstanding.In the short term, at least, there were immediate signs that the guilty verdict was helping to unify the Republican Party’s disparate factions as GOP officials across the political spectrum rallied behind their embattled presumptive presidential nominee and his campaign reported a flood of fundraising dollars within hours of the verdict.There has been some polling conducted on the prospect of a guilty verdict, although such hypothetical scenarios are notoriously difficult to predict. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that only 4% of Trump’s supporters said they would withdraw their backing if he’s convicted of a felony, though another 16% said they would reconsider it.After Trump is sentenced, he can challenge his conviction in a New York appellate court and possibly the state’s highest court. Trump’s lawyers have already been laying the groundwork for appeals with objections to the charges and rulings at trial.The defense has accused the judge of bias, citing his daughter’s work heading a firm whose clients have included Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats. The judgerefused the defense’s request to remove himself from the case, saying he was certain of his “ability to be fair and impartial.”Trump’s lawyers may also raise on appeal the judge’s ruling limiting the testimony of a potential defense expert witness. The defense wanted to call Bradley Smith, who served on the Federal Election Commission, to rebut the prosecution’s contention that the hush money payments amounted to campaign finance violations.But the defense ended up not having him testify after the judge ruled he could give general background on the FEC but couldn’t interpret how federal campaign finance laws apply to the facts of Trump’s case or opine on whether Trump’s alleged actions violate those laws. There are often guardrails around expert testimony on legal matters, on the basis that it’s up to a judge — not an expert hired by one side or the other — to instruct jurors on applicable laws.The defense may also argue that jurors were improperly allowed to hear sometimes graphic testimony from Daniels about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies ever happened. The defense unsuccessfully pushed for a mistrial over the tawdry details prosecutors elicited from Daniels. Defense lawyer Todd Blanche argued Daniels’ description of a power imbalance with the older, taller Trump, was a “dog whistle for rape,” irrelevant to the charges at hand, and “the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from.”
What the Trump Conviction Really Means for America - Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump made history as the first former president to become a convicted felon. The conviction on all 34 counts related to a hush money payment upends almost everything about politics as usual and quickly triggered an avalanche of questions about the 2024 election. Can Trump still run for president? (Yes.) Can he vote? (Maybe, maybe not.)But what else is in store after this truly unprecedented event in American history?We reached out to a group of top political minds and historians to ask them what they think the single biggest consequence of Trump’s conviction will be. They covered this fall’s election, of course, including the verdict’s impact on independents and down-ballot races. But they also looked ahead to the effect this verdict could have on American democracy and Americans’ trust in institutions in the longer term.“The fact that one of the two men likely to be president next year is now a convicted felon sets up the possibility that those very same judicial institutions that guarantee the rule of law will come under the most ferocious political attack in our history,” one contributor predicted. ‘The rule of law will come under the most ferocious political attack in our history’Timothy James Naftali is a historian and senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.The guilty verdict cuts in two dramatically different ways. On the one hand, it is a powerful demonstration that in this country even a former head of state can be indicted and convicted by a group of his peers. There could hardly be a more dramatic barometer of the strength of the rule of law and of our judicial institutions.On the other hand, the fact that one of the two men likely to be president next year is now a convicted felon sets up the possibility that those very same judicial institutions that guarantee the rule of law will come under the most ferocious political attack in our history. We can expect Trump to use the Republican Party for the remainder of the campaign to trash our judicial system. We can expect that most, if not all, Republican candidates will echo candidate Trump’s poisonous views about the fairness of the rule of law, creating national and local politics of a toxicity that we haven’t seen since the “stop the steal” campaign of 2020.As a result, it is too soon to assess the long-term consequences for the rule of law of the first conviction of a former U.S. president. Those consequences will be decided by a different verdict, the one that the American people will make collectively at the polls in November.
Analysis: Trump conviction heralds a somber and volatile moment in American history | CNN Politics — Donald Trump’s first act on becoming a convicted criminal was to launch a raging new attack on the rule of law, laying bare the gravity of the choice awaiting America’s voters.In one sense, Trump’s conviction on all counts in his first criminal trial affirmed the principle on which the United States is founded — that everyone is equal and that no one, not even a billionaire and former and possibly future president, enjoys impunity.But Trump’s authoritarian outburst minutes after the guilty verdict in New York and a race by top Republicans to join his assault on the justice system underscore how threatened those bedrock values now are.“This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be November 5, by the people, and they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here,” Trump said minutes after a jury foreperson announced he was guilty on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment to an adult film star. After returning to Trump Tower and greeting supporters with a clenched fist, Trump issued a written statement that made clear that he views his own fate and the nation’s as indistinguishable — a familiar hallmark of a dictatorial leader. “I’m a very innocent man, and it’s okay, I’m fighting for our country. I’m fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now,” Trump wrote. President Joe Biden’s campaign echoed his opponent’s belief that the ultimate judgment on the former president will come in the general election.“Today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality,” said campaign communications director Michael Tyler. “There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president,” Tyler said. “The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater.”Trump’s conviction by a unanimous New York jury was the most painful low of a tumultuous life of denying accountability that has seen financial boom and bust, three marriages, television stardom, frequent brushes with the law, the triumph of his outsider 2016 election win, a norm-shattering presidency and an attempt to destroy democracy to stay in power after losing in 2020. Judging by his red-faced shock outside the courtroom, the verdict was a moment of personal anguish. Given that he’s got a good chance of being the next president, it is sure to become a grave national test as well.Trump had pleaded not guilty in a trial that is one of four criminal cases entangled with the 2024 presidential election and the only one likely to see a jury before the election. Responses to any motions from the defense in the hush money case are due by June 27 — the day of the first presidential debate, hosted by CNN. Trump’s sentencing hearing is set for July 11, just days before he’ll secure the nomination at the Republican National Convention and around when he’s said he’d announce his vice presidential pick. Already, his legal defenses have morphed with his political strategy in a narrative of political persecution, and he is vowing that he will devote a possible second term to “retribution” against his foes.Among an electorate that Trump has constantly polarized, the verdict is likely to be greeted with fury by his supporters and jubilation by his critics. But in truth, this is a somber and even tragic passage of US history. Americans have never seen an ex-president convicted of a crime, and a country already torn apart by bitter political and cultural polarization is likely in for a rocky time.The implications are enormous.They begin with the potential consequences for an election in five months that could be decided by the shift of just a few thousand votes in a few states. Trump has been preparing voters for months for the possibility that he would be found guilty in a case that prosecutors said centered around a bid to mislead voters in 2016. He’s claimed his four criminal indictments are a plot by Biden to destroy him. In essence, he’s been working to shatter his greatest norm yet — the idea that it would be unthinkable for a felon to serve as president.Hopeful yet cautious, Biden’s team aims to exploit Trump’s conviction. --President Biden faces stubbornly low approval ratings and has trailed in many polls to former President Donald J. Trump. For more than a year, President Biden has sought to cast the 2024 election not as a referendum on his four years in office but on whether voters want to return Donald J. Trump to office after a first term in which he undermined abortion rights, democracy and the rule of law.Now, Mr. Trump’s guilty verdict on all 34 counts in his hush-money trial on Thursday has given Mr. Biden’s campaign a fresh way to frame the race: a stark choice between someone who is a convicted felon and someone who is not.Mr. Trump’s conviction could well shake up U.S. politics, serving as a convening moment that cuts through a fragmented news media ecosystem even if it does not change pessimism about inflation and the cost of living. Mr. Trump has led many polls, with voters holding dim views of Mr. Biden’s stewardship of the economy, the southern border and foreign wars.The Manhattan jury’s verdict is likely to focus attention on Mr. Trump in a way that Mr. Biden’s supporters have long hoped it would. Even if Mr. Biden does not directly affix the title “felon” to his rival, scores of his allies are planning to do so in their communications about Mr. Trump through the end of the campaign.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., echoing Trump, calls the Manhattan case politically motivated. “The Democratic Party’s strategy is to beat President Trump in the courtroom rather than the ballot box,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Thursday. The independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the Manhattan district attorney’s prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump shortly after it ended in a conviction on Thursday, describing it as a politically motivated and “profoundly undemocratic” case that would only strengthen Mr. Trump’s support. “The Democratic Party’s strategy is to beat President Trump in the courtroom rather than the ballot box,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement on X. “This will backfire in November.”His response echoed many of Mr. Trump’s Republican allies, who have for months described the charges against him as a partisan “witch hunt.”In recent weeks, Mr. Kennedy has amplified his criticism of Mr. Trump, focusing particularly on his Covid-19 policies and his “coziness” with corporate America. Mr. Trump, in turn, has attacked him, with recent polling indicating that Mr. Kennedy could draw voters equally from Mr. Trump and President Biden in swing states.But Mr. Kennedy has stayed largely silent on Mr. Trump’s legal troubles, occasionally appearing to suggest that the Justice Department under Mr. Biden has been used to political ends. In April, Mr. Kennedy questioned the motivations of the federal prosecutors who had brought charges against Trump supporters who participated in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Mr. Trump has been charged in a federal case related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a case entirely separate from the one brought in Manhattan.In his statement on X on Thursday evening, Mr. Kennedy said that he was also “running against President Trump in this election,” adding, “The difference is I’m challenging him on his record.”Earlier, shortly after the verdict came down, Mr. Kennedy was speaking at a cryptocurrency conference in Austin, Texas, where he was asked about the conviction.“I think this is probably the weakest case that people brought against him,” Mr. Kennedy told the audience. “My belief is that it will end up helping President Trump among a large part of the American public, who believes that the judicial system and the enforcement system have been weaponized politically.”
Business leaders speak out about Trump guilty verdict, with one immediately donating $300K - Business leaders sounded off following former President Trump's conviction in his New York criminal trial.Billionaire Elon Musk and other mega-weathly Americans threw their support behind Trump after the verdict came down on Thursday, with one donating $300k alone."I just donated $300k to Trump. I’m prepared to lose friends. Here’s why," Sequoia founder Shaun Maguire wrote in an extended post on X."Back in 2016 I had drunk the media Kool-Aid and was scared out of my mind about Trump. As such I donated to Hilary Clinton’s campaign and voted for her. By 2020 I was disillusioned and didn’t vote – I didn’t like either option. Now, in 2024, I believe this is one of the most important elections of my lifetime, and I’m supporting Trump," he added. Musk responded to Maguire on social media, saying simply, "I think you're right."Musk also responded to criticism of the ruling, arguing that Trump's conviction caused "great damage" to the U.S. justice system. "Indeed, great damage was done today to the public’s faith in the American legal system. If a former President can be criminally convicted over such a trivial matter – motivated by politics, rather than justice – then anyone is at risk of a similar fate," he wrote. Craft Ventures executive David Sacks described Maguire's donation as an "act of courage." He argued that Trump has "a lot of supporters in Silicon Valley" but "many are just afraid to admit it." "With each act of courage, like this one, the dam begins to break," he added.
Trump supporters call for riots and violent retribution after verdict | Reuters - Supporters of former President Donald Trump, enraged by his conviction on 34 felony counts by a New York jury, flooded pro-Trump websites with calls for riots, revolution and violent retribution. After Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime, his supporters responded with dozens of violent online posts, according to a Reuters review of comments on three Trump-aligned websites: the former president's own Truth Social platform, Patriots.Win and the Gateway Pundit. Some called for attacks on jurors, the execution of the judge, Justice Juan Merchan, or outright civil war and armed insurrection. “Someone in NY with nothing to lose needs to take care of Merchan,” wrote one commentator on Patriots.Win. “Hopefully he gets met with illegals with a machete,” the post said in reference to illegal immigrants. On Gateway Pundit, one poster suggested shooting liberals after the verdict. “Time to start capping some leftys,” said the post. “This cannot be fixed by voting." Threats of violence and intimidating rhetoric soared after Trump lost the 2020 election and falsely claimed the vote was stolen. As he campaigns for a second White House term, Trump has baselessly cast the judges and prosecutors in his trials as corrupt tools of the Biden administration, intent on sabotaging his White House bid. His loyalists have responded with a campaign of threats and intimidation targeting judges and court officials. “This was a disgrace, this was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” Trump told reporters afterwards, echoing comments he often made during the trial. A 12-member jury found Trump guilty on Thursday of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star’s account of a sexual encounter ahead of the 2016 election. Sentencing is set for July 11, days before the Republican Party is scheduled to formally nominate Trump for president ahead of the Nov. 5 election. Trump has denied wrongdoing and is expected to appeal. Trump continued his attacks online after the verdict. On Truth Social, he called Merchan “HIGHLY CONFLICTED” and criticized his jury instructions as unfair. One commentator responded by posting a picture of a hangman's platform and a noose with the caption: “TREASONOUS MOBSTER OF THE JUSTICES SYSTEM!!” Jacob Ware, a co-author of the book “God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America”, said the violent language used by Trump’s followers was testament to the former president’s “ironclad ability to mobilize more extreme supporters to action, both at the ballot box and through violence.” “Until and unless he accepts the process, the extremist reaction to his legal troubles will be militant,” said Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. A spokesperson for Truth Social said, “It’s hard to believe that Reuters, once a respected news service, has fallen so low as to publish such a manipulative, false, defamatory and transparently stupid article as this one purely out of political spite.” All three sites have policies against violent language, and some of the posts were later removed. Representatives of Patriots.Win and Gateway Pundit did not immediately return requests for comment. A Trump spokesperson also did not respond to an email seeking comment. After Thursday's verdict, many of his supporters also said that his conviction was proof that the American political system was broken and that only violent action could save the country. “1,000,000 men (armed) need to go to Washington and hang everyone. That's the only solution,” said one poster on Patriots.win. Another added: “Trump should already know he has an army willing to fight and die for him if he says the words...I’ll take up arms if he asks.” Other posts specifically urged targeting Democrats, in some cases suggesting they be shot. “AMERICA FULLY DESTROYED BY DEMOCRATS. LOCK AND LOAD,” wrote a commentator on Gateway Pundit. While the posts identified by Reuters all called for violence or insurrection, most fell short of the legal standard for a prosecutable threat, which typically requires evidence that the comment reflects a clear intent to act or instill fear, rather than simply suggesting a frightening outcome. Still, one researcher who studies extremist militias said the guilty verdict could inspire violence by reinforcing a conviction among some of Trump's supporters that he's a victim of a conspiracy orchestrated by his enemies. “I do think a lot of these folks have been looking for an excuse to maybe mobilize for a while,” said Amy Cooter of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism. “I hope I’m wrong. I’ve said for a long time, though, that I would not be shocked to see violence result from a guilty verdict, either directed toward the jurors” or others connected to the case.
Donald Trump’s attorney was ‘shocked’ the former president took the verdict with ‘solemnness’ (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyer told The Associated Press he was surprised at Trump’s stoic demeanor as he listened to the verdict that made him the first former U.S. president convicted of a crime. Todd Blanche was sitting to Trump’s left in the Manhattan courtroom as the verdict was read — the jury foreman repeating the word “guilty” 34 times. “I was shocked at how he took the verdict,” Blanche said. “He just stood there and just kind of took it. And I think had a lot of appropriate solemnness for the moment that made me very proud to be sitting next to him when it, when it was happening,” said Blanche, adding that he thought Trump was still handling himself well on Friday, the day after the verdict, even as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee railed that the trial was unfair. “He’s not happy about it, but there’s no defendant in the history of our justice system who’s happy about a conviction the day after. But I think he knows there’s a lot of fight left and there’s a lot of opportunity to fix this and that’s what we’re going to try to do,” said Blanche, Trump’s lead attorney in the New York case and his classified documents federal criminal case in Florida. A jury of a dozen New Yorkers convicted Trump on all counts of falsifying business records, a felony punishable by either incarceration, probation or a fine. As the foreman read the verdict, Trump shook his head slightly, but didn’t vent his frustration until he left the courtroom. Trump has vowed to appeal. Speaking to reporters Friday, Trump portrayed himself as a victim of a “rigged” trial, which he claimed was orchestrated by Democrats to stop his presidential campaign. Afterward, President Joe Biden said it was “reckless,” “dangerous” and “irresponsible for anyone to say this is rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.” Blanche pushed back on Biden’s comments, saying it was natural for Trump to believe the law was being used unfairly against him. He cited the three other criminal cases pending against Trump: two cases in Georgia and Washington where he is accused of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the one in Florida, where he is charged with illegally possessing classified records after he left the White House. “I believe in the justice system, and I always will. And I don’t think that that one case should change anybody’s view,” said Blanche, a former federal prosecutor who left his job at an elite law firm to represent Trump. “But if you were Donald J. Trump and you have four indictments … you don’t think you would say you thought it was rigged? OK.”
Stormy Daniels’ lawyer says Trump’s conviction in hush money case ‘hit her hard’ - A lawyer for Stormy Daniels, the adult film star central to former President Trump’s hush money trial, said Friday that Trump’s recent conviction “hit her hard.”“I got a pretty instant report from the courthouse,” Attorney Clark Brewster said in an interview on NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports. “And so, it hadn’t hit the news yet when I told her, really. And, she was really kind of taken aback.”“I think it was the culmination of a lot of things — the finality of it and, you know, the worry and nervousness that she had throughout leading up to this,” he added, but said she didn’t express any “true happiness” over the results. “It was more or less a relief that it’s over.”Trump became the first former president to acquire the status of convicted felon Thursday, when a 12-person jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to a hush money payment made to Daniels in 2016 to buy her silence of an alleged past affair.Brewster suggested his client may have even been surprised by the verdict. “The finality of it really hit her hard,” he said. “And we had a — a great talk. I told her how proud I was of her for what she’s been through.” Brewster previously noted that Daniels wore a bulletproof vest up until the moment she entered the Manhattan courthouse to testify in the high-stakes trial. Daniels has also claimed she took the money because she feared for her life.“She was concerned about the security coming into New York,” Brewster said in an appearance on CNN’s “AC360.” “She wore a bulletproof vest every day until she got to the courthouse.” “I can tell you that before she came on Sunday, I mean, she cried herself to sleep,” he continued. “She was paralyzed with fear, not of taking the stand or telling her story, but what some nut might do to her. And I’m genuinely concerned about it as well.”Trump now faces a July 11 sentencing date set by Judge Juan Merchan, which comes just days before he’s set to become the official GOP presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention. The former president railed against the judge and trial after he was convicted.“This was a rigged, disgraceful trial,” Trump said. ” The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people, and they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here.”
Donald Trump still facing 54 criminal charges after guilty verdict in New York hush money case - Thirty-four criminal charges settled, 54 to go.Former President Trump ended his time in a New York courtroom this week with a conviction, found guilty on all counts in his hush-money trial. But state charges in Georgia and federal ones Florida and Washington, D.C., await.Trump made history as the first former U.S. president to become a convicted felon after the juryfound him guilty on Thursday afternoon of falsifying business records to conceal his alleged affair with adult film actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.Judge Juan Merchan set a sentencing hearing for July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention where Trump is set to formally accept the GOP’s presidential nomination.Trump faces an additional 54 criminal charges, though it is unclear if any will reach a jury before November’s election.
- 10 charges in Georgia 2020 election interference case. Trump, along with 18 other defendants, was charged with entering an unlawful conspiracy to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Each defendant was charged under the state’s racketeering law.The former president was originally charged with 13 state felony counts by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), but three of them have been tossed out by Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Willis, who saw her case partially derailed after one of Trump’s co-defendants tried to have her removed over a romantic relationship with a special prosecutor assigned to the case, is appealing the dismissal of some counts.Trump has appealed McAfee’s decision to allow Willis to continue with the case provided her former lover, Nathan Wade, stepped aside, which he did.The judge has not set a trial date yet in the case.
- 4 charges in federal election interference case. Trump faces four federal felony counts that allege he pressured state legislators, developed false electors, leveraged the Department of Justice, pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence and exploited the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot in an attempt to stay in power after losing the 2020 presidential election.The Supreme Court is currently weighing whether Trump should be immune from prosecution under his contention he was conducting presidential acts. The court’s decision is expected to be delivered by the end of June.
- 40 charges in federal classified documents case. Trump is facing 40 federal charges in Florida that he mishandled White House records and tried to obstruct the government from retrieving them after he left office.The files allegedly contained classified national defense and weapons information, including some top-secret documents.The FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022. He has pleaded not guilty on the charges. In early May, Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely postponed the trial, delaying some court dates into late July and declining to set a trial date.
It’s not yet known how Thursday’s verdict will affect the proceedings in Trump’s other legal battles.Trump’s attorney Will Scharf said his legal team is “considering all options” to appeal the hush money conviction.The former president may face prison time, though first-time offenders on similar charges rarely are incarcerated.
Kremlin says Donald Trump is being politically targeted -The Kremlin said former President Trump is being politically targeted, stating there’s an “elimination” of political contenders taking place, a day after the presumptive GOP nominee was found guilty on all 34 felony counts in his hush money case. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov initially refrained from commenting about the Manhattan criminal case but later said there is an “obvious” plan in place to get rid of Trump by any means possible.“We do not like it very much when somebody from the outside world says something about the decision of our courts,” Peskov said during a Friday conference call with reporters, according to The Washington Post. “And we, in turn, try not to comment.” The press secretary later said, “But in general, if we talk about Trump, there is a de facto elimination of political rivals by all possible legal and illegal means, it is obvious. The whole world can see it with the naked eye.”The former president was found guilty on all 34 felony charges Thursday by a New York jury. In his first criminal case, he was convicted of falsifying business records to conceal alleged affairs during the 2016 presidential election that he ended up winning. His sentencing will be July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has often gone after activists and political dissidents, has criticized the four criminal cases that Trump faces. Putin, who won the country’s election in March, has decried the cases as an example of the “rottenness” of the U.S. political system.“As for the prosecution of Trump, for us what is happening in today’s conditions, in my opinion, is good because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others democracy,” Putin said last year during a speech at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
Smith makes new plea for gag order in classified docs case day after Trump conviction --Special counsel Jack Smith filed a new motion Friday asking the judge overseeing former President Trump’s classified documents case to block him from making public statements that could put law enforcement in danger.His latest request mirrors his first, filed last week, pressing Judge Aileen Cannon to issue a narrow gag order based on the former president’s false claims that the Biden administration was prepared to use deadly force on him when searching for classified records at his Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022.It also comes just a day after Trump was convicted in his New York hush money trial, making him the first former president with a felony.“Trump’s repeated mischaracterization of these facts in widely distributed messages as an attempt to kill him, his family, and Secret Service agents has endangered law enforcement officers involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case and threatened the integrity of these proceedings,” the filing states. “A restriction prohibiting future similar statements does not restrict legitimate speech. Trump’s conditions of release should therefore be modified to prohibit similar communications going forward.”In a fundraising email earlier this month, Trump claimed President Biden was “locked & loaded and ready to take me out.” The remarks were a twist on standard language in documents prepared as the FBI agents were readying to search the Florida resort.In reality, it only allows for deadly force “when necessary,” like if someone were to pose an imminent danger to the officer. And, as Smith’s filing points out, the search was purposefully completed while Trump and his family were out of town.“The FBI followed these entirely standard and appropriate practices here,” Smith wrote. “Trump, however, has grossly distorted these standard practices by mischaracterizing them as a plan to kill him, his family, and U.S. Secret Service agents.”“Those deceptive and inflammatory assertions irresponsibly put a target on the backs of the FBI agents involved in this case, as Trump well knows,” he added.Cannon, who has indefinitely postponed a trial in the case citing logistical reasons, deniedSmith’s first request earlier this week. She chastised the prosecutors in the case for failing to reach out to former President Trump’s attorneys on the motion to limit his speech.She likewise denied a motion from Trump’s legal team seeking to censure the prosecutors over the matter.
New Jersey man sentenced to 12 years on Jan. 6 charges -A New Jersey man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges arising from the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, including assaulting law enforcement. Christopher Joseph Quaglin, 37, was found guilty last year on 14 charges, including 12 felonies and two misdemeanors. The U.S. Attorney’s Office of D.C. said in a statement he traveled to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 after posting on social media that he planned to fight against the government and urged others to bring gas masks, full body armor and knives to the nation’s capital. Authorities said Quaglin was a part of the first group of rioters that pushed oast police barricades at Peace Circle, adding that he engaged in violence with law enforcement officers once he made it to the West Front of the Capitol. Quaglin repeatedly pushed into officers before attacking a U.S. Capitol Police sergeant by grabbing him by the neck and tackling him, officials said, adding that Quaglin hit another officer with a gas mask and continued to push into officers and clash with the police line throughout the day. Quaglin took aim at U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden before and after he was sentenced, The Associated Press (AP) reported. “You’re Trump’s worst mistake of 2016,” he told McFadden, who was nominated by Trump in 2017. Quaglin also said that the riot was not an insurrection, saying that if it was, he would have brought a long gun, according to the AP. McFadden said during the hearing that Quaglin’s actions were “shocking” and “lawless.” “January 6th is not simply an anomaly for you,” McFadden said. “You’ve allowed it to define you.” More than 1,424 individuals have been charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, including more than 500 people who have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation is still ongoing.
Fanone says mother was swatted after Jan. 6 officer called Trump ‘authoritarian’ -- Michael Fanone, a former Washington, D.C., police officer who was attacked during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, said his mother’s home was swatted hours after he called former President Trump an “authoritarian.” Fanone made the remark while speaking to the media Tuesday outside the courthouse where closing arguments were being conducted in Trump’s criminal hush money trial. In his statements, he called the former president an “authoritarian” with a fetish for violence. Also on Tuesday, a fake “manifesto” attributed to Fanone was sent to a number of email addresses, including some associated with his former high school. It claimed that he had killed his mother and planned to go to the recipients’ school on Wednesday and shoot more people. It provided his mother’s home address in Virginia, NBC News reported after viewing the manifesto. Fanone told the outlet that his mother was “mortified” to find SWAT team officers at her home that night when she opened the door in her nightgown. “How dangerous is it to send law enforcement in which you essentially are describing an active shooter, in which the only person present is a 78-year-old f‑‑‑ing woman,” Fanone told NBC News. “This is the reality of going against or challenging Donald Trump.”
AI programs can easily impersonate Biden, others to manipulate elections: Study -- It’s easy for artificial intelligence programs to create mimic voices of politicians such as President Biden and former President Trump, posting the risk of a rise in voter misinformation, according to a Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) study released Friday. AI-enabled tools created convincing false statements using the mimic voices about 80 percent of the time, CCDH tests found. “Guardrails for these tools are so severely lacking — and the level of skill needed to use them is now so low — that these platforms can be easily manipulated by virtually anyone to produce dangerous political misinformation,” CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed said in a statement.Mimic voices have already been used to influence voters in the 2024 election. During the New Hampshire Democratic primary in February, robocalls using a fake Biden voice told voters to stay home in an attempt to decrease voter turnout.Steve Kramer, who ran the scheme, said he was inspired by a need to warn the public over the dangers of AI. Last week, was charged with 13 counts each of felony voter suppression and misdemeanor impersonating a candidate. He was also fined $6 million by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).The FCC banned the use of AI voices in phone calls after the New Hampshire primary incident, and the commission’s chair moved to require television ads to disclose the use of AI last week.“As artificial intelligence tools become more accessible, the commission wants to make sure consumers are fully informed when the technology is used,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement last week. “Today, I’ve shared with my colleagues a proposal that makes clear consumers have a right to know when AI tools are being used in the political ads they see, and I hope they swiftly act on this issue.”
Google's Woke AI Is Hilariously But Frighteningly Broken Google’s hastily rolled out AI Overview feature is disastrously broken, returning searches claiming that people should spread glue on pizzas, eat rocks, and that it’s safe for pregnant women to smoke cigarettes.The Verge reports that Google is scrambling to manually disable the AI Overview feature for certain searches after users found it giving our some truly bizarre advice, and information that is just made up nonsense. Apparently cockroaches are so named because they live in penis holes.
"smoking while pregnant" pic.twitter.com/egFgmupYvW
Smoking is recommended when pregnant, who would have known? Can it really not get basic maths correct?
Look it does actually get there in the end pic.twitter.com/6jqur1nYlC
I’ll take extra glue on my pizza please.
As long as it's non-toxic pic.twitter.com/VIv6ozVwQN
Would you run off a cliff if Google’s AI told you to?
Common Wisconsin W pic.twitter.com/YedqpCH6yP
Mmmmm tasty rocks.Google claims that the AI generally provides “high quality information” and that the bizarre responses are either due to uncommon queries or are just doctored.As we previously highlighted, Google’s Gemini AI, on which the Overview feature is based, is infested with wokery.It also clearly cannot discern between right and wrong, having declared that calling communism “evil” is “harmful and misleading” and refusing to say pedophilia is “wrong.”
Google updates AI systems after error-filled launch -- Google said it has made “more than a dozen technical improvements” to its artificial intelligence systems after its search engine feature was found to provide users with false information.The tech company released a new feature in mid-May that often would provide users with AI-generated summaries at the top of their Google search results.Shortly after the feature was offered to users, they noticed it was providing erroneous answers,The Associated Press reported.Google has largely defended the feature, saying it’s normally accurate and was tested “extensively” before it was released.But in a blog post Friday, Liz Reid, the head of Google’s search business, said that while the product was tested, “there’s nothing quite like having millions of people using the feature with many novel searches.”“We’ve also seen nonsensical new searches, seemingly aimed at producing erroneous results,” she wrote. “Separately, there have been a large number of faked screenshots shared widely.”Reid noted that some of the faked screenshots have been “obvious and silly,” but others have more serious implications such as leaving dogs in cars or smoking while pregnant.“In a small number of cases, we have seen AI Overviews misinterpret language on webpages and present inaccurate information,” she wrote. “We worked quickly to address these issues, either through improvements to our algorithms or through established processes to remove responses that don’t comply with our policies.”Reid said the company has worked on updates that can assess broad sets of inquiries, including new questions that may arise.“At the scale of the web, with billions of queries coming in every day, there are bound to be some oddities and errors,” she said. “We’ll keep improving when and how we show AI Overviews and strengthening our protection, including for edge cases, and we’re very grateful for the ongoing feedback.”
PwC reaches deal to become OpenAI’s biggest customer -- PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) reached a deal with OpenAI to become the artificial intelligence company’s largest customer.PwC announced the deal Wednesday in a blog post, explaining that the agreement will help accelerate the company’s adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the United State and the United Kingdom. PwC will be OpenAI’s first ChatGPT Enterprise reseller and its largest customer of that product yet, according to the post.“By embracing ChatGPT Enterprise across our workforce, we will bring our first-hand experience of our AI transformation to clients, complementing our audit, tax and consulting services with a broad array of business and industry solutions,” the blog post stated.OpenAI also confirmed the deal to The Hill, pointing to Wednesday’s blog post from PwC for more information.PwC said that it has already engaged in generative AI with 950 of its top 1,000 consulting clients. The expanded relationship with OpenAI will provide a “playbook for companies looking to scale their AI infrastructure, apps, and services,” according to the post.This will build on PwC’s already three-year $1 billion investment in AI that was announced last year, the company noted. It said that through the deal, its employees will gain access to the latest model of ChatGPT, including its ChatGPT-4o model revealed earlier this month.
Netflix CEO says AI won’t replace writers or ‘take your job’ -Ted Sarandos, co-chief executive officer of Netflix, said he is confident artificial technology will not replace content creators or take their jobs, in an interview published Friday. He said, however, that although the AI models themselves might not replace the workers, the workers who learn to use AI models effectively might eventually take those jobs. “I have more faith in humans than that. I really do,” Sarandos said in an interview with The New York Times, when asked about concerns about AI supplanting creators. “I don’t believe that an A.I. program is going to write a better screenplay than a great writer, or is going to replace a great performance, or that we won’t be able to tell the difference. A.I. is not going to take your job,” Sarandos continued. “The person who uses A.I. well might take your job.” In a discussion about potential trade-offs of AI and about the future of the technology in creative industries, Sarandos said he was optimistic about its potential. “I think that A.I. is a natural kind of advancement of things that are happening in the creative space today,” he said, adding that he expects writers, directors and editors to “to use A.I. as a tool to do their jobs better and to do things more efficiently and more effectively.”
BankThink: Regulators must not stifle the potential of AI in financial services | American Banker --Despite countless innovations in financial services, the financial wellness of Americans is getting worse. In the past two decades, Black homeownership rates have dropped by 7%, and non-housing-related debt for all families has more than doubled. While Americans' lack of financial literacy certainly plays a role, as a former regulator myself, I'd argue that regulators' fear of the technological unknown is the biggest barrier to progress.At a December meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which was formed after the 2008 financial crisis to deal with systemic risks, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, "This year, the council specifically identified the use of artificial intelligence in financial services as a vulnerability in the financial system."However, I'd argue that AI is also the biggest opportunity in the financial system.Regulators have historically been wary of technological innovation in financial services. Just last year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued final guidance on managing risks associated with third-party relationships, demonstrating policymakers' concern around bank and fintech partnerships. This is despite evidence that new financial technologies offer powerful solutions to the very real-world financial problems of real Americans.For instance, imagine a consumer who has few current assets, but is setting aside $200 per month to invest for their future. After 20 years, assuming an average rate of return, that money would be worth more than $150,000 — enough to pay for a college education, put a down payment on a house or invest in other things that can build generational wealth. But a traditional investment advisor is unlikely to accept that consumer's business because they wouldn't meet the assets under management, or AUM, threshold. However, a fintech using robo-advisors and AI-powered tools would take that customer's business and ultimately provide them a life-changing financial opportunity. There's no question that financial illiteracy is a significant contributor to many consumers' financial problems, particularly in underserved communities. The choices consumers make regarding financial products and services can have a profound impact on their financial well-being.But literacy only helps if credit unions, community banks and other mainstream financial institutions have the tools and technologies to serve consumers of every socioeconomic level — and in today's world, that means AI. This is when the role of regulators and their tolerance of risk becomes paramount. To be fair, tools and technologies come with risks — but, particularly in the case of new AI-based tools, I'd argue strongly, those risks must be weighed against the risks of the status quo, which are significant — particularly for women and people of color. Robo-advisors could be wrong, but so can human advisors with unconscious bias. AI credit-scoring systems might not be perfect, but legacy credit-scoring systems are barely better than a coin toss when it comes to predicting credit risk for middle-tier applicants. Regulators can and must create regulations to mitigate the downsides for consumers; otherwise, irresponsible actors will displace responsible ones, with disastrous long-term consequences. At the same time, regulations must be intentionally designed so they don't stifle innovation.
BankThink: The courts need to rein in the SEC before it kills the crypto industry | American Banker --The Securities and Exchange Commission has been on a yearslong power grab, and far too often its main target has been the blockchain and digital asset industry. To an objective observer, the SEC is actively trying to kill innovation in blockchain technology — but not in the way you would think.Instead of issuing clear rules or restrictions, it's created an environment where entrepreneurs and developers are left in the dark, and where any company using this innovative technology could become the target of federal regulators. This approach not only puts a chill on the nearly$3 trillion digital asset industry, it also creates the real possibility of crypto companies moving offshore to countries with little to no consumer protections. That's bad for America. That's bad for innovation and economic growth. That's bad for the tens of millions of Americans who use digital assets. And that's why we felt compelled to defend our industry and take the SEC head on.Last month, Blockchain Association joined the Crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas in filing a federal lawsuit challenging the SEC's most recent overreach — the overly broad and vague expansion of the well-established Dealer Rule, which now extends to persons who do not resemble a dealer in the slightest — specifically, any person whose trading activity regularly has the effect of providing liquidity, even if this person has no customers. For nearly a century, the definition of "dealer" focused on dealer services to customers. The SEC has flipped that well-established paradigm on its head. Under the new definition, regardless of whether a customer exists, those who trade digital assets and, as a result, provide liquidity, and those who develop these software protocols are now in the SEC's crosshairs. This is true despite many transactions involving the use of automated, unhackable, open-source software — unlike a traditional human intermediary. That's an untold amount of innocent people who could now face an extreme and unnecessary regulatory burden or an SEC enforcement action simply because of their adjacent association with software.In the absence of any legal action reversing the rule's finalization and implementation, law-abiding digital asset market participants would be left scrambling. Not only will the regulatory burden of having to register as a dealer lead to a consolidation of market participants and increased market instability, but the unanswered threshold question of which digital assets constitute securities leaves participants unsure of whether the rule applies to them in the first place.Ultimately, this rule will disincentivize people from providing liquidity in digital asset trading markets, which would lead to an unnecessarily undercapitalized and risky market. Discouraging market participation, especially from well-capitalized institutional investors, has been shown to increase volatility and concentrate market-moving ability among a small group of digital asset holders.What could be more un-American than making a thriving U.S. industry less safe, more cumbersome and riskier for consumers while reversing decades of progress democratizing financial access for all?
Biden vetoes Congress’s crypto custody bill -- President Biden vetoed legislation that struck down the Securities and Exchange Commission's special rules for custodians of crypto assets, as expected. The SEC policy could be a major impediment to traditional financial companies offering services that involved holding onto customers' cryptocurrency.The legislation was passed by both chambers of the U.S. Congress with a Senate vote on May 16.The White House had indicated it would veto the legislation if presented with it."My Administration is eager to work with the Congress to ensure a comprehensive and balanced regulatory framework for digital assets, building on existing authorities," President Joe Biden wrote in a statement accompanying his veto.Critics of the legislation have pointed out that the clock had actually run out for Congress to review the procedural action by the SEC, under the Administrative Procedure Act.Critics also argued that the law wouldn't apply because the policy didn't amount to a rule, but the Government Accountability Office has disagreed.Traditional finance organizations wrote the President today urging him to support Congress's effort to remove the rule. They argue the rule will make it too expensive for regulated entities to participate in the custody business, to the detriment of their customers.
Senators pressure Biden administration to crack down on fentanyl sales through cryptocurrency | CNN Politics — A bipartisan pair of US senators is pressuring the Biden administration to do more to crack down on how drug cartels usecryptocurrency to traffic fentanyl, a drug that kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.Sens.Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, have asked for information on “specific actions” the administration has taken regarding crypto’s role in the fentanyl trade and what metrics the administration uses to measure success in a new letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration and White House obtained by CNN.The letter reflects growing anxiety in Congress about the fentanyl crisis and the ease with which Mexico’s most dangerous drug cartels can cheaply buy ingredients online to make the synthetic opioid.A CNN investigation published in August examined the increasing use of cryptocurrency in the fentanyl trade and efforts by the DEA and other agencies to try to catch up to the threat in their investigations. Those efforts included federal agents poring over notes that drug traffickers left in stash houses and tracing crypto payments to accounts allegedly used by the cartels. Cryptocurrency transactions for fentanyl ingredients surged 450% in the year through April 2023, according to data from private crypto-tracking analysis firm Elliptic.The Biden administration has in the last year announced multiple initiatives involving law enforcement, intelligence gathering and anti-money laundering capabilities across the federal bureaucracy to track and intercept fentanyl proceeds.But now, Warren and Cassidy want to know what progress those initiatives are making, any roadblocks the administration is facing and what Congress can do to help. The senators expressed their “ongoing concerns” about how cryptocurrency helps fuel the deadly fentanyl trade.“What statutory limits do you currently face? Do you have any specific recommendations for Congress to address this problem?” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram and Rahul Gupta, the head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
British-Chinese Woman Sentenced to 6 Years for Laundering Bitcoin in $6B Scam --Law enforcement authorities from the Metropolitan Police the seizure was the largest of its kind in the UK.In a high-profile case involving a massive cryptocurrency fraud, a British-Chinese woman, Jian Wen, has been sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for her role in laundering Bitcoin proceeds from a $6 billion investment scam in China.Wen, aged 42, was found guilty in March of laundering Bitcoin on behalf of her former boss, Yadi Zhang, whose real name is Zhimin Qian.According to a recent report, Qian is alleged to have defrauded around 130,000 investors in China, amassing a whopping $5 billion through an investment scam.While Wen was not accused of direct involvement in the fraud itself, she was convicted of laundering the proceeds by converting the Bitcoin into cash and using the funds to purchase property, jewelry, and other luxury items. In 2018, UK police seized over $2.2 billion worth of bitcoin related to the alleged fraud in a significant operation.
48 billion yen in bitcoin cryptocurrency disappears from Japan exchange - DMM Bitcoin Co., the operator of a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, said Friday that digital assets worth at least 48.2 billion yen ($300 million) have disappeared for an unknown reason.The Tokyo-based company under major IT firm DMM.com LLC said it detected the abnormality at around 1:26 p.m. the same day and suspended operations such as withdrawals of virtual currencies and the reviewing of applications for new accounts.The amount of lost cryptocurrency is believed to be the second-largest ever in Japan, exceeded only by the 58 billion yen stolen from the Coincheck exchange in Tokyo in a similar incident in 2018.Tokyo police will probe Friday's case as they received an inquiry from DMM Bitcoin, according to an investigative source.The company said it deals in around 40 kinds of cryptocurrencies. Its report for the business year to March 2023 said the number of accounts stood at some 377,000.
Inside a Zelle fraud that almost lost a Florida consumer $3,500 --Just after 8:00 a.m. on Monday, April 24, Margaret Menotti was writing a report for a client. "I heard my phone ding, and I got a text from Bank of America saying there was suspicious fraud activity on my account," said Menotti, a freelance media relations professional who works from her home in Venice, Florida. Immediately after that, she got a phone call from someone who said they worked in Bank of America's fraud department and they had seen suspicious activity on her account. The caller asked if she had made two Zelle transactions: a $109 payment for sporting event tickets and a one-cent transaction. Menotti doesn't use Zelle. "I closed out what I was doing, got into my bank account and said, yeah, I didn't make these," Menotti said in an interview. "She said, don't worry about it, we're here to help you, we can immediately reverse these." The caller also asked Menotti if she knew someone named Doug Bland who lives in Denver. Menotti said no. Bland was trying to put through two Zelle transactions from Menotti's accounts, one from her savings account, the other from her checking account, the woman said. "I said, well, that's not authorized, I don't know anybody by that name," Menotti said. "Don't worry about it," the woman said. "We have fraud specialists here. Alejandro Lopez specializes for Bank of America in Zelle fraud."The rep gave Menotti a claim number, which she wrote down, and started walking Menotti through the steps she needed to take to reverse the Zelle transactions. Menotti started noticing that the screens she was seeing did not exactly match what the rep was describing. The rep told Menotti she needed to use her mobile app, then they would be looking at the same things. She opened the Bank of America mobile app and walked into her husband's office (he's a project manager at Dell who also works remotely) and asked if it all seemed legit to him. He thought it seemed real. She went through the steps the rep told her to take.Menotti then went back to online banking from her laptop and saw that $3,500 had been withdrawn from her account and sent to Alejandro Lopez. She hung up the phone. "It was already too late," Menotti said. "I realized my mistake."For several weeks after that, Menotti spent many hours making dozens of calls to Bank of America and Zelle, trying to get her money back. Menotti's story is not uncommon. About 120 million consumers and small businesses used Zelle in 2023 to send 2.9 billion transactions totaling $806 billion, according to Early Warning, the bank consortium-owned company that operates Zelle. In 2024, the volume of Zelle transactions is expected to surpass $1 trillion. According to the Pew Research Center, 13% of people who have ever used PayPal, Venmo, Zelle or Cash App say they have sent someone money and later realized it was a scam, while 11% report they have had their account hacked. (Early Warning says 99.95% of the payments it processed in 2023 had no reports of fraud or scam.) A report put out by Senator Elizabeth Warren in October 2022 stated that four banks reported 192,878 cases of scams — cases where customers reported being fraudulently induced into making payments on Zelle — involving over $213.8 million of payments in 2021 and the first half of 2022. "In the vast majority of these cases, the banks did not repay the customers that were defrauded," the report said. "Overall the three banks that provided full data sets reported repaying customers in only 3,473 cases (representing 9.6% of scam claims) and repaid only $2.9 million (representing 11% of payments)."Senator Richard Blumenthal (D.-Conn.), who held a hearing on Zelle fraud last week, said two-thirds of losses from Zelle fraud are never repaid. When consumers lose money due to Zelle scams, "Zelle and the big banks have said they couldn't help," Blumenthal said during the hearing. "What they mean is they wouldn't help, and their attitude has been, 'not our problem.' Well, to the banks of America, particularly the seven that own and operate Zelle, it is your problem. You own it just as you own Zelle and you have the expertise, the resources, and the obligation to make sure that you do better." (The seven banks that own the Zelle network are Bank of America, Truist, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. American Banker reached out to all for comment. Wells Fargo declined; only Bank of America responded with an interview by press time.)
The SEC ruling on Ethereum ETFs could mark a historic shift in crypto investing -- VanEck CEO Jan van Eck sees a major sentiment shift underway in the cryptocurrency market linked to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of a rule change allowing for Ethereum exchange-traded funds."This is really one of the most amazing things that I've seen in my career with respect to securities regulation," van Eck told CNBC's "ETF Edge" this week. VanEck was the first to apply to the SEC for permission to list its proposed Ethereum ETF. With that first hurdle cleared, VanEck can begin the process of bringing the product to market, though the exact timeline is unclear."There was a real risk that the SEC was going to lose any kind of jurisdiction over digital assets. So the first reaction was to get the ETF, Ethereum ETF approval green lighted," he said. "But I think there's a bigger narrative going on as well."To van Eck, the buzz around Ethereum this May means clearer regulation on the horizon and an increased investor interest in crypto. In a statement on its website, his company said that "the evidence clearly shows that ETH is a decentralized commodity, not a security."Van Eck said the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, or FIT21, passing in the House on May 8 was another major step toward regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies, even though he is doubtful it will make it to the Senate before the election.Ether spiked on the SEC's approval of applications to list Ethereum ETFs on May 23, but is virtually flat since then.
Appeals court again nixes judge's transfer of CFPB late-fee case to D.C. — The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has, once again, blocked a federal judge's move to transfer a banking industry lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, Judge Mark Pittman of the Fort Worth division of the Northern District of Texas ordered for a second time that the challenge to a CFPB rule capping credit card late fees at $8be moved from his district back to Washington D.C., following a Supreme Court decision finding the bureau's funding structure constitutional. The plaintiffs, which do include some Texas groups but are mostly Washington, D.C.-based trade organizations representing the banking industry, filed a 45-page document within hours of Pittman issuing the transfer order, requesting an immediate stay of the case and asking for a broader review of Pittman's decision that it should be tried in Washington. The 5th Circuit order, issued on Wednesday, does not include an explanation of why the case is again being sent back to Texas. The plaintiffs originally filed suit in the Fort Worth court, which has become a favorite of industry interests seeking to overturn Biden administration regulations. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, also has a conservative tilt.Judge Pittman, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, first sent the case to Washington back in March, but the 5th Circuit returned it to Texas, finding that Pittman didn't have the authority to transfer the case. Pittman later granted an injunction against the CFPB's rule while the Supreme Court was weighing the constitutionality of the bureau's funding structure. The high court's subsequent decision that the funding structure is constitutional opened the door for lower courts to rule on a number of lawsuits challenging the bureau's rules."Given the 5th Circuit's admonition that this Court had previously not acted swiftly enough in handling this case, the Court determines it is in the best interest of the Parties and justice to transfer the case at the earliest possible juncture," Pittman wrote in his latest opinion. "This case did not belong in the Northern District of Texas and certainly not in the Fort Worth Division on March 7, it did not when this Court transferred it on March 28, and it does not today — two months later," he continued.
Klarna vents at CFPB over BNPL rules. Klarna: CFPB's new BNPL guidance 'baffling' and 'confusing' -- Swedish financial institution Klarna lashed out at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's plan to classify buy now/pay later lending as credit cards under U.S. consumer protection law."It is baffling that the CFPB fails to acknowledge the fundamental differences between BNPL and credit cards in their guidance and this announcement does nothing to address the $1.15 trillion in credit card debt," Klarna said in a post. Klarna did not provide comment for this story by deadline.Under the CFPB's new guidance, BNPL lending will be subject to the Truth in Lending Act, which requires credit-card lenders to provide lending terms and offer consumers the ability to dispute charges and receive refunds. In announcing the new rules, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said the Truth in Lending Act covers any product that consumers can use to make purchases on credit. "Trying to regulate BNPL like a credit card is like comparing apples with oranges. So today's announcement is confusing," Klarna said, contending that it provides "a high standard" in investigating disputes. Klarna also contended that regulators outside of the U.S. distinguish between credit cards and BNPL loans. "It is our hope that the CFPB will recognize the major differences between BNPL and credit cards, as they operate in fundamentally different ways," Klarna said. The CFPB has focused on BNPL lenders for the past three years. In 2021, the agency requested that BNPL firms such as Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, PayPal and Zip assess the impact of higher debt and how consumer data is used as part of BNPL lending. Chopra has likened BNPL lending to a traditional layaway plan but with new technology that speeds both the credit issuance and the accumulation of debt. The CFPB has issued research saying BNPL users are more likely to rely on high-interest financing tools and are more financially strained. Klarna contends that its BNPL loan is short-term, no-interest credit with no fees when paid on time. The CFPB is collecting public input on new BNPL guidelines until August 1. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in December issued similar guidance for banks that service BNPL loans.
BankThink: With the latest existential threat gone, will the CFPB finally grow up? | American Banker - On July 21, 2011, one year after President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau went live. Born from the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB has attracted controversy ever since. Numerous congressional bills would have altered or even abolished the agency. Two constitutional challenges — one recently decided — reached the Supreme Court. Six Senate-appointed and acting directors from different parties have put their stamp on the agency. The 2024 election brings more uncertainty to the CFPB's future. Seven weeks after the CFPB opened its doors, I joined its regulations office, where I worked until February. Back then, things were messy. The uncool, retro confines of headquarters featured paper-thin walls, creaky floors and visible roaches. A job candidate and his interviewer once became stuck in a conference room, and the maintenance team used "MacGyver" skills to rescue them because brute force would have brought down the surrounding walls. The conference rooms had random names, such as "Hockey Stick." The copiers malfunctioned more than the notorious printer in "Office Space." In this frenetic and often bizarre environment, the mantra was that we were "building the plane as we're flying it," and eventually would reach a "steady state." The "Hockey Stick" room was an aspirational metaphor: A hockey stick on the wall represented early, rapid growth (the blade) followed by a long period of stability (the shaft). The precarious setup was juxtaposed against the energy and productivity we brought to our work. There were growing pains. But staff and management were deeply and collectively committed to institution building. After 12-plus years, the CFPB is here to stay. It survived the first constitutional challenge, with one important change — the president can fire the CFPB's director at will. It just weathered a second, with the Supreme Court holding that the CFPB did not violate the Appropriations Clause when issuing a 2017 small-dollar lending rule. Congressional efforts to restructure or eliminate the agency have fizzled. The CFPB has produced impactful rules and research and remunerated $19 billion to consumers. Beneath the surface, however, all is not well.Institution-building efforts have atrophied. Most federal agencies function as a pyramid — rotating politicos at the top set the policy agenda, and career staff at the foundation provide stability. But the CFPB has not yet developed durable institutional processes. Consequently, it operates as a reverse pyramid. Political leadership reigns over both policy and the organization, creating little continuity across administrations. This is accentuated by the departure of career staff who were institutional knowledge repositories. Consequently, the agency is more susceptible than others to political leadership's shifting preferences.A few examples: First, CFPB leadership keeps pursuing reorganizations, once even attempting to change the name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Second, the CFPB's approach to innovation continues to vacillate. Richard Cordray, who served as the CFPB's first director, stood up a program called Project Catalyst which didn't live up to its initial promise; Cordray's successor, Kathy Kraninger, introduced new innovation policies which had robust interest; but then current Director Rohit Chopra all but abandoned them. Third, in 2022, Chopra announced a shift away from complex rules, but the ensuing blitzkrieg of non-rule pronouncements (e.g., circulars) only made the output harder to digest. Lastly, the agency isperpetually fighting its union over workplace issues, dampening employee satisfaction.These are signs of an organization struggling to mature and find its way.All this felt like whiplash on the inside. Now, as I counsel clients, it confirms how the constant changes create pain points for outsiders, too. Companies want clear rules of the road and consistency in how those rules are developed — a road that doesn't keep veering off course.There are health risks of raccoons in the yard. These critters establish nearby latrines. Raccoon excrement often contains raccoon roundworms, a parasite capable of killing humans. They're also capable of spreading rabies and leptospirosis.
Letter to the editor: Was the CFPB really manipulating data about credit cards? | American Banker -In Kathy Kraninger's op-ed "CFPB must stop manipulating data to support its policy preferences," the agency's former director accuses the Consumer Financial Protection Bureauof "misleading use of data." There are several problems with this argument. First, Kraninger starts off by citing a CFPB report on credit card interest rates, then pivots to criticizing the CPFB's rule on credit card late fees. She fails to make clear that these are two different subjects. In fact, the February 2024 report could not have been relied upon to set the late fee safe harbor at $8, given that CFPB issued its proposal for this amount in March 2023, nearly a year earlier. Also, the CFPB used the February 2024 report to point out that consumers could save money by using credit cards from smaller financial institutions, which is still sound reasoning. The fact that lower APRs are due in part because credit union interest rates are capped by federal law doesn't take away from the fact that those lower APRs mean more money in consumers' wallets.Second, Kraninger does mention later in her op-ed the actual data that the CFPB used to justify the late fee rule — the Fed's Y-14 data — but criticizes the CFPB for relying on it instead of cost data from the credit card issuers themselves. The flaw in this argument is that the CFPB did ask card issuers to supply their own data about their costs — and the issuers failed to do so. As the CFPB noted in the proposal's Supplementary Information (page 18,909): "Card issuers and trade group commenters, however, did not provide detailed information on the type of costs, and the dollar amount of the costs, they incur to collect late payments." In other words, the CFPB showed its math (i.e., the Y-14 data), the issuers did not. And to imply that the Federal Reserve is not a reliable source of data is surprising.Indeed, even with the CFPB's safe harbor of $8, card issuers are permitted to charge more if they can show that collecting late payments costs them more than $8 — again, if they show their math. The fact that they refuse to do so can only suggest that their math does not justify late fees over $8.Finally, it's ironic that Kraninger attacks the CFPB for manipulating data when, in April 2020, Trump appointees at the bureau under her leadership were themselves accused of manipulating data in order to water down a rule to regulate payday loans. This looks like another attempt to use fuzzy math to help lenders support their policy preferences at the expense of people who most need their help. Chi Chi Wu, Senior Attorney, National Consumer Law Center
Illinois passes one-of-a-kind swipe fee restrictions - — The Illinois state legislature has passed a budget bill Wednesday morning that includes a provision barring the collection of interchange fees on sales taxes, excise taxes and tips for transactions that would be subject to the state's sales taxes. The passage of the budget bill in a 65-45 vote came early Wednesday morning at about 2 a.m. The bill, overall, raises taxes to increase the state's budget, and limits the tax discount that retailers receive for collecting sales tax, estimated to bring in about $101 million in revenue. But the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, which has lobbied against measures like the tax discount elimination from being implemented in the past, agreed to the deal this time in exchange for prohibiting the credit card fees on the portion of transactions that includes sales tax and tips. The measure comes as Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, have been pushing a federal law that would require credit card issuers to allow their cards to be used on two separate networks that aren't both Visa and Mastercard. The measure has been heavily opposed by banks and credit card networks and has so far been kept off ofmust-pass legislation, most recently a bill to fund the Federal Aviation Administration. The Federal Reserve is also examining a rule that would cut interchange fees, which banks and credit card networks have similarly opposed. The state's banking association pushed back against the provision, which was added just days before legislators approved the budget bill. "Consumers might be forced to make two separate payments, one for the good or service provided and as second for the tax and tip," said Jerry Peck, senior vice president of governmental relations at the Community Bankers Association of Illinois. "That second transaction wouldn't be subject to interchange fees, so who knows if payment processors would let it ride the rails for free? In theory, consumers may have to pay taxes and tips in cash or other non-card payment." The bill now goes to Illinois' governor, who is expected to sign. "Retailers were willing to trade $100 million a year in revenue for the state inserting itself into private contracts," Peck said. "Illinois would be the first state, and we think first place in the world, to do this." The interchange limits wouldn't become effective until July 2025. Jaret Seiberg, a financial services analyst at Cowen, said he expects a lobbying push to eliminate limits entirely. "Merchants have long sought to have states attack credit card interchange, though prior efforts have never resulted in restrictions," Seiberg said in a note. "As Illinois appears likely to impose interchange limits, we worry that this could become a precedent for other states." Were this provision to be implemented, Seiberg said, it remains unclear how merchants could charge consumers interchange on only one part of a transaction. "It may mean multiple transactions," he said. "It is unclear what entity would bear the cost from not charging the merchant discount. It could be just the processors or both the processors and the banks. In other words, we know the part of each transaction would be exempt from the interchange fee even if it is not clear what entities would absorb this cost."
PayPal's stablecoin gains allies to help position it for payments - Like most forms of cryptocurrency, stablecoins — which typically peg their value to a government-issued currency — are still used mostly for investments while crypto usage for payments has been limited. But that's not for lack of trying.Payment companies are aggressively adding stablecoin support to consumer products, hoping stablecoins will attract mainstream users. The latest move comes from BVNK, a payments technology company that works with firms such as anti-money-laundering vendor Comply Advantage, data and fraud-prevention company Sift, and digital asset firm Talos, among others. BVNK has integrated the PayPal stablecoin, PYUSD, into its technology for business transactionsNon-crypto companies, particularly companies with a heavy focus on traditional payments, have not fared well in stablecoins. The Facebook-affiliated Diem failed, and PayPal's PYUSD has gotten off to a relatively slow start. But that's about to change, argues Ben Reynolds, managing director of BVNK, saying that the demand and potential market are starting to come together. "PYUSD is a stablecoin for real-world purposes instead of crypto trading," Reynolds said.BVNK will let companies access PYUSD on its payments platform. These businesses can then create PYUSD wallets, settle with suppliers, pay employees and accept consumer transactions in PYUSD. PYUSD's potential to scale quickly and provide millions of users via its ties to PayPal is the attraction, according to Reynolds. PayPal has about 426 million active users, according to Statista, along with a yearly payment volume that passed $1.5 trillion in 2023, 36 million merchant accounts and nearly 60 yearly transactions per consumer account, according to Business of Apps. PYUSD's market capitalization was about $400 million in late May, up from $44 million in September 2023, but still below Tether at $111 billion and Circle's USDC at $34 billion.PYUSD's other users include cryptocurrency payment company BitPay, gaming firm Xsolla and travel site Xeni.com. And PayPal's Xoom remittance app supports PYUSD to fund some transactions. PayPal this week added PYUSD to the Solana blockchain, a move that PayPal contends will enable PYUSD transactions to move faster.BVNK is looking for more mainstream users who may not be versed in using digital assets for payments. "People who want to trade or invest in crypto want to use an exchange that may or may not have onramps and offramps for fiat currency to make payments," Reynolds said. "We think people who have stablecoins will want to hold the assets in a digital wallet as a store of value for payments." PayPal did not provide comment by deadline. The company's history and brand as a payment company provides lots of potential, according to Reynolds. BVNK, which supports crypto trading, sees PYUSD as a way for employers and contractors to reach workers, particularly those who are concerned about traditional currency fluctuations in their local market.
Ex-CEO of failed bank pleads guilty after losing $47M in crypto scheme --Shan Hanes, the former CEO of failed Heartland Tri-State Bank, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to a charge of stealing millions of dollars from the Elkhart, Kansas-based lender.Hanes, 52, admitted on May 23 to embezzling the funds from the $139 million-asset Heartland Tri-State and its customers. He now faces up to 30 years in prison.From May to July 2023, Hanes initiated a series of 10 outgoing wire transfers totaling $47.1 million of Heartland's funds to a cryptocurrency wallet. The money was then transferred to multiple cryptocurrency accounts controlled by unidentified third parties, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Kansas."Even as he was squandering away tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency, Hanes orchestrated schemes to cover his tracks concerning the losses at the bank," U.S. Attorney Kate Brubacher said in a statement.Hanes, who could not be reached for comment, admitted in court to embezzling bank funds, causing the bank to fail and losing investors' equity. Prosecutors said Hanes took money from multiple customer accounts, including one held by a local church.The transfers ultimately resulted in failed investments and steep losses for the bank that led to its demise, prosecutors argued.The Kansas Office of the State Bank Commissioner shuttered Heartland Tri-State and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized the bank on July 28. Dream First Bank of Syracuse, Kansas, assumed all of its deposits.Heartland Tri-State was the first community bank failure of 2023. The FDIC said it caused a $54.2 million hit to its Deposit Insurance Fund.There were five failures overall last year, including the $66 million-asset Citizens Bank in Sac City, Iowa. The others were large regional banks that struggled under the weight of high interest rates and deposit runs.There were no bank failures in 2022 or the year before. But four banks failed in each of 2019 and 2020, according to FDIC data. The $6 billion-asset Republic First Bank in Philadelphia is the only bank to be taken over by regulators this year. Hanes, a former chair of the Kansas Bankers Association, is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 8. He was charged in February. A federal district court judge will determine the sentence.
Supreme Court punts dual banking case back to Second Circuit -- The Supreme Court unanimously declined to broadly rule on a case on the country's dual banking system, and sent it back to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with a demand for "competitive nuanced analysis." In the case, Cantero v. Bank of America, N.A., the Supreme Court considered whether the National Bank Act would block the application of a New York law requiring that banks pay a minimum of 2% interest on mortgage escrow accounts. The Second Circuit previously ruled that the National Bank Act would preempt the New York law. Reversing that decision could have invited a flood of litigation and uncertainty, particularly for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, about when national banks can ignore state laws. The Dodd-Frank Act gives the OCC preemption authority over many regulatory issues, meaning it can block the application of state laws that give an unfair advantage to state-chartered banks over national banks. "It just seems like a complicated situation, but you are able to assess the whole thing," said Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito during oral arguments on the Bank of America case. "So just explain why this would not cause practical nightmares." Rather than ruling broadly on national preemption authority, the Supreme Court's opinion — authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh — sends the case back to the Second Circuit with instructions to perform a more robust analysis of the trade-offs of having national law preempt state law in this case. "A court applying that standard must make a practical assessment of the nature and degree of the interference caused by a state law," the opinion said. "In this case, the Second Circuit did not conduct the kind of nuanced comparative analysis required."Instead, the Second Circuit "distilled a categorical test that would preempt virtually all state laws that regulate national banks," the opinion said. Dodd-Frank does not draw a "bright line" in deciding whether a certain state law is preempted or not, the opinion said, citing prior cases related to state preemption. The analysis then, he says, becomes key. "If the state law prevents or significantly interferes with the national bank's exercise of its powers, the law is preempted," the opinion said. "If the state law does not prevent or significantly interfere with the national bank's exercise of its powers, the law is not preempted."
FDIC: Number of Problem Banks Increased in Q1 2024 -- The FDIC released the Quarterly Banking Profile for Q1 2024: Reports from 4,568 commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) report aggregate net income of $64.2 billion in first quarter 2024, an increase of $28.4 billion (79.5 percent) from the prior quarter. A large decline in noninterest expense because of several substantial, non-recurring items recognized by large banks in the prior quarter, as well as higher noninterest income and lower provision expenses this quarter, contributed to the quarterly increase. These and other financial results for first quarter 2024 are included in the FDIC’s latest Quarterly Banking Profile released today. ... Asset Quality Metrics Remained Generally Favorable With the Exception of Material Deterioration in Credit Card and Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Portfolios: Loans that were 90 days or more past due or in nonaccrual status increased to 0.91 percent of total loans, up five basis points from the prior quarter and 16 basis points from the year-ago quarter. The quarterly increase was led by commercial and industrial loans and non-owner-occupied CRE loans. The noncurrent rate for non-owner occupied CRE loans of 1.59 percent is now at its highest level since fourth quarter 2013, driven by office portfolios at the largest banks. Despite the recent increases, the industry’s total noncurrent ratio remains 37 basis points below the pre-pandemic average of 1.28 percent. From the FDIC: The number of banks on the FDIC’s “Problem Bank List” increased from 52 to 63. Total assets held by problem banks rose $15.8 billion to $82.1 billion. Problem banks represent 1.4 percent of total banks, which is within the normal range for non-crisis periods of 1 to 2 percent of all banks.This graph from the FDIC shows the number of problem banks and assets at problem institutions. Note: The number of assets for problem banks increased significantly back in 2018 when Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas was added to the list. An even larger unknown bank was added to the list in Q4 2021, however that bank is now off the problem list. It appears the recent increase in problem banks is related to office CRE loans.
Status of Banks’ Unrealized Losses in Q1: Worsened after Brief Rate-Cut-Mania Relief - by Wolf Richter • --In Q1 2024, “unrealized losses” on securities held by commercial banks increased by $39 billion (or by 8.1%) from Q4, to a cumulative loss of $517 billion. These unrealized losses amount to 9.4% of the $5.47 trillion in securities held by those banks, according to today’s FDIC’s quarterly bank data for Q1.The securities are mostly Treasury securities and government-guaranteed MBS that don’t produce credit losses, unlike loans where banks have been taking credit losses, particularly in commercial real estate loans. These are pristine securities whose market value dropped because interest rates rose. When these securities mature – or in the case of MBS, when pass-through principal payments are made – holders of these securities are paid face value. But until then, higher yields mean lower prices.These unrealized losses were spread over securities accounted for under two methods:
- Held to Maturity (HTM): +$31 billion in unrealized losses in Q1 from Q4, to a cumulative loss of $305 billion (red).
- Available for Sale (AFS): +$8 billion in unrealized losses in Q1 from Q4, to $211 billion (blue).
HTM securities (red) are valued at amortized purchase cost, and losses in market value don’t hit income in the equity portion of the balance sheet, but are noted separately as “unrealized losses.” It’s with these HTM securities, and HTM accounting in general, where the problems reside.AFS securities (blue) are valued at market value, and losses due changes in market value are taken against income in the equity section of the balance sheet. Rate-cut-mania soothed the pain, but it’s over.Yields on longer-term securities began plunging in November and bottomed out early this year amid general Rate-Cut Mania. The plunging yields caused prices to surge, which caused the unrealized losses in Q4 to drop from the massive levels in Q3.But in the latter part of Q1, Rate-Cut Mania began to subside, yields rose again though not back to October-levels, and so the unrealized losses in Q1 rose as well.During the pandemic money-printing era, banks, flush with cash from depositors, loaded up on securities to put this cash to work, and they loaded up primarily on longer-term securities because they still had a yield visibly above zero, unlike short-term Treasury bills which were yielding zero or close to zero and sometimes below zero at the time. During that time, banks’ securities holdings soared by $2.5 trillion, or by 57%, to $6.2 trillion at the peak in Q1 2022.That turned out to have been a colossal misjudgment of future interest rates. The misjudgment already caused four regional banks – Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, First Republic, and Silvergate Bank – to implode in the spring of 2023 when spooked depositors yanked their money out.In theory, “unrealized losses” on securities held by banks don’t matter because at maturity, banks will be paid face value, and the unrealized loss diminishes as the security nears its maturity date and goes to zero on the maturity date.In reality, they matter a lot as we saw with the above four banks after depositors figured out what’s on their balance sheets and yanked their money out, which forced the banks to try to sell those securities, which would have forced them to take those losses, at which point there wasn’t enough capital to absorb the losses, and the banks collapsed. Unrealized losses don’t matter until they suddenly do.
Nonresidential CRE Loans Are Leaving Skid Marks on Banks by Wolf Richter - Banks are still very profitable. The industry reported quarterly net income of $64 billion in Q1, according to the FDIC yesterday. And so overall, as an industry, they can take big credit losses, and they have started to take growing credit losses. But some banks are more exposed to risks and are more fragile than others. Banks on the FDIC’s “Problem Bank List” rose by 11 banks in Q1 from the prior quarter, to 63 banks (blue columns), of the 4,000-plus banks in the US. The FDIC doesn’t name names, but we can guess some candidates. So there will be some more bank failures – there are nearly always every year.Total assets on the Problem Bank List rose by $16 billion in Q1, to $82 billion, the third consecutive quarter of deterioration (red line), largely driven by the quagmire that CRE has been sinking into. The chart shows the historic context to the Financial Crisis:CRE is starting to leave skid marks. Noncurrent loans (where borrowers fell behind) rose to 0.91% of total loans (from 0.86% in the prior quarter), now roughly at the same rate as during the Good Times just before the pandemic. At the peak during the Financial Crisis, it had hit 5.5% (red).The deterioration was driven by CRE loans, where the noncurrent rate rose to 1.59%, the highest since Q4 2013, driven by office portfolios at the largest banks.Net charge-offs (when banks throw in the towel on the loan) were 0.65% of total loans, same as in the prior quarter, but up from the historic free-money-from-heaven pandemic era lows, and a hair higher than during the Good Times before the pandemic. The driver behind the increase from the free-money lows in 2022 were credit cards, where the net charge-off rate rose to 4.70% in Q1, up by 122 basis points from its pre-pandemic average. We went into the weeds of who was falling behind on their credit cards here.The chart below shows how nonresidential nonfarm CRE loans (red) have become the outlier in terms of nonaccrual rates, compared to other CRE categories, such as construction loans (yellow), farmland loans (blue), and loans on multifamily buildings (green).FDIC provides delinquency data by bank size on nonresidential nonfarm CRE loans (which include the most troubled sectors of CRE lending, office and retail). The “past-due and nonaccrual rates” of these CRE loans have increased across all bank sizes.But for large banks with over $250 billion in assets, the rate for nonresidential CRE loans spiked to 4.48% of their nonresidential CRE loans loans (red in the chart below).During the Financial Crisis, the big culprits were residential mortgages, a much larger category of loans than nonresidential CRE loans. At this point, residential mortgages are still in good shape with historically low delinquency rates and foreclosures.For tiny banks with less than $100 million in assets, the “past-due and nonaccrual rate” jumped to 1.94% of their nonresidential CRE loans (purple). Nonfarm nonresidential CRE loans – where the bulk of the loan problems are now occurring – form only a small part of the banks’ total loan book. In Q1, these loans amounted to 9.4% of total bank loans. Since 2021, the share has been roughly in the same range, just under 9.5%. And the fact that the share of the loan book overall isn’t bigger is a good thing, given how problematic these CRE loans are going to be as the sector cleans house, so to speak, over the next few years:
Banks' net income surges in Q1 despite CRE concerns - — Banks experienced a big boost in net income in the first quarter of 2024 even as trouble brewed in the industry's credit card and commercial real estate loan portfolios, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s quarterly banking profile for the first quarter of 2024. During a press conference accompanying the publication of the QBP Wednesday, FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg said despite net income increasing, banks' net interest margins declined as competition continued to put upward pressure on deposit costs, while asset yields declined. "Net income rebounded, asset quality metrics remained generally favorable and the industry's liquidity was stable," he said. "However, the banking industry still faces significant downside risks from the continued effects of inflation, volatility in market interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty. Deterioration in certain loan portfolios, particularly office properties and credit cards, continues to warrant monitoring." Net income reached $64.2 billion in the first quarter — a 79.5% increase from the prior quarter. The rebound in earnings were largely attributed to the absence of nonrecurring, noninterest expenses at big firms such as goodwill impairment charges and the FDIC's special deposit insurance assessment that weighed on firms' net income last quarter. Community banks also saw a modest increase in earnings, reporting net income of $6.3 billion, which translates to a 6.1% increase quarter over quarter. That boost was driven by fruitful securities' sales and lower noninterest and provision expenses, the report said. The industry's net interest margin dipped by 10 basis points to reach 3.17%, lower than the pre-pandemic average of 3.25%. Gruenberg pointed to interbank competition for deposits and declining yields on earning assets as the driving forces behind the margin decline. While the QBP noted bank asset quality was generally favorable, certain asset classes — particularly CRE and credit card portfolios — showed some stress. The industry's noncurrent rate — those 90 days overdue or on nonaccrual status — rose by five basis points from the previous quarter, reaching 0.91%. This figure remains significantly lower than the pre-pandemic average noncurrent rate of 1.28%. Gruenberg noted noncurrent loan balances steadily rose among non-owner occupied CRE loans, propelled by office CRE loans at the nation's largest banks. Midsize regional banks also felt some stress in non-owner occupied CRE loans, according to the report. "Weak demand for office space is softening property values, and higher interest rates are affecting the credit quality and refinancing ability of office and other types of CRE loans," Gruenberg said. "As a result, the noncurrent rate for non-owner occupied CRE loans is now at its highest level since fourth quarter 2013."
Freddie Mac proposes buying home equity loans --Government-backed mortgage securitizer Freddie Mac is considering whether to broaden out its portfolio from first-time mortgages to become a purchaser of home equity loans, a move that could offer borrowers more favorable terms than those of private credit markets. Public comments closed less than a week ago on the proposal, which is getting praise from low-income housing advocates and disapproval from bankers and Republicans. The new rule, which would provide borrowers a cheaper loan option than cash-out refinancing, is specifically responsive to the higher interest rate financing environment that is putting the squeeze on the housing sector. Interbank interest rates currently sit at an effective 5.33 percent, their highest levels since 2001. “In the current mortgage interest rate environment, a closed-end second mortgage may provide a more affordable option to homeowners than obtaining a new cash-out refinance or leveraging other consumer debt products,” the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) wrote in its proposal. FHFA is the federal agency in charge of overseeing Freddie Mac — formally known as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation — and Federal National Mortgage Association, also known as Fannie Mae. Fannie and Freddie each buy mortgages and package them into mortgage-backed securities, which are purchased by investors. The sales are intended to broaden the pool of Americans who can afford home loans and keep rates lower. In a scenario comparing the new home equity loan proposal to a cash-out refinancing option, borrowers could save $136.77 in monthly payments as a result of the new product, FHFA said. The new type of loan is the first time Freddie Mac or any of the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that underpin the U.S. housing market have offered a fundamentally new type of product since they were nationalized as conservatorships in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. “We applaud Freddie Mac for its innovation and identifying a need in the market and seeking to create liquidity for a mortgage product other than a first lien mortgage loan,” Garth Rieman, a director of the National Council of State Housing Agencies, which advocates for low-income housing groups around the country, told the FHFA last week. Rieman said the bounds of the new rule should be expanded, allowing for secondary loan amortization write-offs to extend throughout the course of the primary loan rather than cutting them off at a 20-year limit, as proposed. Bankers and Republicans are against the new product proposal and fear it will cut into the business of the enormous private lending market. In 2022, there were $37.8 billion in secondary loan originations and $211.1 billion in maximum credit extended to borrowers, according to a 2023 study of the home equity loan market by the Mortgage Bankers Association, a trade group for home lenders.
CFPB launches mortgage closing costs inquiry --In a largely anticipated move following weeks of criticism from its director, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an inquiry to examine the impact mortgage closing costs and fees have on borrowers.In the past several months, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra has issued a stream of comments questioning the fairness of various housing related charges to consumers and other expenses he collectively deemed "junk fees." But the request potentially foreshadows future CFPB rulemaking that might impose limits on what can be charged, according to some legal experts. Among the items Chopra has criticized are interest rate buydowns, property inspections and title insurance. "Junk fees and excessive closing costs can drain down payments and push up monthly mortgage costs," said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, in a press release. "The CFPB is looking for ways to reduce anticompetitive fees that harm both homebuyers and lenders."During a May speech at a leading mortgage industry conference, Chopra directed criticism at the credit reporting industry for steep increases in fees for score data. In those same remarks, he called out prices for employment verification services, and said that many of the fees charged to consumers still amounted to unreasonable and unfair burdens on consumers warranting examination even when disclosed upfront. In its latest announcement, the bureau again singled out charges related to credit scores and title insurance. The request for information, or RFI, asked for public comment specifically addressing fees that are currently subject to competition, how they are set and if they have changed in recent years. "Even if disclosed, borrowers are compelled to pay the fees and may have no control over cost. In 2022, median closing costs were $6,000, and these fees can quickly erode home equity and undercut homeownership," the CFPB said.Comments are open until Aug. 2 and can be made by email or through the federal government's eRulemaking portal. Chopra finds himself regularly at odds with many in the mortgage industry, and the CFPB's inquiry quickly garnered a mix of reactions ranging from praise to disapproval among industry stakeholders. While trade groups have characterized the CFPB's actions as overregulation that display a lack of understanding about the way the mortgage process works, some lenders also appreciate the efforts to drive down costs that negatively impact their bottom line. The Community Home Lenders of America welcomed the inquiry "for highlighting third-party mortgage service provider junk fees, which can harm consumers and reduce access to homeownership," according to its executive director, Scott Olson "In particular, we are pleased the CFPB focused on two areas of concern to our members, credit scoring and title insurance," Olson also noted in a press release.But a consortium of industry trade groups, including the Mortgage Bankers Association, Housing Policy Council and American Bankers Association pointed out many of the fees questioned by the CFPB were required by federal statutes and other regulators as a condition of buying and insuring loans. Many of the rules currently in place received the stamp of approval from the CFPB, they added. "The industry invested considerable resources to implement these new rules just a decade ago," a joint statement read.If the CFPB is now modifying its previous position and is considering changing this complex regulatory disclosure regime, a rule-making process governed by the Administrative Procedure Act — and supported by a robust cost-benefit analysis — is the only appropriate vehicle to initiate that work," the trade groups said.
Fannie and Freddie: Single Family Serious Delinquency Rate Decreased in April, Multi-family Increased Slightly --Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Fannie and Freddie: Single Family Serious Delinquency Rate Decreased in April, Multi-family Increased Slightly Brief excerpt: Single-family serious delinquencies decreased in April, and multi-family serious delinquencies increased slightly. ..Freddie Mac reports that the multi-family delinquencies rate increased to 0.35% in April, up from 0.34% in March, and down from 0.44% in January. This graph shows the Freddie multi-family serious delinquency rate since 2012. Rates were still high in 2012 following the housing bust and financial crisis. The multi-family rate increased following the pandemic and has increased recently as rent growth has slowed, vacancy rates have increased, and borrowing rates have increased sharply. The rate surged higher in January but declined in February and March. This will be something to watch as more apartments come on the market. There is much more in the article.
MBA: Mortgage Applications Decreased in Weekly Survey --From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly SurveyMortgage applications decreased 5.7 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 24, 2024. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 5.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6.3 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 14 percent from the previous week and was 12 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 1 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent compared with the previous week and was 10 percent lower than the same week one year ago. “Mortgage rates increased for the first time in four weeks, with the 30-year fixed rate up to 7.05 percent and all other loan types also seeing increases. The uptick in rates led to a decline in mortgage applications heading into Memorial Day weekend,” “Both purchase and refinance applications fell, pushing overall activity to the lowest level since early March. Borrowers remain sensitive to small increases in rates, impacting the refinance market and keeping purchase applications below last year’s levels. There continues to be limited levels of existing homes for sale and many buyers are struggling to find listings in their price range that meet their needs.” ... The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) increased to 7.05 percent from 7.01 percent, with points increasing to 0.63 from 0.60 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The first graph shows the MBA mortgage purchase index. According to the MBA, purchase activity is down 10% year-over-year unadjusted. Purchase application activity is up slightly from the lows in late October 2023, and below the lowest levels during the housing bust. The second graph shows the refinance index since 1990.With higher mortgage rates, the refinance index declined sharply in 2022, and mostly flat lined since then with a slight increase recently.
Realtor.com Reports Active Inventory Up 36.5% YoY; Most Homes For Sale Since July 2020 - On a weekly basis, Realtor.com reports the year-over-year change in active inventory and new listings. On a monthly basis, they report total inventory. For April, Realtor.com reported inventory was up 30.4% YoY, but still down almost 36% compared to April 2017 to 2019 levels. Now - on a weekly basis - inventory is up 36.5% YoY. Realtor.com has monthly and weekly data on the existing home market. Here is their weekly report: Weekly Housing Trends View—Data for Week Ending May 25, 2024
• Active inventory increased, with for-sale homes 36.5% above year-ago levels.
For the 29th straight week, there were more homes listed for sale versus the prior year, giving homebuyers more options. This past week, the inventory of homes for sale grew by 36.5% compared with last year, and it was the highest since July 2020 in the early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic. This growth in inventory is primarily driven by housing markets in the South, which saw a 43.0% year-over-year increase in inventory in April.
• New listings–a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale–were up this week, by 3.6% from one year ago. Seller activity continued to climb annually last week but decelerated relative to the previous week’s growth. Newly listed homes grew by 3.6% compared with a year ago, a slowdown from the 8.1% growth rate in the previous week. Here is a graph of the year-over-year change in inventory according to realtor.com. Inventory was up year-over-year for the 29th consecutive week. However, inventory is still historically very low. New listings remain below typical pre-pandemic levels although up year-over-year.
Case-Shiller: National House Price Index Up 6.5% year-over-year in March -S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for March ("March" is a 3-month average of January, February and March closing prices). This release includes prices for 20 individual cities, two composite indices (for 10 cities and 20 cities) and the monthly National index. From S&P S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index Hits New All-Time High in March 2024 The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 6.5% annual gain for March, the same increase as the previous month. The 10- City Composite saw an increase of 8.2%, up from a 8.1% increase in the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted a slight year-over-year increase to 7.4%, up from a 7.3% increase in the previous month. San Diego continued to report the highest year-over-year gain among the 20 cities this month with an 11.1% increase in March, followed by New York and Cleveland, with increases of 9.2% and 8.8%, respectively. Portland, which still holds the lowest rank after reporting three consecutive months of the smallest year-over-year growth, posted the same 2.2% annual increase in March as the previous month. ... The U.S. National Index, the 20-City Composite, and the 10-City Composite all continued their upward trend from last month, showing pre-seasonality adjustment increases of 1.3%, 1.6% and 1.6%, respectively. After seasonal adjustment, the U.S. National Index posted a month-over-month increase of 0.3%, while the 20-City and the 10-City Composite both reported month-over-month increases of 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively. “We’ve witnessed records repeatedly break in both stock and housing markets over the past year. Our National Index has reached new highs in six of the last 12 months. During that time, we’ve seen record stock market performance, with the S&P 500 hitting fresh all-time highs for 35 trading days in the past year. “San Diego stands out with an impressive 11.1% annual gain, followed closely by New York, Cleveland, and Los Angeles, indicating a strong demand for urban markets." The first graph shows the nominal seasonally adjusted Composite 10, Composite 20 and National indices (the Composite 20 was started in January 2000). The Composite 10 index was up 0.5% in March (SA). The Composite 20 index was up 0.3% (SA) in March. The National index was up 0.3% (SA) in March. The second graph shows the year-over-year change in all three indices. The National index SA was up 6.5% year-over-year. Annual price changes were close to expectations.
Comments on March House Prices, FHFA: House Prices Increased 0.1% in March --Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Case-Shiller: National House Price Index Up 6.5% year-over-year in March; FHFA: House Prices Increased 0.1% in March, up 6.6% YoY Excerpt: S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for March ("March" is a 3-month average of January, February and March closing prices). March closing prices include some contracts signed in November, so there is a significant lag to this data. Here is a graph of the month-over-month (MoM) change in the Case-Shiller National Index Seasonally Adjusted (SA). The MoM increase in the seasonally adjusted (SA) Case-Shiller National Index was at 0.30%. This was the fourteenth consecutive MoM increase, but a smaller MoM increase than the previous two months. On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices increased month-to-month in 15 of the 20 Case-Shiller cities. Seasonally adjusted, San Francisco has fallen 8.2% from the recent peak, Seattle is down 6.0% from the peak, Portland down 4.0%, and Phoenix is down 3.1%.
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, April 2024 Update. Biggest Price Drops from 2022 Peak in San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Portland, Denver, Las Vegas, Dallas - By Wolf Richter - The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index, released today and dubbed “March,” is a three-month moving average of home prices whose sales were entered into public records in January, February, and March. So that’s the time-frame we’re looking at here. It reflects Rate-Cut Mania that commenced in November and peaked February 13, when the first of three nasty CPI reports in a row interfered.During that time, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped from 7.8% at the end of October to about 6.6% in mid-February. Mortgage rates have since then zigzagged higher, with the daily measure of Mortgage New Daily pegging the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage today at 7.28%.The 20-City Case-Shiller Home Price Index jumped by 1.6% in “March” (moving average of January, February, and March), from the prior month:
- Month-to-month, prices rose in all 20 metros covered by the index.
- Year-over-year, the 20-City Index was up 7.4%.
- Compared to the previous all-time high of June 2022, the index was up 2.0%.
Prices were below their 2022 highs in 8 of the 20 metros in the Case-Shiller index (month of peak):
- San Francisco Bay Area: -9.7% (May 2022)
- Seattle: -8.2% (May 2022)
- Phoenix: -5.5% (June 2022)
- Portland: -5.4% (May 2022)
- Denver: -5.0% (May 2022)
- Dallas: -4.2% (June 2022)
- Las Vegas: -3.6% (July 2022)
- Tampa: -0.14% (July 2022)
The most splendid housing bubbles by metro. San Francisco Bay Area single family houses: the San Francisco metro in the Case-Shiller Index covers a five-county portion of the nine-county Bay Area (San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Alameda, and Marin).
- Month to month: +2.6%
- Year over year: +4.9%.
- From the peak in May 2022: -9.7%.
Inflation Adjusted House Prices 2.2% Below Peak; Price-to-rent index is 7.5% below 2022 peak - Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Inflation Adjusted House Prices 2.2% Below Peak Excerpt: It has been 18 years since the bubble peak. In the March Case-Shiller house price index released on Tuesday, the seasonally adjusted National Index (SA), was reported as being 72% above the bubble peak in 2006. However, in real terms, the National index (SA) is about 10% above the bubble peak (and historically there has been an upward slope to real house prices). The composite 20, in real terms, is 1% above the bubble peak. People usually graph nominal house prices, but it is also important to look at prices in real terms. As an example, if a house price was $300,000 in January 2010, the price would be $431,000 today adjusted for inflation (44% increase). That is why the second graph below is important - this shows "real" prices. The third graph shows the price-to-rent ratio, and the fourth graph is the affordability index. The last graph shows the 5-year real return based on the Case-Shiller National Index. ... The second graph shows the same two indexes in real terms (adjusted for inflation using CPI). In real terms (using CPI), the National index is 2.2% below the recent peak, and the Composite 20 index is 3.1% below the recent peak in 2022. Both indexes declined slightly in March in real terms.
Housing May 27th Weekly Update: Inventory up 2.9% Week-over-week, Up 37.0% Year-over-year -- Altos reports that active single-family inventory was up 2.9% week-over-week. Inventory is now up 20.3% from the February bottom, and at the highest level since August 2020. This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research. As of May 24th, inventory was at 595 thousand (7-day average), compared to 578 thousand the prior week. Inventory is still far below pre-pandemic levels. The second graph shows the seasonal pattern for active single-family inventory since 2015. The red line is for 2024. The black line is for 2019. Note that inventory is up 84% from the record low for the same week in 2021, but still well below normal levels.Inventory was up 37.0% compared to the same week in 2023 (last week it was up 36.0%), and down 36.1% compared to the same week in 2019 (last week it was down 36.4%). Back in June 2023, inventory was down almost 54% compared to 2019, so the gap to more normal inventory levels is slowly closing.Mike Simonsen discusses this data regularly on Youtube.
NAR: Pending Home Sales Decrease 7.7% in April; Down 7.4% Year-over-year - From the NAR: Pending Home Sales Slumped 7.7% in April - Pending home sales in April fell 7.7%, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. All four U.S. regions registered month-over-month and year-over-year decreases. The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)* – a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings – decreased to 72.3 in April. Year over year, pending transactions were down 7.4%. An index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001. ... The Northeast PHSI fell 3.5% from last month to 62.9, a decline of 3.1% from April 2023. The Midwest index dropped 9.5% to 70.7 in April, down 8.7% from one year ago. The South PHSI lowered 7.6% to 88.6 in April, dropping 8.2% from the prior year. The West index decreased 8.5% in April to 55.9, down 7.3% from April 2023. This was well below expectations. Note: Contract signings usually lead sales by about 45 to 60 days, so this would usually be for closed sales in May and June.
US Pending Home Sales Plunged To Record Lows In April As Rates Rose After an unexpected jump in March, pending home sales were expected to drop 1.0% MoM in April as mortgage rates pushed back above 7.00% and stayed there. Well, the analysts had the direction right but magnitude was way off as pending home sales plunged 7.7% MoM - the biggest drop since Feb 2021 (and below the lowest estimate), leaving sales down 0.7% YoY... Graphs Source: BloombergThis is the 29th straight month of YoY declines for non-seasonally-adjusted pending home sales. This MoM decline pushed the Pending Home Sales Index back to record lows... Source: BloombergThe Midwest saw the biggest drop in pending sales, down 9.5% in April, followed by declines of 8.5% and 7.6% in the West and South, respectively. Contract signings in the Northeast fell 3.5%.“The impact of escalating interest rates throughout April dampened home buying, even with more inventory in the market,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.“But the Federal Reserve’s anticipated rate cut later this year should lead to better conditions, with improved affordability and more supply.”All driven by affordability crisis as mortgage rates surged back above 7.00%...“The prospect of measurable home price declines appears minimal,” Yun said.“The few markets experiencing price declines will be viewed as second-chance opportunities for buyers to enter the market if those regions continue to add jobs.”As a reminder, the pending-sales report tends to be a leading indicator of sales of previously owned homes, because houses typically go under contract a month or two before they’re sold.
PCE Measure of Shelter Slows to 5.6% YoY in April 0 Here is a graph of the year-over-year change in shelter from the CPI report and housing from the PCE report this morning, both through April 2024. CPI Shelter was up 5.5% year-over-year in April, down from 5.6% in March, and down from the cycle peak of 8.2% in March 2023. Housing (PCE) was up 5.6% YoY in April, down from 5.8% in March, and down from the cycle peak of 8.3% in April 2023. Since asking rents are mostly flat year-over-year, these measures will continue to slow over the next year.The second graph shows PCE prices, Core PCE prices and Core ex-housing over the last 6 months (annualized): Key measures are above the Fed's target on a 6-month basis. Note: There appears to be some residual seasonality distorting PCE, especially in January.
Las Vegas April 2024: Visitor Traffic Up 3.8% YoY; Convention Traffic Up 36% - From the Las Vegas Visitor Authority: April 2024 Las Vegas Visitor Statistics: With strength in both leisure and conventions segments, Las Vegas visitation in April exceeded 3.5M, up +3.8% YoY. Convention attendance saw a YoY increase of 36% related in part to scheduling differences of some shows such as the ISC West ‐ International Security Conference (20K attendees, in Apr 2024 vs. Mar last year) along with new shows including the Google Cloud Next show (30k attendees), the Craft Brewers Conference (12k attendees) and the PZ3 Live Veterinary & Pet Technology Conference (5k attendees). Even with a larger room count vs. last April, overall hotel occupancy reached 85.5% (up 1.2 pts), with Weekend occupancy of 93.4% (up 1.0 pts) and Midweek occupancy reaching 82.6% (up 1.7 pts) . ADR exceeded $182 while RevPAR approached $156, showing YoY increases of 6.6% and 8.1%, respectively. The first graph shows visitor traffic for 2019 (Black), 2020 (dark blue), 2021 (light blue), 2022 (light orange), 2023 (dark orange) and 2024 (red). Visitor traffic was up 3.8% compared to last April. Visitor traffic was down 0.8% compared to the same month in 2019. Year-to-date visitor traffic is up 0.7% compared to 2019.The second graph shows convention traffic. Convention traffic was up 36.3% compared to April 2023, and down 4.9% compared to April 2019. Year-to-date convention traffic is down 8.1% compared to 2019.
Consumer confidence rose in May after three months of declines- Consumer confidence in the economy ticked up slightly in May after several months of declines, according to data The Conference Board released Tuesday. The consumer confidence index rose to 102 in May, up from 97.5 in April, the business group’s monthly survey found. “Nonetheless, the overall confidence gauge remained within the relatively narrow range it has been hovering in for more than two years,” said Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, in a statement. Consumer confidence fell sharply following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, before largely recovering in 2021. However, it dipped again in late 2021 and early 2022, as inflation rose to a 40-year high. Consumers’ views on current business and market conditions, as well as their short-term outlook for the future, ticked up in May, according to the survey. The present situation index rose from 140.6 last month to 143.1 this month, while the expectations index climbed from 68.8 to 74.6. While Americans held slightly more negative views on current business conditions, their views on the current labor market were overall more positive, the survey found. A smaller share of consumers in May said that business conditions were “good,” falling from 20.8 percent to 20.3 percent. However, even as fewer consumers — 37.5 percent — said jobs were “plentiful” last month, fewer — 13.5 percent — also said jobs were “hard to get,” with the change in the latter slightly outweighing the former. Six months from now, a larger share of consumers expect business conditions will improve, more jobs will be available and their income will increase. However, The Conference Board also noted its overall expectations index remains below 80, often an indicator of an impending recession.
Personal Income increased 0.3% in April; Spending increased 0.2% -- The BEA released the Personal Income and Outlays report for April: Personal income increased $65.3 billion (0.3 percent at a monthly rate) in April, according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) —personal income less personal current taxes—increased $40.2 billion and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $39.1 billion. The PCE price index increased 0.3 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.2 percent. Real DPI decreased 0.1 percent in April and real PCE decreased 0.1 percent; goods decreased 0.4 percent and services increased 0.1 percent. The April PCE price index increased 2.7 percent year-over-year (YoY), unchanged from 2.7 percent YoY in March, and down from the recent peak of 7.0 percent in June 2022. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 2.8 percent YoY, unchanged from 2.8 percent in March, and down from the recent peak of 5.4 percent in February 2022. The following graph shows real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) through April 2024 (2017 dollars). The dashed red lines are the quarterly levels for real PCE. Personal income was at expectations, and PCE was below expectations.Inflation was at expectations.
TSA: Airline Travel about 12% Above 2019 Levels to New Record High -- The TSA is providing daily travel numbers. This data is as of May 24th. This data shows the 7-day average of daily total traveler throughput from the TSA (Blue). The red line is the percent of 2019 for the seven-day average. Air travel - as a percent of 2019 - is tracking at about 112% of pre-pandemic levels.
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims Increase to 219,000 -- The DOL reported: In the week ending May 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 219,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 215,000 to 216,000. The 4-week moving average was 222,500, an increase of 2,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 219,750 to 220,000. The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since 1971. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims increased to 222,500. The previous week was revised up. Weekly claims were higher close to the consensus forecast.
After ‘whites only’ job posting, tech staffing firm settles with DOJ -A Virginia-based tech company will pay thousands of dollars in fines for a job posting that requested “whites only” to apply.The Justice and Labor departments have fined minority-owned federal contractor Arthur Grand Technologies Inc. a civil penalty of $7,500. The departments also ordered the federal contractor to pay $31,000 overall to 31 people who complained about the posting.“It is shameful that in the 21st century, we continue to see employers using ‘whites only’ and ‘only US born’ job postings to lock out otherwise eligible job candidates of color,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.The company began advertising for a Salesforce business analyst and insurance claims position based in Dallas in March 2023. In its job posting, the company restricted eligible candidates to “only US Born Citizens [white] who are local within 60 miles from Dallas, TX [Don’t share with candidates].” The posting drew outrage on social media, and the Justice Department opened its investigation. The company denied approving the posting and claimed it was posted by an employee working for its subsidiary in India.The Justice Department said the listing violated the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Labor Department said the company violated an executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating based on race, national origin and other protected characteristics.
US Department of Justice launches investigation into abuse in Kentucky’s juvenile justice system -- On May 15, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation into Kentucky’s eight juvenile detention facilities and one “youth development center” run by the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice. The investigation follows continued reports of “excessive force by staff, prolonged and punitive isolation and inadequate protection from violence and sexual abuse,” according to the DOJ Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section. The federal investigation comes less than six months after former prisoners held in a juvenile detention facility filed a lawsuit detailing abuse, neglect and humiliation that they experienced at the hands of jail staff. One of these cases was a 17-year-old girl who had spent much of the summer of 2022 locked inside a filthy isolation cell in unsanitary conditions, sometimes naked, while the jail staff ignored her cries for help and mocked her body odor. The lawsuit stated that because she was “neglected for weeks, the girl grew increasingly confused and paranoid. She reached her hands through a narrow flap in her cell door and called out, ‘They are going to kill me.’” The rampant abuse within the state’s juvenile justice system has been documented for nearly a decade with repeated investigations, state audits and outcry by youth advocates, often met with platitudes by state legislators and officials. Meanwhile, former jail and nursing staff at these facilities have experienced retaliation for whistle-blowing about the inhumane and dangerous mistreatment of children in custody. In 2023, there were three different occasions when this occurred. In January of this year a state audit revealed systematic abuse within Kentucky’s juvenile detention facilities. The report, “Juvenile Justice Performance Assessment of Facilities,” was only initiated due to a series of assaults, escapes and riot situations in these brutal, overcrowded prisons. The audit found facilities had not implemented protocols recommended back in 2017. Those protocols called for “better security and medical staffing, on-site mental health care and less use of solitary confinement for the teenagers in its custody.” Kentucky presently operates eight prisons designed to house young people throughout the state, incarcerating around 163 per 100,000 youth a year. This is more than double the national average of 74 per 100,000. Though the number of incarcerated youths has followed a decreasing national trend, the “intake” numbers demonstrate a sharp increase between 2021 (1,861 detainees) and 2022 (3,044 detainees) as pandemic policies were ended. A large portion of incarcerated youths in Kentucky are considered “status offenders,” charged with minor and age-specific violations like truancy, or they have run away from home. On average, they spend about a week in custody, although there are many more who have been locked up for a month or more in pre-trial detention. Many of these children are not considered to be “significantly more violent” nor are they a “danger to society.” In reality, they are victims of a cruel social order that has produced mass poverty, a raging opioid epidemic, and destroyed the basic safety net. None of the investigations or policy proposals by state or federal agencies are capable of addressing the role, let alone the underlying causes, of mass incarceration in contemporary American society. In launching the federal investigation, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke commented: “Confinement in the juvenile justice system should help children avoid future contact with law enforcement and mature into law-abiding, productive members of society. Too often, juvenile justice facilities break our children, exposing them to dangerous and traumatic conditions.”
Illinois School District Set To Produce Next $8 Million Superintendent Pensioner -- New Trier Township HS District 203’s Superintendent Paul Sally is set to retire next year and he can count on lifetime pension benefits of nearly $8 million. When he does retire, he’ll join the ranks of the Teachers Retirement System’s top pensioners.We’ve written for years that Illinois’ pension systems are out-of-whack with what taxpayers can afford. It’s a two-class system where those in government get guaranteed lifetime pensions and other protected benefits while those in the private sector, who get no such guarantees and protections, are forced to pay for them. But it’s the superintendent pensions that help bring attention to just how problematic public pensions are. Sally has done nothing wrong, of course. He’s simply benefitting from the system that’s been put in place by lawmakers. The true blame falls on the politicians who created the pension system, those who continuously sweetened benefits over the decades, and today’s lawmakerswho refuse reforms.With no reforms expected in the near term, all we can do is highlight the results of Illinois’ two-class system.Paul Sally’s exact pension will be unknown until he officially retires, but based on FOIA data and his current pensionable salary of nearly $350,000, Wirepoints estimates his starting pension will be around $255,000 a year. If Sally lives to 82 – his approximate life expectancy according to Social Security actuarial tables – he’ll end up collecting about $8 million in total benefits. By then, his pension will have grown to $476,000 per year – thanks to the automatic 3% compounded cost-of-living increase he’ll automatically get each year. And if he lives past 82, Sally can expect to collect over $8, $9, or even $10 million in total benefits.Sally is already one of the highest paid superintendents in the state. His pensionable earnings are currently the state’s 9th-highest at $346,609.
Wayne State University officials in Detroit order students to shut down anti-genocide encampment - Officials from Wayne State University (WSU) in Detroit, Michigan, have ordered students to take down their encampment against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The move is part of the national crackdown being spearheaded by the Biden administration on campus protests that has seen the arrest of more than 3,000 students. Student leaders rejected the university’s ultimatum and urged community members to defend protesters against a police raid and mass arrests, which, they say, could come during the early morning hours Tuesday. As of this writing, more than 200 people have gathered at the encampment. The decision to send in the police is no doubt being discussed by leading Democrats, including Mayor Mike Duggan and Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Last Tuesday, police used pepper spray in an early morning raid at the encampment at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, arresting four students and hospitalizing another two. Encampment at Wayne State University Wayne State student organizations, including from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), set up the encampment last Friday. Their demands include that the WSU Board of Governors divest from all military and corporate entities that profit off the genocide; end the training of university police by the Israel Defense Forces; and guarantee the protection of students’ free speech rights. On Monday afternoon at 3:00 p.m., Patrick O. Lindsey, the vice president of Community Affairs in the Department of University Relations at Wayne State, ordered the students to disband the encampment by 6:30 p.m. He said student representatives could meet with the university president on Tuesday to discuss their demands but only if the encampment was abandoned. Earlier in the day, Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib came to the encampment and appealed to university officials to negotiate with the students. In her comments to protesters, she said nothing about her fellow Democrats coordinating the nationwide attack on campus protests.
Elite Colleges More Likely To Have Tent-Cities, Research Confirms - Pro-Palestinian green tent cities are more likely to pop up at elite colleges with students from high-income families,new research suggests. Washington Monthly recently published an analysis that looked at pro-Palestinian protests, including encampments, and found they were clustered among institutions with a lower percentage of Pell grant recipients. Those grants go to poorer college students, so they serve as a good proxy of the overall income of enrollees. “Pro-Palestinian protests have been rare at colleges with high percentages of Pell students,” the article reported. “Encampments at such colleges have been rarer still. A few outliers exist, such as Cal State Los Angeles, the City College of New York, and Rutgers University–Newark.”The authors, Marc Novicoff and University of Tennessee Professor Robert Kelchen, said in a “vast majority of cases,” campuses with poorer students “have not had any protest activity.”They offered several reasons why this might be.“They may have off-campus jobs and nearby family members to see and take care of,” the researchers wrote.The students might be sympathetic to the cause, but not place a high priority on it.The authors wrote:They might sympathize with the protesters—a nationwide poll of college students in May found that 45 percent support the encampments, 24 percent oppose them, and 30 percent are neutral. But in the same poll, only 13 percent rated conflict in the Middle East as the issue most important to them. That was well behind health care reform (40 percent), educational funding and access (38 percent), and economic fairness and opportunity (37 percent).This might lead students working “a low-paying job” to be “unlikely to devote what little free time they have to protesting about an issue they don’t see as a high priority.”
Professor Accuses UCLA Of "Torturing" Pro-Palestinian Protesters by Jonathan Turley, UCLA Professor Hannah Appel has accused the school of human rights violations amounting to “torture” in the treatment of pro-Palestinian protesters. The reason is the denial of water and food from being brought into a building being unlawfully occupied by protesters, even though the students were free to leave at any time.Appel teaches in the anthropology department in the areas of “transnational capitalism and finance,” “the economic imagination,” and “anti-capitalist and abolitionist social movements.”She is also a member of Faculty for Justice in Palestine at UCLA.The Daily Bruin reports that a brief sit-in protest was held at the campus’s Dodd Hall. The students were soon cleared from the building. In the interim, Appel made her accusation of torture tactics. In a video posted on X, Appel is seen declaring “even if this is unlawful which, of course, I don’t think it is […] you cannot deny people to send in water in an effort to get them to do something against their will.”While the students were free to leave at any time, Appel objected that “you cannot use a mechanism of torture” to force people to leave.A faculty member at UCLA complains that student affairs is torturing protestors, who are free to leave their illegal encampment at any time, by not allowing them food and water. She wants this to get out on social media. I’m happy to help.@camhigbypic.twitter.com/YLOwZsaADP In another video Appel objects that she and other faculty were not allowed to bring food and water to the encampment demonstrators.Notably, Appel repeats a threat from faculty at various schools that they may withhold their grades in protest to pressure schools to drop any charges or allegations against protesters: “When the university sees that folks are withholding grades, they get scared. They’re scared because we’re flexing our collective power, and optimally, that fear drives them to the bargaining table, and then we win.”UCLA faculty member complains that police won’t allow protestors into encampment, but refuses to answer questions about protestors using physical force to prevent people they don’t like from entering encampment. pic.twitter.com/dJKsm8kJMRSuch threats have already worked as universities have caved to demands at schools like Northwestern or dropped charges against students. Yet, these professors are using the grades of students to coerce universities.It is grossly unfair to students who were not involved in the protests or may oppose these protests. They have right to their grades and these professors have a contractual obligation to supply them. They should not be a tool for faculty protests.Professors were free to join these students in occupying university buildings so long as they were willing to bear the consequences for their actions. To withhold grades to achieve political ends should be treated as a serious violation of faculty rules of conduct.As for the torture allegation, Appel is dead wrong. There was no denial of food or water. The students had access to both outside of the building. Unlawful occupation of a building does not create an obligation on the part of the university to support the occupiers.To call this a human rights violation is to belittle the deprivations of true victims of torture and other abuses.
As University of California anti-genocide strike expands, Trump’s threat to crush protests underscores bipartisan crackdown - The strike by University of California academic workers against campus protest crackdowns is expanding Tuesday to two more campuses, UCLA and UC Davis. The widening of the strike, after the United Auto Workers initially called out only UC Santa Cruz last Monday, is due to the mass determination by the rank and file. It became clear by the end of last week that the union bureaucracy could not keep workers on the job at both campuses.The expansion of the UC strike is an important step in the growing entry of the working class as the basic force against war and police repression. But workers must act independently of the union apparatus to expand the strike to all 10 UC campuses, as well as the entire UAW membership, including in the auto factories.The growing movement against war pits rank-and-file workers against both pro-war parties and the union bureaucracy, which functions as an extension of the White House and the Democrats. Under the guise of the so-called “standup strike” tactic, which was used last year to ram through mass layoffs in the auto industry, the UAW is deliberately limiting the struggle at UC as much as possible. The UAW bureaucracy has endorsed “Genocide Joe” and even worked with riot cops to shield him from protesters in a visit earlier this year to Detroit.The Democratic Party, in turn, is working to bolster the credibility of the apparatus. On Friday, a press conference on Capitol Hill headlined “Unions Defend Free Speech on Campus” was addressed by officials from UAW Local 4811, as well as Democratic congresswomen Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.It was similar to another press conference last December, where Omar and Tlaib spoke alongside UAW President Shawn Fain, only minutes before the Democrats voted by 2-1 to approve a massive new military spending bill. Tlaib and Omar, who are both Muslim, have been the target of racist political attacks. Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, was censured in Congress last November for speaking against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Omar’s daughter was one of many students suspended for participating in protests at Columbia University. These measures are an attack on the rights of the whole population and must be opposed. But together with the UAW bureaucracy, Omar and Tlaib are focused on loyally covering for the role of the Democratic Party in the genocide and the attack on free speech. At the press conference, the speakers denounced the attacks on students without indicating that this was being organized and directed from the Biden White House.
As Gaza strike at University of California continues, evidence links defense plant near UCLA to Israeli bombing of tent camp --The strike at the University of California against protest crackdowns continued into its 10th day Wednesday. Academic workers from UCLA and UC Davis picketed for the second day since being called out on Tuesday. The strike by members of United Auto Workers Local 4811 is a critical development because it points to the need for the working class to emerge as the basic force against war and in defense of free speech. It also is the result of the initiative taken by the rank and file against stonewalling by the UAW bureaucracy, which backs “Genocide Joe” Biden. Initially, the UAW limited the strike to only a single campus, UC Santa Cruz, out of the 10-campus UC system. But rank-and-file anger forced the UAW to sanction the expansion of the strike to two more campuses after it became clear the UAW bureaucracy could not keep workers there on the job. “I think the fact that Santa Cruz, UCLA and Davis are all out now is very promising, but we need all 48,000,” one UCLA student said. “I’m hoping that the other campuses will be called out soon.” Meanwhile, demonstrations are continuing to build at campuses across California. A student group at UC Santa Barbara took over a campus dining hall Tuesday because they “would rather the school’s money go to feeding the students than bombs or war research,” according to the campus newspaper the Daily Nexus. Articles published by several news outlets Wednesday reported that the bombs used by Israel to kill dozens of civilians in a tent encampment Sunday were made in the United States. The GBU-39 small diameter bomb (SDB) is manufactured by Boeing, but components were linked via a serial number to Woodward HRT, according to the Washington Post.According to the Post, the US State Department approved the transfer of more than 1,000 such bombs to Israel just last month. This underscores the fact that the Biden administration is not just shielding the Israeli regime from the consequences of the genocide it is perpetrating in Gaza. Rather, the United States is a direct participant in the slaughter.A weapons expert told CNN Tuesday night that the GBU-39 is “designed to attack strategically important point targets” and result in low collateral damage. But, he added, “using any munition, even of this size, will always incur risk.”The bomb fragments were almost certainly produced at the company’s facility in Santa Clarita, California, located only 30 miles to the north of UCLA’s campus. When asked about the need to form rank-and-file committees, the UCLA student said: I think what you’re saying is ultimately what we’re going to need. We need to shut everything down. Not just the campuses, but the work places and especially the defense industry. Going up to Woodward in Santa Clarita would be an excellent start.A graduate teaching assistant in the Chemistry Department said it was important for workers to come out to support the victimized pro-Palestinian students.The teaching assistant said:I’m here to support the cause. It isn’t right that the university victimized students who were engaged in peaceful protests and have done very little to the actual individuals who were assaulting them.This is also tied to the conditions workers face at the university. We don’t make enough money to support ourselves and our families. A great deal of that has to do with the UC’s support of Israel, which is why we demand that they divest from funding a genocide.She continued:I’m very unhappy with the US government’s role in all of this. If it weren’t for US support, the genocide would have been stopped a long time ago.
2.2M Americans over 55 still have student loan debt: Report -- Millions of Americans older than 55 have yet to clear their student loan debt, according to the Federal Reserve Board’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances released Wednesday. The survey showed 2.2 million individuals above 55 have student loan debt, and an analysis from the New School’s Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis shows it is impeding their retirement plans. Around 43 percent of borrowers in that age range are in middle-income brackets, according to the analysis. The average debt owed by older Americans who make less than $54,600 is around $58,000. Older Americans can still take years to finish paying their student loans, and more than 14 percent don’t even have a degree to show for their debt. “Three policies would help minimize the negative impacts of student debt on retirement savings: student loan forgiveness, income-based repayments – key components of the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan – and preventing garnishment of Social Security benefits to repay student loans,” the analysis said. The data comes as the Biden administration has forgiven billions of dollars in student loans while seeking to make getting rid of the debt easier for the millions of Americans struggling with payments.
Child care cost rising at nearly twice the pace of inflation, research says - Child care costs in the U.S. have been rising over the last few decades at nearly twice the rate of inflation, according to a new report by audit firm KPMG. KPMG’s report, which was published Tuesday, showed that child care costs increased by 263 percent between 1990 and April of this year. During the same time period, the consumer price index, a parameter utilized for measuring inflation, rose by 133 percent.“The childcare crisis, which was simmering prior to the pandemic, has come to a boil,” the researchers said in the report. “It really gets to the issue that parents are really stuck in right now — the largest generation, I might argue, of 30-somethings we’ve ever seen,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, said in an interview with Marketplace. “We’ve got 12,000 millennials turning 35 every day. And they’re in the thick of this, trying to pay for child care costs, which are — affordability, the government has said you should pay maybe 7% of your income for child care costs,” Swonk added. Women who have younger kids also have a lower labor force participation rate when compared to others, according to KPMG’s research. Mothers with children who are younger than 6 had a labor participation rate of 69 percent last year, compared to 95 percent of similar fathers.Women with kids between 6 and 17 had a labor participation rate of 78 percent, while with men it was 92 percent. The consumer price index published in February showed child care costs increased by 3 percent between December 2022 and December of last year. Preschool and day care costs rose by 4.5 percent during the same period.
Women on Mediterranean diet live significantly longer: Study - Women who are on a Mediterranean diet live significantly longer, according to a new study.The Mediterranean diet often consists of higher consumption of food and ingredients like olive oil, fruits, fish, nuts and vegetables and lower consumption of red meat and sweets.“In this cohort study of [25,315] women followed up for 25 years, higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with a 23 percent reduced risk of all-cause mortality,” according to the study, which was released Friday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open.The study said factors including inflammation, insulin resistance, and body mass index contributed to explaining this lower risk, with only “minimal contributions from standard cholesterol or glycemic measures.”The study also noted, however, that “most of the potential benefit of adherence to the Mediterranean diet and morality remains unexplained, and future studies should examine other pathways that could potentially mediate the Mediterranean diet-associated lower mortality as well as examine cause-specific mortality.”Research from March of last year found a Mediterranean diet could assist in reducing the risk of dementia even among people who have a higher genetic risk for it. The study looked at the data of 60,298 individuals tracked for an average of nine years, with researchers finding that those who ate diets similar to the Mediterranean diet had an up to 23 percent lower risk of dementia.
Mental health conditions driving an alarming rise in maternal mortality rates -- Pregnant women and new mothers are facing a deadly mental health crisis across the United States. Mental health conditions, the leading underlying cause of pregnancy-related deaths in the country, are driving an alarming rise in maternal mortality rates, which climbed roughly 60 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC). Suicides and overdoses account for nearly a quarter of those deaths, according to the CDC. Rates of substance use, depression, anxiety and other serious mental health conditions — like suicidal ideation and postpartum psychosis — appear to be rising among pregnant women and new moms. “I am very concerned,” said Ludmila De Faria, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s council on women’s mental health.The CDC recently released data showing maternal deaths dipped in 2022 and reported that 817 women died from maternal causes that year. While the decrease in deaths is a step in the right direction, physicians warn more data is needed to see if maternal mortality really is on the decline. The agency has not released detailed data on the causes of those deaths, so it remains unclear how many maternal deaths in 2022 stemmed from mental health conditions.It is difficult to gauge just how much maternal mental health is worsening in the U.S. given the limited data available.While suicide rates appear to be climbing among pregnant and postpartum women, for instance, Christine Yu Moutier, chief medical officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, cautions this may in part be due to better data collection on maternal mortality rather than a true increase. She points in particular to the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act, which Congress passed in 2018, as a reason for the data improving. But even considering the still-limited data on the subject, some research suggests maternal mental health is deteriorating. One 2020 study found that suicidality, meaning either thoughts of suicide or suicide attempts, increased in the decade before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers at the University of Michigan, examining suicide rates among pregnant people with private health insurance between 2006 and 2017, found the number of women who thought about suicide or self-harm tripled during those years. Health experts also believe rates of mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression have gone up among pregnant women because they’ve become more widespread in the population as a whole, according to De Faria. Since 2020, global rates of depression and anxiety have increased by 25 percent, according to the World Health Organization.In the U.S., depression rates reached an all-time high last year, according to a Gallup survey; 29 percent of American adults admitted in the survey that they had been diagnosed with the illness at some point in their lives — 10 percentage points higher than in 2015. The same survey found many more women have experienced depression than men: About 36 percent of women reported being diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives, compared with about 20 percent of men. And that disparity is growing as women see a particularly sharp spike in depression. The rates have risen almost twice as much among women as they have among men since 2017, the survey shows. Suicide rates among young women in the U.S. are also on the rise. Deaths by suicide increased by 4 percent from 2021 to 2022 among women ages 25 to 34, according to the most recent CDC data.
COVID patients at higher risk for respiratory complications well after infection, study finds --The risks of respiratory complications were eightfold and nearly twofold greater in COVID-19 patients in South Korea and Japan during and after infection, respectively, than in the general population, suggests astudy published yesterday in Nature Communications.Led by researchers at Kyung Hee University College of Medicine in Seoul, the study assessed the risk of acute or post-acute respiratory complications after COVID-19 infection among a main cohort of 2,312,748 Koreans and a Japanese replication cohort of 3,115,606. The average age of the Korean cohort was 47.2 years, 48% were women, and 17.1% had tested positive for COVID-19.The risk of respiratory complications among COVID-19 patients in the main Korean cohort was significantly higher than that among the general population during (hazard ratio [HR], 8.06) and after (HR, 1.68) infection. A similar trend was noted in the Japanese replication cohort (respective HRs, 4.17 and 3.32). The risk of developing post-acute respiratory conditions was highest in the first 3 months after COVID-19 infection (main HR, 2.51; replication HR, 4.40) but was still elevated after 6 months (main HR, 1.10; replication HR, 2.67).Relative to the risk of acute respiratory complications in influenza patients, SARS-CoV-2 infection was significantly tied to an increased risk (main cohort HR, 4.32; replication cohort HR, 6.51). Relative to the general population, COVID patients were at a significantly higher risk for several types of post-acute respiratory condition, including chronic respiratory failure (main cohort HR, 8.92; replication HR, 7.55) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, asthma, pulmonary sarcoidosis, and interstitial lung disease (main HR, 10.38; replication HR, 4.75). The risk of acute respiratory complications, including aspergillosis pneumonia (main HR, 6.85; replication HR, 4.97) and pneumothorax, acute respiratory failure (main HR, 112.04; replication HR, 6.49) rose in COVID-19 patients compared with the general population. This tendency held true in comparison with flu patients.
Study reveals persistent risk of death, symptoms in COVID survivors at 3 years -COVID-19 patients hospitalized with the wild-type virus in 2020 were at a 29% higher risk for death than their nonhospitalized counterparts 3 years later, and even those with mild illness still reported new-onset health consequences, concludes a reporton long COVID published today in Nature Medicine.Researchers from the Veterans Affairs (VA) St. Louis Health Care System and Scripps Research followed up on 135,161 COVID-19 survivors and 5,206,835 controls in the VA system for 3 years to estimate the risks of long COVID and death. At the time that the survivors were infected, COVID vaccines and antivirals hadn't been developed.There were 114,864 participants (12.0% women) in the non-hospitalized group and 20,297 in the hospitalized group (5.8% women). In the control group, 9.7% were women. The risk of death among patients hospitalized within 30 days of infection decreased over time but was still significantly elevated 3 years post-infection (incidence rate ratio, 1.29). Although the risk of long COVID declined over that time, substantial residual risk persisted, leading to 90.0 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) per 1,000 people.Among non-hospitalized patients, there was no increased risk of death after the first year, and the risk of long COVID declined over 3 years but still led to 9.6 DALYs per 1,000 people in the third year.Three years post-infection, hospitalized COVID-19 patients had a 34% higher risk of symptoms across all organ systems than controls, down from an 182% increased risk 1 year post-infection and 57% at 2 years.Over 3 years, 378.7 long-COVID symptoms were reported per 1,000 people, including 212.3, 125.0, and 41.2 in the first, second, and third year post-infection, respectively. This corresponded to 56.1%, 33.0%, and 10.9%, respectively, of the total 3-year long-COVID burden.The 3-year burden of DALYs attributed to long COVID-19 was 91.2 per 1,000 people, including 54.3, 27.3, and 9.6 in the first, second, and third year, respectively. This corresponded to 59.6%, 29.9%, and 10.5%, respectively, of the total 3-year DALYs.Total DALYs of hospitalized COVID-19 patients at 3 years (766.2 per 1,000 people) were 8.4 times higher than those of non-hospitalized participants (91.2 per 1,000 people). There was a 5% increased risk of long-COVID symptoms at 3 years among non-hospitalized patients, which translates into 41 more health problems per 1,000 people. In comparison, the risk was 23% higher 1 year post-infection, rising 16% by 2 years. Persistent health effects in the third year mainly affected the gastrointestinal, lung, and neurologic systems. "While risk declined over time in both people who were non-hospitalized and hospitalized for COVID during the initial phase of the infection, residual risk remains even in those who had mild COVID; that risk is much higher in the hospitalized," study author Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, chief of research and development at the VA St. Louis Health Care System, told CIDRAP News. "Even mild COVID can last for years," he added. "Also, the risk is not only higher at any time point but lasts longer in hospitalized individuals—creating a compound effect." "We tend to think of infections as mostly short-term illnesses with health effects that manifest around the time of infection," Al-Aly said in a Washington University news release. "Our data challenges this notion. I feel COVID-19 continues to teach us—and this is an important new lesson—that a brief, seemingly innocuous or benign encounter with the virus can still lead to health problems years later."
New study highlights significant health impacts three years after COVID-19 infection - Amid the complete blackout by governments and public health officials on the true state of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a study just published in the journal Nature Medicine by Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly and colleagues reaffirms in the negative the detriments to our health posed by allowing SARS-CoV-2 to infect and reinfect populations under the stated policy of “forever COVID.” One of the most pernicious lies about COVID-19 is that mild or asymptomatic infections cause no damage to the body and are therefore of little concern. Following up on their prior groundbreaking studies, Al-Aly and colleagues address this fallacy head-on and, in distinction to the laissez-faire attitude of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Biden administration, make a cogent warning on the significant long-term damage COVID-19 can wreak on the body. Regardless of how mild the acute course of the disease may be, the sustained impact to numerous organ systems may greatly impede our long-term well-being. The studies led by Al-Aly force the medical sciences to rethink the genesis of chronic diseases and for stewards of public health to accept prevention as a necessary first measure in defending societies from these pathogens. As with their prior studies, the authors utilize the expansive databases of the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The participants of the present study included a cohort of 135,161 US veterans (114,864 non-hospitalized (NH) and 20,297 hospitalized (H)) who survived the first 30 days of their COVID-19 infections and were followed for three full years to estimate their risk of death and incident of PASC throughout the follow-up period. The comparison group consisted of more than 5 million users of the VA healthcare system without any evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. With respect to death, NH participants only saw an increased risk of death in the first year after the acute phase of their infection compared to controls. This amounted to an excess mortality burden of 16.2 per 1,000 persons. However, H participants continued to see their risk of death climb even into the third year from their initial infection. In the first year, these participants saw an excess mortality burden of 58.85 per 1,000 persons compared to non-infected people. That rate continued climbing with an additional 14.15 excess deaths per 1,000 persons in the second year and then 8.16 excess deaths per 1,000 persons in the third year, for a cumulative rate of over 80 excess deaths per 1,000 persons. Translating this, H participants with just one prior infection compared to non-infected controls can expect to see 8 percent more die after three years. Given that estimates place the number of people hospitalized from May 2020 to April 2021 at between 3.25 to 3.95 million people, that would lead to a considerable undercounting of COVID deaths. With respect to PASC (Long COVID), among NH participants the three-year cumulative number reached 378.7 per 1,000 persons. The highest rate occurred in the first year at 212.3, then 125.0 in the second year and 41.2 in the third year. Additionally, the authors found that the cumulative burden of disability-adjusted-life-years (DALYs) due to PASC reached 91.2 per 1,000 persons. Although declining each year, it remained statistically significant and elevated. By comparison, for H participants, the three-year cumulative number of post-acute sequelae reached 2,392 per 1,000 persons and the burden of DALYs due to PASC had reached 766.2 per 1,000 persons or 8.4 times higher than among NH participants.
Pregnant women with COVID-19 may be at lower risk for long COVID - retrospective study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) trial included women ages 18 to 49 years with lab-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from March 2020 through June 2022 seen in 19 US health systems. PASC was defined as symptoms identified 30 to 180 days post–SARS-CoV-2 infection. A total of 83,915 women with COVID-19 acquired outside of pregnancy and 5,397 women with COVID-19 acquired during pregnancy were compared and included in the final analysis. The authors said this was the first study to compare long-COVID outcomes through the lens of pregnancy. Overall, the authors found that non-pregnant women were older and had more comorbidities than pregnant women with COVID-19, which may have contributed to the findings that non-pregnant women were significantly more at risk for developing long COVID than were pregnant women. Pregnant women had an incidence of PASC of 25.5% compared to 33.9% non-pregnant women, an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 0.85 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80 to 0.91). The cumulative incidence of PASC in the 180 days following the incident infection date was 30.8 per 100 people among those with COVID acquired during pregnancy compared with 35.8 per 100 people among those with COVID acquired outside of pregnancy, the authors said. For pregnant women with COVID-19, the average gestational week at infection was 34 weeks, and the average week of delivery was 39 weeks. Hispanic women made up 27.8% of pregnant women with COVID, compared to 14.3% of non-pregnant women with COVID.
Having 2 or more underlying conditions increase the risk of severe COVID-19 almost 10-fold in kids, data show Though severe COVID-19 infections in children are uncommon, children and young adults with comorbidities are at increased risk for critical illness during COVID-19 infections, according to a new study in Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. The meta-analysis looked at critical COVID-19, defined as an invasive mechanical ventilation requirement, intensive care unit admission, or death, in 70 studies published from March 2020 to August 2023 and found a nearly 10-fold increased risk in kids who have two or more underlying medical conditions."We selected studies that included patients aged ≤21 years with confirmed COVID-19 and provided enough data to estimate the odds ratio (OR) of critical disease for a given risk factor," the authors said.The studies collectively examined 172,165 children, adolescents, and young adults with COVID-19 in 45 countries.In healthy children with no comorbidities, the absolute risk of critical disease from COVID-19 was 4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1% to 10%).Compared with no comorbidities, the pooled odds ratio (OR) for critical disease was 3.95 (95% CI, 2.78 to 5.63) for the presence of one comorbidity and 9.51 (95% CI, 5.62 to 16.06) for two or more comorbidities. The highest critical risk factor was age under 1 month, with 7 studies on 1,290 infants aged under 1 month showing that 20% had critical illness. But the authors warned that that number includes premature infants and may not be widely representative of the true risk to full-term babies.Fifty-one studies assessed the risk of cardiac and pulmonary (heart and lung) comorbidities, including congenital heart disease, high blood pressure, heart failure, cardiomyopathies, valvular disease, septal defects, arrhythmias, and pulmonary hypertension.The rate of critical disease among 2,372 children with cardiovascular disease in these studies was 30% (95% CI, 23% to 37%), and the pooled odds ratio was 3.60 (95% CI, 2.81 to 4.61), the authors said.Previous pulmonary conditions were a risk factor for severity, with a pooled critical disease rate of 24% (95% CI, 17% to 33%) and an OR of 2.15 (95% CI, 1.66 to 2.75)."Few studies examined the extent to which poorly controlled asthma modifies the severity of COVID-19 in children," the authors said. Children with controlled asthma showed no significant risk for severe disease, but uncontrolled asthma more than doubled the risk of developing severe COVID-19 (adjusted risk ratio, 2.24; 95% CI, 1.54 to 3.27).One study found that children, however, who were hospitalized for asthma within 12 months of the study, were at increased for acute COVID-19 severity (adjusted OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 2.6 to 3.3).Children with seizure disorders and other neurologic complications had more than triple the odds of critical illness compared to the general pediatric population (OR 3.40; 95% CI, 2.70 to 4.29).In addition, obesity, diabetes, and compromised immune systems were also tied to statistically significant odd ratios greater than 2.
Current COVID boosters offer good protection against severe outcomes but less so against JN.1 - The current COVID-19 boosters targeting the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant are still offering solid protection against infection, hospitalizations, and death, but are somewhat limited in efficacy against illnesses caused by the JN.1 subvariant, now the dominant strain in the United States, according to a research letter yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine.Protection against infection 4 weeks after vaccination was 52%, and against COVID-related hospital illness it was 67%, but during the JN.1-dominant period it dropped to 44% and 60%, respectively.The authors said the findings underscore the need for new boosters. Next week, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's VRBPAC (Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee) will meet to select COVID and influenza strains to include in updated vaccines. The elected strain will likely be the JN.1 subvariant."The relatively low effectiveness of the XBB.1.5 vaccines against the JN.1 subvariant, together with the waning effectiveness over time, underscores the need for new vaccines targeting the JN.1 strain," said first study author Dan-Yu Lin, PhD, in a press release from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health.Lin and colleagues assessed the efficacy of the Moderna, Pfizer, and Novavax boosters from September 11, 2023, to February 21, 2024, in a cohort of approximately 1.8 million people captured in the Nebraska Electronic Disease Surveillance System and the Nebraska State Immunization Information System (NESIIS).In total, 218,250 people in the cohort (11.9%) received XBB.1.5 vaccines, of whom 133,403 (61.1%) received the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine and 84,307 (38.6%) received the Moderna vaccine, the authors said.The researchers recorded a total of 21,988 SARS-CoV-2 infections, 1,364 COVID-19–related hospitalizations, and 237 COVID-19–related deaths in the cohort. For all three booster vaccines targeting XBB.1.5, efficacy peaked at 1 month, with significant waning at 10 to 20 weeks.At 4 weeks after vaccination, the XBB.1.5 vaccines were 52.2% effective at preventing infection (95% confidence interval [CI], 44.6% to 58.7%). Efficacy against infection dropped at 10 weeks to 2.6% (95% CI, 28.1% to 36.8%), and at 20 weeks to 20.4% (95% CI, 6.2% to 32.5%).The boosters were 66.8% effective at preventing hospitalization at 4 weeks (95% CI, 51.7% to 77.1%), and decreased to 57.1% (95% CI, 40.4% to 69.2%) after 10 weeks."The effectiveness against death was higher than that against other end points; however, there remains substantial uncertainty owing to the small number of deaths," the authors said.To assess how the booster performed against JN.1, the authors analyzed data comparing people who received the XBB.1.5 vaccines on or before October 25, 2023—when JN.1. was first detected in Nebraska—and those who received them after October 25, 2023.During that period, boosters provided 44.3% protection against infection at 4 weeks (95% CI, 33.5% to 53.4%) and 60.1% protection against hospitalization (95% CI, 30.9% to 77.0), which likewise waned over time."The vaccine effectiveness was lower in the second cohort than in the first cohort, which indicates that the XBB.1.5 vaccines were less protective against JN.1 than against XBB sublineages," the authors wrote."It would be worthwhile to deploy new vaccines this fall that target the JN.1. strain," Lin said in the release.
Parental vaccine hesitancy shifted with COVID-19 vaccines -- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigators report that about one in five US children had parents reporting vaccine hesitancy (VH) from 2019 to 2022, and VH increased after the authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years and declined for children aged 6 months to 4 years.The findings are published in Vaccine, and come as the CDC's VRBPAC (Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee) prepares to meet next week to pick COVID and influenza strains to include in updated vaccines.The study was based on responses to the 2019 through 2022 National Immunization Surveys.Overall, VH levels in the United States remained fairly consistent, at 19%, from quarter 2 in 2019 to quarter 3 in 2022. But at various points during the pandemic, certain demographic groups saw increases and decreases in VH.Parents of children ages 5 to 11 had an average quarterly increase in parental VH from the first quarter of 2021 to quarter 3 of 2022. Parents living below the poverty level also had increasing VH throughout the study period.Official US approval of COVID-19 vaccines for children had varying effects on VH, depending on child age: For children ages 6 months to 4 years, VH dropped from 21.6% to 19.4%, a decrease of 2.2 percentage points (95% confidence interval, −3.9 to −0.6).But VH increased among parents of children 5 to 11; after the authorization, 21.0% had a parent that reported VH, compared with 19.8% before."Parents of children aged 5–11 had a sharp increase in VH from Q1 2021 to Q3 2022. Similarly, those living below poverty also saw a gradual increase in VH throughout the study period. Due to concerns about COVID-19 vaccine safety and increased misinformation about vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, parental acceptance and confidence in routine childhood vaccines may have been altered," the authorsconcluded.
Studies spotlight COVID-disrupted breast-cancer screening, cancer treatment delays or stoppage Three new studies delve into patterns of breast-cancer screening and follow-up during the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of care continuity among patients with cancer and COVID-19, and the characteristics of those most likely to discontinue treatment. For the first study, Pennsylvania State University at Hersey researchers analyzed the electronic health records of nearly 1.2 million women eligible for breast cancer screening at multiple US healthcare systems from January 1, 2017, to February 28, 2022. The team assessed monthly screening volumes and compared the rate of adherence to follow-up screening 2 years later during the COVID-19 pandemic versus prepandemic.The average patient age was 54.8 years, 50.3% were White, 12.9% were Black, and 7.2% were Hispanic. Common underlying medical conditions were high blood pressure (17.9%), high cholesterol levels (14.3%), diabetes (7.6%), depression (6.9%), and hypothyroidism (6.6%)."The COVID-19 pandemic led to a decline in the number of people seeking health care services, including breast cancer screening, as many screening programs were temporarily suspended because of concerns about exposure to the virus and the burden on the health care system," "Decisions for postponing cancer screening could be due to numerous uncertainties of older adults regarding their health conditions and fear of COVID-19 infection, especially among older women," they wrote. "Such delays could result in late-stage diagnoses and worse health outcomes for patients at high risk of morbidity and mortality."Socioeconomic factors may have at least partly led to the racial disparities observed in the study. "Compared with White women, women of other races were more likely to be unemployed and uninsured because of the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, preventing them from accessing essential preventive care services and follow-up," the researchers said. "Future research is needed to further understand the underlying social determinants that drive the current gap and disparities, and how the disruption in health services could exacerbate the gaps through these factors." For the second study, published in JAMA Network Open, a team led by researchers from the Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, studied rates of care continuity among patients who had cancer and were diagnosed as having COVID-19 during their cancer-treatment planning from April 2020 to September 2022. Of the 4,054 patients included in the study, 3.5% were American Indian or Alaska Native, 4.3% were Asian, 12.8% were Black, 11.6% were Hispanic, 67.8% were White, 59.3% were women, 35.1% were aged 50 to 64 years, and 47.7% were 65 or older. The patients were scheduled to receive chemotherapy (90.8%), radiation therapy (9.4%), surgery (5.4%), or transplant (0.7%). A total 1,853 patients (45.7%) experienced TDD at 69 US cancer-care centers. Racial disparities in TDD varied by pandemic wave. Black (third-wave adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR], 1.56) and Hispanic cancer patients with COVID-19 (third-wave aPR, 1.35) were more likely to experience TDD than their White peers in the first year of the pandemic. By 2022, Asian patients (aPR, 1.51) had greater odds of TDD than their White counterparts, while American Indian or Alaska Native patients had lower odds (aPR, 0.37).A third study by the authors of the second study examined the characteristics of patients diagnosed as having cancer and COVID-19 who discontinued cancer treatment.The study, also published in JAMA Network Open, included 3,812 patients, 82% of whom were 50 years or older, 60% were women, 68% were White, 12% were Hispanic, and 86% had at least two chronic conditions. Most (90.6%) were scheduled to receive chemotherapy, while 9.5% were to receive radiation, 5.7% surgery, and 0.8% transplant or cellular therapy. The overall rate of treatment discontinuation (TD) was 5.3%. Asian patients were much more likely than White patients to experience TD (aPR, 1.62). Clinical risk factors for TD were higher among patients with a higher Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group score (tolerance for therapy; aPR, 2.61) or a diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancer (aPR, 2.13). Severe COVID-19 infections were tied to a higher likelihood of cancer TD, while TD was less likely among those with stable cancer at COVID-19 diagnosis than those with advancing cancer (aPR, 0.51). "This may suggest that patients already engaged in care were able to continue treatment," the authors said. TD was more likely early in the pandemic, perhaps because of factors such as the nonavailability of COVID-19 vaccines and healthcare system responses when little was known about the newly emerged virus, the researchers said.
US COVID markers show small rise in activity --The main markers the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uses to track COVID activity showed small rises today from very low levels, including wastewater SARS-CoV-2 detections, which rose from the minimal to low level over the past week.Most of the rise in wastewater detections was due to a steady rise in the western region, with a very slight increase in the southern region. The CDC considers wastewater levels an early indicator. The agency also reported slight rises in two other early indicators, test positivity and emergency department visits for COVID. Test positivity is currently highest in Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada.The small rise comes amid rising proportions of JN.1 offshoots. Last week in its variant proportion update, the CDC said two of them—KP.2 and KP.3—made up 41.2% of sequenced samples. The two variants both contain the FLiRT (F for L at position 456 and R for T at position 346) mutation, which may give them the capacity to evade earlier immunity from illness or vaccination.On June 5, the Food and Drug Administration Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) will meet to discuss what COVID strain or strains to include in 2024-25 COVID vaccines. Current vaccines target the XBB.1.5 variant, but JN.1 has become the dominant strain. The World Health Organization COVID vaccine advisory group recently met and recommended a switch to a monovalent (single-strain) vaccine containing the JN.1 antigen. Some countries such as Singapore have reported rising cases, partly due to increasing proportions of JN.1 variants.
Even in this crucial election year, we can’t ignore pandemic preparedness --Pandemic preparedness in the near term is at risk of ending not with a bang, but with a whimper. America’s attention to the risks of natural and man-made highly infectious diseases is waning, and continues to do so, the further the country moves away from the recent pandemic. But it is Washington’s ebbing attention that is far more concerning, with the business of preparedness remaining in progress and unfinished as both the White House and Congress instead shift their focus to the November elections. The coming months are critical to national preparedness; it is vital that they are not wasted, and that progress be made on preparing the country for the next disease. That business in Washington will crawl to a halt is not surprising. Every four years national attention shifts to the presidential and accompanying congressional elections. This means, in practice, little gets done from the early summer through November, and depending on the election cycle and its outcome, little more could be accomplished through the beginning of the next administration or a second presidential term. This is a missed opportunity. In effect, it puts the brakes on any real preparedness planning as the current administration holds its breath waiting on November’s outcome. Regardless of whether President Biden retains the White House or there is a transition of government, it is a safe bet that neither administration will have pandemic preparedness at the top of their legislative agendas. Of course, a newly reelected Biden administration will be in a slightly more advantageous position to pursue action on pandemic preparedness simply by virtue of already being in office and having an existing administration. Even still, it is likely that his second term will be defined by priorities other than the business of pandemic preparedness. If former President Trump is elected to a second term, his immediate priorities on entering office will be building out his administration and acting on his legislative agenda. Given that it has rarely, if ever, been a top priority for an incoming administration, it is a safe assumption that pandemic preparedness will not eclipse the panoply of pressing priorities he will inherit and on which he will seek to act. While the executive-level attention of the respective White Houses may be elsewhere, the bureaucracies they oversee could well advance the needs of preparedness. Here, work remains ongoing as evidenced by two recent reports: in May, the White House published its “National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan” and just one month before the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense released its “National Blueprint for Biodefense.” Neither report received much, if any, attention from anyone outside of the preparedness community (and even within it was scant), but they are illustrative of the intellectual and policy activity that remains ongoing in the background. Politics and elections aside, progress on the critical work of preparedness must continue. Washington is still learning the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and must change the way in which it thinks about preparedness from a nice-to-have to a must-have. The ebb and flow of Congress’s legislative activity and increasingly common budget brinksmanship prevents needed stability for government agencies and the private sector alike. For the latter, this inconsistency limits the willingness of companies to make necessary investments to support expanded production when another pandemic — natural or manmade — happens. The replenishment of the Strategic National Stockpile remains ongoing, albeit at too slow a pace. It too needs greater consistency in terms of budgeting and a considered modernization effort to ensure that more of what is needed is stocked, in a timely manner, and existing stocks are sufficiently rotated out and replenished. The basics of pandemic preparedness are vital, but so too is preparation for what comes next. The emergence and maturation of artificial intelligence (AI) creates unparalleled opportunities (and risks) in the realm of pandemic preparedness. Leveraging AI for disease surveillance and anticipation could well make preparedness and response faster and more effective, provided the legislative and regulatory frameworks are in place to leverage this tool. Equally, left, and right parameters are needed to ensure that AI is not misused for the development of novel diseases that could be introduced in a bioterror attack or otherwise, a concern about which many technologists and futurists are warning. While there is little that can be done about election-related disruption to progress on pandemic preparedness, the broader ecosystem and community of experts from government and industry must ensure that preparedness remains in the public’s consciousness and on the national agenda. It is not a matter of if, but when, the next pandemic occurs, and every day lost to distraction or disruption is one that the country can ill-afford.
- Watmind USA, a medical diagnostics company based in Jackson, Mississippi, today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for its over-the-counter rapid test for COVID-19, influenza A, and influenza B. The test kit is marketed under the SpeedySwab brand and is indicated for use in people ages 2 years and older. It was developed in partnership with the National Institutes of Health Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Independent Test Assessment Program.
- The Chicago Department of Public Health said yesterday that a measles outbreak centered at a migrant shelter is over, now that two incubation periods (42 days) have passed with no new cases. The outbreak began in March and was the city's first in 5 years. It totaled 64 cases over the following weeks, 57 of them linked to the migrant shelter. As part of the response, health workers administered more than 30,000 doses of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
- Five counties reported new polio cases this week, all involving vaccine-derived types, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) said in its latest weekly update. Angola reported its second circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) case of the year, and Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Niger, and Nigeria also reported more cases involving the strain. Also, the DRC reported two more cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 (cVDPV1).
PAHO issues dengue alert for Central America, Mexico, Caribbean --The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) urged countries in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean to strengthen their efforts to prevent dengue infections, given that those areas are entering their increased transmission season and that countries in South America have reported record activity this year.In a May 24 epidemiologic alert, PAHO said the Americas region this year has already reported more than 8.1 million dengue cases, a 3.3-fold increase over the same period last year. More than 3,600 deaths have been reported among the cases. The hardest-hit countries include Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico.In Mexico and some Central America countries, dengue cases are already up between 2.5 and 6 times higher than the same time in 2023. In the Caribbean region, cases are up 5.7-fold from the previous year.PAHO urged countries to focus on early diagnosis and proper management to prevent severe illness and death. It also urged public health officials to emphasize the importance of eliminating mosquito breeding sites and for people to avoid mosquito bites by wearing insect repellent and clothing to protect the arms and legs.
WHO launches dengue dashboard as global threat remains high --The global dengue burden has increased substantially over the past 5 years, and in 2024 so far, more than 7.6 million cases have been reported, which includes 16,000 severe infections and more than 3,000 deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.The America's region has seen the biggest impact, where cases this year have already topped 7 million—well above its record 4.3 million cases in 2023. So far this year, 90 countries globally have reported active dengue transmission, but the WHO warned that many endemic countries don't have strong surveillance and reporting systems.To strengthen global tracking, the WHO has launched a new dashboard. So far, it has data from 103 countries. All regions except Europe have reported locally acquired cases this year. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia has reported a surge, and cases in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Thailand are trending higher than the same period in 2023. In the Western Pacific, Malaysia and Vietnam are most affected. In Africa, 13 countries have ongoing transmission, and in the Eastern Mediterranean region, dengue outbreaks continue to be reported in fragile, conflict-ridden areas.Several factors are responsible for the dengue surge, including shifts in circulating serotypes and climate change. The WHO said urbanization and population movements are also playing a role. "At least five countries (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand) are currently grappling with the initiation of monsoon season, which creates suitable conditions for Aedes mosquito breeding and survival," the agency noted.
Cuba reports Oropouche virus cases - Cuba's health ministry this week announced the detection of Oropouche virus cases in two cities in Santiago province in the southeastern part of the country.In a statement, the ministry said the cases were found during surveillance for nonspecific fever syndromes in Santiago province. Cases were identified from the province's capital city Santiago and from Songo La Maya, about 16 miles to the northeast. The samples were confirmed at the national reference lab at the Pedro Kouri Institute. Patients' conditions improved between the third and fourth day of symptom onset, and actions are underway to limit the spread of the disease, the ministry said. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has warned of rising Oropouche virus cases in some Americas countries, with cases this year reported from Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. In its most recent update, it urged countries to enhance their surveillance and clinical suspicion for Oropouche virus cases, given detections outside of Brazil's Amazonas region and widespread dengue circulation in many countries in the Americas region. Oropouche virus is mainly spread by a species of biting midge called Culicoides paraensis but can also be transmitted by certain Culex mosquitoes. Symptoms are similar to dengue, including a sudden onset of fever, headache, musculoskeletal pain, chills, and sometimes, nausea. Some patients experience aseptic meningitis. Most patients recover in about a week, but for some, symptoms linger for weeks.
China reports fatal H5N6 avian flu case -- China has reported a fatal H5N6 avian flu infection in a 52-year-old woman from Fujian province in the southeastern part of the country.Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said the woman's symptoms began on April 13, and she was hospitalized on April 20, where she died on April 30. An investigation found that she had been exposed to backyard poultry before she became ill. The woman was from Quanzhou, Fujian province's largest city, which has a population of more than 8 million.Highly pathogenic H5N6 is known to circulate in poultry from China and other Asian countries, but so far, China and Laos are the only nations that have reported human cases. Human cases are rare and mostly occur in people who have contact with poultry or poultry environments. The infections are often severe or fatal. China has now reported 90 H5N6 cases since the first human illness was reported in 2014. The country reported its last case in the middle of January.
Second dairy farm worker infected with H5 avian flu in Michigan -The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today announced a third human illness from H5 avian influenza in a dairy farm worker, but unlike the earlier cases, the patient is experiencing respiratory symptoms. In a statement, the CDC said the latest sick dairy farm worker was exposed on a different farm than Michigan's earlier case. Michigan has been hit hardest by the dairy farm outbreaks and has reported 22 outbreaks across 10 of the state's counties.The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) said the patient had worked closely with H5-infected dairy cows.The patient reported symptoms, including cough without fever and eye discomfort with watery discharge, to local health officials. Michigan health officials are using a text-based monitoring system for people exposed to H5N1-infected cows.The 2.3.4.4b H5N1 clade circulating globally is known to cause a range of illnesses, from no symptoms to severe or fatal outcomes. Natasha Bagdasarian, MD, MPH, chief medical executive at the MDHHS, said health officials have been tracking the situation closely since the virus emerged in poultry and dairy cows. "Farmworkers who have been exposed to impacted animals have been asked to report even mild symptoms, and testing for the virus has been made available."Oseltamivir was given, and the patient is isolating and recovering at home. Contacts are free of symptoms so far, and no other infections have been reported in the farm's other workers.The patient's samples were positive for H5 on a CDC test conducted at Michigan's state health department lab, and tests by the CDC yesterday confirmed the findings. Genetic sequencing of the virus that infected that patient is under way at the CDC. "The identification of an additional case of H5 is not surprising and shows the importance of a proactive public health response," the CDC said, adding that the risk to the general public remains low. Bagdasarian said Michigan's first patient experienced eye symptoms after a direct splash to the eye from infected milk, and the second patient had direct exposure to a sick cow. "Neither individual was wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE)," she said. "This tells us that direct exposure to infected livestock poses a risk to humans, and that PPE is an important tool in preventing spread among individuals who work on dairy and poultry farms." The CDC had earlier issued interim PPE recommendations for dairy farm worker protection, and federal officials have encouraged states to provide PPE to farm workers. In new guidance, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) yesterday issued PPE recommendations for people visiting H5N1-infected herds. Earlier cases in the United States include a Texas dairy farm worker who had conjunctivitis in early April and an individual from Colorado who had little to no symptoms after participating in poultry-culling operations and whose illness was reported in early April.
New experiments confirm milk from H5N1-infected cows can make other animals sick — and raise questions about flash pasteurization | CNN — New lab experiments with milk from cows infected by H5N1 influenza, known as bird flu, confirm that it is infectious, especially when left raw, or untreated, and potentially even when flash pasteurized. The researchers, from the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, are part of a federally funded program called the Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response, or CEIRR. This network has been conducting rapid research to answer pressing questions in the H5N1 outbreak in dairy cattle. In a research letter posted online on Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers describe the results of experiments using milk from four infected cows — two from New Mexico and two from Kansas. Because H5N1 virus is considered a select agent, it was handled in a high-security Biosafety Level 3 lab at the University of Wisconsin, using strict safety protocols. First, they confirmed the raw milk was chock-full of H5N1 virus. Then, they stored some of the raw milk at refrigerator temperature to see if levels of the virus in milk would drop off over time. Over 5 weeks, viral levels in raw milk dropped a bit, but not much. “That it wasn’t decaying over time is concerning,” In another series of tests, the researchers checked to see what types of pasteurization might work best for inactivating the virus. They heated small samples of the milk at times and temperatures used in two types of pasteurization: low-temperature, long-time, or vat pasteurization; and high-temperature short-time, or flash pasteurization, which is the most common method used in the US today, according to the International Dairy Foods Association. Heating the milk to 63 degrees Celsius, or 145 degrees Fahrenheit, for intervals between 5 and 30 minutes — the vat pasteurization method — reduced the virus to undetectable levels. Heating the milk to 72 degrees Celsius, or 181 degrees Fahrenheit, for 15 or 20 seconds — conditions that approximated flash pasteurization — greatly reduced levels of the virus in the milk, but it didn’t inactivate it completely. Milk samples heated for 15 or 20 seconds were still able to infect incubated chicken eggs, a test the US Food and Drug Administration has called the gold-standard for determining whether viruses remain infectious in milk. “But, we emphasize that the conditions used in our laboratory study are not identical to the large-scale industrial treatment of raw milk,”
High-path avian flu strikes Iowa layer farm as USDA reports more mammal detections --The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) yesterday reported a highly pathogenic avian flu outbreak at a commercial layer farm in Sioux County in the northwestern corner of the state. Officials told CBS News that the farm has 4.2 million birds, which are slated for culling to curb the spread of the virus. The outbreak marks Iowa's first avian flu outbreak in poultry this year. The IDALS urged poultry and dairy producers to tighten their biosecurity practices to protect their flocks and herds. In other avian flu developments, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported 15 more H5N1 detections in mammals, which span six states, including some counties that have reported outbreaks in dairy cattle. Most of the sample collection dates are from the middle of April or later, and detection dates range from late April through the middle of May.Eight of the detections in four states—New Mexico, Michigan, Montana, and South Dakota—involve domestic cats. Other animals include red fox and a raccoon. A reassortant between the Eurasian and North American wild bird lineage was found in all of the cat samples and in one of the red fox samples.Also, APHIS reported 12 more H5N1 detections in wild birds, mostly those found dead in East Coast states, including New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Virginia. All involved the Eurasian H5N1 strain. All of the new wild-bird detections involve the Eurasian lineage virus.
4 million Iowa chickens being killed after bird flu detected at egg farm -- More than 4 million chickens in Iowa have to be killed after the highly pathogenic bird flu was found at an egg farm, state officials announced Tuesday.The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship said the H5N1 bird flu virus was detected in a large, commercial flock of chickens in Sioux County in the state’s first case of bird flu this year.An official with the department told The Hill the affected flock contains about 4.2 million chickens.Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) subsequently signed a disaster proclamation for Sioux County that will remain in place through June 27, her office said. The proclamation allows state resources to be allocated with the tracking, detection, containment, disposal and disinfection of the virus.The current bird flu outbreak began in 2022 and has primarily impacted the poultry industry, though its recent spread has started to infect dairy cattle in the U.S., as well.Bird flu was first detected in dairy cows in March, though data for viral samples show it was circulating in cattle at least four months prior and prompted a drop in milk production.More than 92 million birds have been killed since 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).The CDC has confirmed outbreaks in 67 herds in nine states, and as of Tuesday, the virus has been detected in more than 9,300 wild birds across 50 states.There have been three bird flu cases detected in humans following bird and dairy exposure since 2022. The first was detected in Colorado in 2022, followed by a case in Texas last month and one in Michigan last week.The most recent case in Michigan was detected in a farmworker who had mild symptoms and has since recovered, according to health officials.
Avian flu infects more dairy cows in Michigan --The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) today said highly pathogenic avian flu has been detected again in dairy cows, this time hitting another herd in Ottawa County.The latest report pushes the state's total to 23 farms across 10 counties. The MDARD said samples from the cows were positive in testing at the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and that samples will be sent to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Veterinary Services Lab for additional confirmation.The USDA yesterday added 2 more H5N1 outbreaks to itstotal yesterday—additional confirmations from Idaho and Michigan—raising the national total to 69 in nine states.In related developments, the USDA yesterday announced an additional $824 million in emergency funding from the Commodity Credit Corporation to bolster efforts to better understand and contain the virus.The new funding targets multiple activities, ranging from the development of diagnostics to field response activities to research on vaccines against highly pathogenic avian flu for cattle, turkeys, pigs, and goats.Also, the agency announced the launch of a new voluntary H5N1 dairy herd status pilot program to give dairy farmers more ways to monitor the health of their herds, as well to ship cows faster while providing ongoing testing and information for the USDA.The USDA said the main benefit for farmers who enroll in the program is that, once they show their herds are free of H5N1, they can conduct weekly tests on bulk milk to confirm the status. Also, animals in herds with negative bulk milk tests for 3 weeks in a row can be moved without additional pre-movement testing. Over the past 2 weeks, five sites (2%) from three states were at a high level for influenza A detections in wastewater, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its latest update. A total of 288 of 741 sites met reporting criteria. Three sites in Oregon were at the high level: Jackson, Lane, and Lincoln counties. Other sites at the high level were in Illinois (Adams County) and Kansas (Saline County).The CDC launched influenza A wastewater tracking in the middle of May as part of its surveillance for H5N1 avian flu. It emphasized that influenza A monitoring of wastewater doesn't determine the subtype or source, but might serve as a warning on where H5N1 might be circulating.
Alpacas infected with H5N1 avian flu in Idaho - The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today announced that tests have confirmed highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in alpacas at an Idaho farm where the virus had struck a poultry flock.The detection marks the first positive findings in alpacas, which are members of the camelid family. Detection of the virus in the alpacas isn't unexpected due to the high amount of virus in the environment and the comingling of multiple livestock species on the farm, APHIS said.The detection of the virus in farm animals on an affected poultry farm is similar to the H5N1 detection in baby goats at a Minnesota farm that experienced a poultry outbreak. Genetic sequencing at the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) reveals that the virus that infected the alpacas is the same B3.13 H5N1 genome circulating in dairy cows and is also the same genotype that infected poultry at the Idaho farm. APHIS said the poultry on the Idaho farm were depopulated this month.According to a notification from the World Organization for Animal Health, the alpacas and poultry were from a backyard farm in Jerome County. The virus was detected in 4 of the farm's 18 alpacas. The report said the alpacas had close contact with the infected birds.In other developments, US officials also reported H5N1 in two feral cats found dead in Curry County, New Mexico, according to a WOAH notification. A local veterinarian submitted the cats for testing because there were H5N1-affected dairy farms in Curry County.However, the cats' location wasn't directly related to a dairy or poultry farm with a known H5N1 outbreak.Detections of H5N1 in cats at dairy farms experiencing outbreaks have recently been reported in multiple states. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) today said tests have confirmed H5N1 in another herd in Clinton County. Tests were conducted at the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, and samples will be sent to the USDA's NVSL for additional confirmation.The positive test marks the third outbreak in Clinton County and Michigan's 22nd such outbreak in dairy cattle. Nationally, H5N1 has been detected in 67 dairy herds across nine states. In an update today, the USDA added 3 more detections—one each from Idaho, Texas, and Michigan.
Interior secretary reverses memo on National Park employees attending Pride events in uniform --Interior Secretary Deb Haaland confirmed in a Friday memo that National Park Service (NPS) staff will be permitted to participate in LGBTQ Pride Month activities in uniform, reversing an NPS memo from earlier this month that sparked fierce backlash. In the memo, shared with The Hill, Haaland did not directly name Pride Month but wrote that in addition to the “Special Emphasis Months” observed within the Interior Department, some outside activities and events can be considered in service of the same goals. LGBTQ Americans are among those listed as covered by the Interior Department’s Special Emphasis Programs. “I am directing Bureau leaders or their designated officials to determine how and when bureaus should participate in these externally organized events,” she wrote. “This could include marching units in parades, booths at parades, events etc. This would allow employees to participate in uniform representing their respective bureau. This direction takes effect immediately.” The initial, unsigned May 17 memo stated “requests from employees asking to participate in uniform in a variety of events and activities, including events not organized by the NPS,” are not in keeping with NPS policy. LGBTQ advocates vocally criticized the move, including Pattie Gonia, an environmentalist and drag queen who marked LGBT History Month with Haaland last year. She wrote “This is NOT what allyship looks like” in an Instagram post last week. LGBTQ rights organization GLAAD praised Haaland for reversing the decision. “Our National Parks and the public servants who work there are treasures valued by every American. Employees should be able to express support for Pride and all celebrations that bring people together to reflect the beautiful diversity of our country and people,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement.
Supreme Court to consider challenge to Clean Water Act’s San Francisco rules --The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a lawsuit from San Francisco against the Environmental Protection Agency challenging Clean Water Act regulations the city argues are overly vague. In the case, City and County of San Franciso v. Environmental Protection Agency, the plaintiffs argued that the agency’s discharge rules for San Francisco are too ambiguous because they bar discharges that “cause or contribute to a violation of any applicable water quality standard,” rather than imposing quantifiable numerical limits. “San Francisco has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure to meet the Act’s requirements and stands ready to invest further to reduce pollution if the Act so requires,” lawyers for the city wrote in the petition. “Generic water quality prohibitions, however, neither set limits on the quantities of pollutants that San Francisco may discharge nor prescribe management practices that the City must implement.” “As a result, these prohibitions do not provide the City the directives it needs to assess whether it must invest further in controlling its discharges,” they added. In its own brief, the EPA argued that these rules specifically argue discharges cannot violate water quality standards adopted by regional or state water resource control boards of the EPA. “Those standards, in turn, establish specific limits to which petitioner’s discharges must conform,” attorneys wrote.
Wheat Jumps To Nine-Month High On Fears Of Dwindling Global Stockpiles - During the Memorial Day holiday break, food inflation was certainly on the minds of those who had to purchase beef patties and other BBQ-related items for outdoor parties.. Beef and egg prices are climbing, and staples like orange juice, cocoa beans, and coffee are skyrocketing. Now, the latest soft commodity that is pushing higher is wheat. Bad weather across the world's top growing regions, including the driest May in Ukrainian records, lack of rainfall in Western Australia, and unseasonably cold weather in Russia, has sent wheat futures in Chicago to a nine-month high. Here are the top growing regions experiencing adverse weather conditions (courtesy of Bloomberg):
- Black Sea Dryness: Top exporter Russia risks missing out on crucial moisture, with weeks of heat and not enough rain in the country's south prompting analysts to cut harvest estimates. Half Russia's winter wheat will remain too dry over the next two weeks, Commodity Weather Group said Wednesday. Russia should still reap a big crop, but its dominance means that any jolts to local prices feed through to other markets — and the country's wheat has been getting more expensive lately.
- War in Ukraine: Dryness has also hampered swaths of Ukraine's wheat in recent weeks, but war is fueling other problems. Attacks on agriculture infrastructure threaten exports and the workforce has been depleted as men serve in the army. Grain output in the upcoming season could drop 6% from a year earlier with farmers expected to divert grain acres to more profitable crops like rapeseed.
- Wet Western Europe: A soggy spring hurt crop development across northwest Europe. Winter-crop quality — which determines whether supplies are used for food or for animal feed — could also suffer. In France, the share of wheat and barley in top conditions lags far behind last year's level. Rain has also slowed spring plantings in the UK, Germany and France.
- Parched Australia: A dry, hot summer in parts of Australia has dried up soil just as farmers plant the crop. While recent rain provided a bit of relief in some areas of the key state of Western Australia, growers remain cautious. Crops risk "frying" in the state if rain stops after germination.
- Dry US: Drought has gripped a bigger share of US winter-wheat fields since early April, and remains a concern for spring plantings, even as recent forecasts indicate showers. Still, more US winter wheat is in the top conditions than usual for this time of year and spring plantings remain ahead of the five- year average pace. Crop concerns are showing up in prices, with money managers now the least bearish since July. But things could change before the first Northern Hemisphere harvests start in roughly four weeks.
Tornado outbreak results in 18 deaths in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kentucky - 9 YouTube videos - At least 18 people were killed in a severe weather outbreak that affected Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky from late Saturday into Sunday, May 26, 2024. Severe weather is expected to continue into the new week with risks shifting east from Alabama to near New York City by Monday. At least 18 people, including children, died as severe weather spawned multiple tornadoes across Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky from late Saturday into Sunday, May 26, 2024. The storms left more than 500 000 customers without power — more than 1.3 million people. The worst damage over the weekend was reported in a region extending from north of Dallas to the northwest corner of Arkansas. 7 deaths were reported in Cooke County, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, where a tornado Saturday night plowed through a rural area near a mobile home park, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Sunday. Approximately 100 people were injured across Texas, and over 200 homes and structures were destroyed. More than a third of all counties in Texas are now subject to a disaster declaration. The small agricultural community of Valley View in Texas was among the hardest-hit areas, with officials estimating wind speeds reached 217 km/h (135 mph). In Arkansas, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed 8 fatalities in a Sunday evening news conference. An emergency official noted that two of the deaths were indirectly caused by the storm—one from a heart attack and another due to loss of oxygen following a power outage. The fatalities included a 26-year-old woman found outside a destroyed home in Olvey, Boone County. Additional deaths occurred in Benton and Marion counties. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency early on Monday, May 27, citing multiple reports of wind damage and tornadoes. Police reported one fatality in Louisville, where a man was killed after a tree fell on him. Two people were killed in Oklahoma. Major damage was reported in Claremore, where a tornado ripped through the middle of the town. As of 06:00 UTC on Monday, May 27, a total of 491 829 customers were without power across Kentucky, West Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas, and Virginia. The affected included 201 499 in Kentucky, 81 857 in West Virginia, 80 093 in Missouri, 70 367 in Arkansas, and 58 013 in Virginia. This outage impacted approximately 1 278 800 people, with 523 900 in Kentucky, 212 800 in West Virginia, 208 200 in Missouri, 182 950 in Arkansas, and 150 800 in Virginia. The NWS warned late Sunday that severe storms are expected to persist through the evening and overnight across the eastern Ozark Plateau into the Ohio and Tennessee Valley. “On Sunday evening, a front extending from the Upper Great Lakes/Middle Mississippi Valley and southwestward to the Southern Plains will move to the Eastern Seaboard by Tuesday evening. The boundary will create an area of showers and severe thunderstorms over parts of eastern Missouri and the Ohio Valley,” NWS forecaster Ziegenfelder noted in a Short Range Discussion issued 19:44 UTC on May 27. The boundary will produce showers and severe thunderstorms over parts of eastern Missouri and the Ohio Valley. The SPC has issued an Enhanced Risk (level 3/5) of severe thunderstorms for the Middle/Lower Mississippi Valley and Ohio/Tennessee Valleys through Monday morning. These thunderstorms will bring frequent lightning, severe wind gusts, hail, and a few tornadoes, with an added threat of EF-2 to EF-5 tornadoes and hail over 5 cm (2 inches) in diameter in the Lower Mississippi/Western Tennessee Valleys. Severe thunderstorm wind gusts over 120 km/h (65 knots) are expected in parts of the Eastern Ohio/Eastern Tennessee Valleys.
Storms upending Memorial Day weekend leave at least 20 dead, thousands without power -Severe storms hit parts the U.S. over Memorial Day weekend, leaving at least 20 people dead and injuring hundreds. The storms hit worst in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas before moving east. There were several deaths reported in Cooke County, Texas, near the Oklahoma border after a tornado swept through a rural area near a mobile home park Saturday, The Associated Press reported. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said there were two children, ages 2 and 5, among the dead. About 100 people were injured, and more than 200 homes and structures were destroyed. Wind gusts in the Valley View community reached an estimated 135 mph, according to officials. “The hopes and dreams of Texas families and small businesses have literally been crushed by storm after storm,” Abbott said. Abbott made a disaster declaration for 108 counties in Texas as of Sunday. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Sunday evening that eight people died from the storms in Arkansas. Two deaths were attributed to circumstances of the storm but not directly from the weather, since one person suffered a heart attack and another lost oxygen after losing electricity. Other deaths in Arkansas included a 26-year-old woman found inside a destroyed home in Boone County, officials said. One person died in Benton County and two more died in Marion County, per records. In Oklahoma, two people died in Mayes County, officials said. A Louisville, Ky., man was killed when a tree fell on him, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg confirmed. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency Monday, citing reports of wind damage and tornadoes. Tens of thousands of residents were also without power in the central region of the country, with Kentucky having the most outages. As of Monday morning, more than 100,000 residents were without power in the Bluegrass State, according to poweroutage.us.
Tornadoes kill 23 across five states over Memorial Day holiday weekend - At least 23 people were killed across five states in the southern US on Saturday night and into Sunday as severe weather systems destroyed homes, businesses and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands during the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The storms stretched from the Great Lakes region to the Southeast, with catastrophic and deadly destruction concentrated in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Kentucky. According to data published by the Climate and Space Sciences Engineering School at the University of Michigan, as of this writing there were 37 tornadoes reported in the US in the previous 48 hours. More than 110 million people remained at risk of severe weather on Monday, mainly in the East Coast, as the storms continued moving eastward and threatened the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C areas. Tornado watches were issued from North Carolina to Maryland. In the immediate aftermath of the storms, more than 25 million people are under heat alerts, mainly across east and south Texas and central and southern Louisiana and Mississippi, over the next two days. Heat index measurements could top 119 degrees in Laredo, Texas, and 113 degrees in Austin, and Houston. In Texas, at least seven people were killed by tornadoes, including two children ages 2 and 5 from the same family, and nearly 100 people were injured. All of the deaths took place in Cooke County, which is north of Dallas on the border with Oklahoma. CNN reported that Laura Esparza and her children Marco, 10, and Miranda, 16, died after their trailer was thrown across a street. The storm was preliminarily rated by the National Weather Service as an EF-2 system with winds as high as 135 miles per hour. According to Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington, the storm tore through the Gateway AP Travel Center truck stop near Valley View, Texas, before moving through a community of manufactured homes.
Over a third of Texas counties are under a disaster declaration -- More than a third of the counties in Texas are under a disaster declaration after extreme weather battered much of the state Saturday night and into Sunday.At least 18 people have died in the storms due to the severe weather across the central U.S., which included multiple tornados.Gov. Gregg Abbott made a disaster declaration for 108 counties in Texas as of Sunday. He said at least seven people, including four children, died due to the storms, and more than 100 were injured.“We are going through the heart-wrenching loss of life, including the heartbreak of a family losing a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old child,” Abbott said. “When they woke up yesterday, they had no way of knowing the family would be literally crushed by this horrific storm.” Abbott spoke from outside the wreckage of a gas station in Valley View, north of Dallas, which was completely destroyed in a tornado.“I saw the harrowing video inside the Valley View gas station as the tornado passed through, with the people stockpiled in there, clinging to safety,” Abbott said, calling it a “miracle” that there were no deaths there.The National Weather Service said “multiple tornadoes” touched down in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, including at least two EF-2 tornadoes and a “high end” EF-3 tornado, according to an early damage analysis.The most recent storms come on the heels of a deadly tornado season in the U.S. so far this year. Officials said last week that five people died and another 35 were injured in Iowa as dangerous tornadoes ripped through the state.Sunday’s band of storms moved northeast over the course of the evening, spawning a tornado near St. Louis and tornado watches in parts of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. More than 7 million Americans were under a tornado watch as of Sunday evening.The 18 dead include eight people in Arkansas, seven in Texas, two in Oklahoma and one in Kentucky. Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals home games were delayed due to weather Sunday, with viral video showing stairs in a Cardinals dugout turning into a waterfall due to extreme rainfall.
Posts overstate tornado risks to wind turbines - After a deadly tornado ravaged the US state of Iowa, destroying ten wind turbines, social media posts expressed doubts on the reliability of this type of energy in locations prone to extreme weather conditions. But only a small fraction of turbines in the midwestern state were affected, and officials and an engineer told AFP such intense damage is rare. "This is what tornados do to wind turbines," a May 23, 2024 Facebook postsays linking to a video of a wind turbine being snapped in half during a tornado that claimed the lives of at least five people in Iowa.Similar claims questioning why a location prone to tornadoes would support wind farms spread on X here, here and here as residents were surveying damage across Adair and Adams counties. Iowa relies heavily on renewable energy and is the second-largest wind power producer in the United States after the state of Texas (archived here).Tornadoes do impact the state and local media reported that the May 21 storm destroyed ten wind turbines (archived here and here), but experts said this level of damage is atypical."For the record that's 10 out of 6,757 turbines in the state, per the Energy Information Administration," said Kanan Kappelman, a spokeswoman for theIowa Economic Development Authority."It is unusual for wind turbines to suffer tornado damage," she told AFP on May 23.MidAmerican Energy, which has been operating in the state since 2004, also said this storm triggered an "unprecedented impact" to its wind fleet. "We have experienced only one other instance of a wind turbine collapse, which was also caused by a tornado," Tina Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the company, told AFP on May 24. Video of turbines withstanding tornadoes have also been captured (archivedhere). Tornadoes are measured on the Enhanced Fujita Scale or EF Scale and rated based on wind speeds and damage (archived here).The National Weather Service said it confirmed "EF-4 damage in Greenfield, Iowa, EF-3 damage in NW Adams County, and EF-2 damage from two tornadoes: in Polk into Story County and near Arbor Hill " (archived here). The top wind speeds in the EF-4 tornado were estimated at 175-185 miles (281.6-297.7 kilometers) per hour.Manufacturers design wind turbines to sustain extreme weather including severe thunderstorms and high wind events, but Hoffman said: "Few structures can withstand a direct hit by a powerful tornado such as what we experienced on Tuesday." She said several of the company's turbine sensors registered wind speeds over 100 miles (160.9 kilometers) per hour as the tornado approached, before the towers were destroyed. Sanjay Raja Arwade (archived here), professor of civil engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told AFP the probability of a tornado directly impacting a tower is very low. Turbine operators also take precautions, such as designing the systems to automatically shut off at very high wind speeds (archived here).Legislation in Iowa requires wind turbines to be placed at a minimum distance from inhabited areas in order to reduce risk to human safety in case of a catastrophic event (archived here).But turbines, "like any other piece of infrastructure including buildings, can be damaged by a direct hit by a tornado," a spokesman for the Department of Energy told AFP on May 23.
Severe thunderstorms bring destructive hail to northeast Denver, Boulder, and Broomfield, Colorado - (2 videos) Large hail battered northeast Denver late Thursday night, May 30, 2024, as severe thunderstorms produced intense light shows and hail up to baseball-sized. The National Weather Service issued warnings for several areas, including Boulder, Broomfield, and Denver International Airport. Northeast Denver experienced a severe hailstorm late Thursday night, bringing large, destructive hail and intense thunderstorms. The National Weather Service (NWS) began issuing severe thunderstorm warnings for the Denver metro area at 20:45 LT (02:45 UTC, May 30), initially targeting Boulder, Broomfield, and Lafayette. As the storm moved south-southeast, warnings expanded to include Thornton, Commerce City, and Broomfield, with residents alerted to the potential for winds up to 80 km/h (50 mph) and hail the size of quarters (2.54 cm or 1 inch). The storm intensified after 21:30 LT, producing golf ball-sized hail (4.45 cm or 1.75 inches) and later, tennis (6.7 cm or 2.6 inches) and baseball-sized hail (7.62 cm or 3 inches) in parts of the northeastern Denver metro area, including Denver International Airport. By 22:15 LT (04:15 UTC), the NWS in Boulder issued a warning for a “Destructive hail storm for Green Valley Ranch and northeast Denver “Radar indicated up to baseball size hail falling with this storm. This storm is currently tracking across Pena Blvd and moving slowly east-southeast.” YouTube video Following this, a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Denver, Aurora, and Westminster until 23:15, as forecasters warned of potential golf ball-sized hail and winds reaching 80 km/h (50 mph) as the storm continued its slow movement through the area. A severe thunderstorm warning remains in effect for northeastern Douglas County, western Arapahoe County, and south-central Denver County until midnight, according to the NWS. The intense storms led to the closure of the westbound lanes of E. 96th Ave. and Havana St. in Commerce City due to flooding, according to the city’s police department. Authorities advised drivers not to attempt to navigate through the flooded area. The true extent of the destruction will become clear as daylight reveals the aftermath of the storm. Residents are likely to discover damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles caused by the large hail.
Early Canadian wildfire season prompts fears of repeat of 2023 record-breaking year -Canada’s 2024 wildfire season has started early, prompting fears that the country could see a return of the devastating nationwide fires of last year that forced thousands to flee their homes and choked millions across North America with smoke. The fires are a direct result of climate change, with governments of all political stripes at the federal and provincial levels creating conditions for worsening infernos and withholding the resources necessary to address the growing crisis.The wildfires are currently concentrated in the western Canadian provinces of British Columbia (BC) and Alberta, the Northwest Territories, as well as the prairie province of Manitoba. The majority, around 112, are burning in BC, with a further 31 in Alberta and nine in Manitoba. Thousands of people have been evacuated from communities near the fires. Nine fires in BC are considered burning out of control, including those in the vicinity of the community of Fort Nelson, where approximately 3,500 residents have been evacuated. A large fire near the city of Flin Flon in Manitoba is now considered to be under control, but not before about 700 residents were forced to evacuate. Around 6,600 residents of southern Fort McMurray, Alberta,—the center of Canada’s carbon-intensive oil sands extraction industry—which experienced a massive wildfire in 2016 that became the country’s single costliest natural disaster, were evacuated in response to nearby fires this month, but have since returned to their homes. The fires continue to burn but are considered contained. The province of Quebec, which saw around 164 active wildfires at the peak of the record-breaking 2023 fire season, has had a relatively muted start to the year, although there have already been over 80 wildfires. Scientists believe that more moist conditions and the lack of a severe spring drought in the province account for the lower number of fires. While cooler temperatures and rain have helped subdue several of the larger wildfires in western Canada, projections show warmer overall temperatures going into the summer, exacerbated by the effects of El Niño. This past winter witnessed lower-than-average precipitation, producing favourable conditions for late spring and summer droughts, which provide fuel for fires. “Early projections for 2024 indicate the potential for early and above-normal fire activity over the spring months as a result of ongoing drought forecasts,” according to federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. The Liberal cabinet minister issued the warning at an April press conference about expectations for the 2024 wildfire season.
Delhi-NCR registers national record-high temperature of 52.3 °C (126.1 °F) - Delhi-NCR, India, registered a record-breaking temperature of 52.3 °C (126.1 °F) at 14:30 LT on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, as reported by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). This temperature, recorded in the suburb of Mungeshpur, exceeded the previous national record of 51 °C (124 °F) set in Rajasthan’s Phalodi town in 2016. The extreme heat was briefly alleviated by a sudden weather change, with clouds covering the city and light rain in several parts of Delhi providing significant respite. On May 28, the Mungeshpur weather station recorded a high of 49.9 °C (121.8 °F). The highest temperature nationwide on May 28 was registered in Churu, West Rajasthan at 50.5 °C (122.9 °F). The heatwave forced school closures in several cities and increased the risk of heatstrokes for outdoor workers. In Bihar, several students fainted due to the heat at a government school. Video footage showed a girl being revived with water and manual fanning. “Electrolyte imbalance is causing fainting, vomiting, and dizziness,” said Dr. Rajnikanth Kumar, who treated the students. Delhi’s Narela area saw residents distributing free cold drinks on Wednesday, where temperatures had reached 49.9 °C (121.8 °F) on Tuesday. Local authorities have restricted water supply due to shortages, imposing fines of 2 000 rupees ($24) for water wastage, such as car washing. The heatwave claimed three lives on Tuesday in Jaipur, Rajasthan, increasing the death toll to at least 13 in the state, with four in Jaipur alone. These extreme temperatures coincide with a six-week general election, exacerbating health risks as people wait in long lines to vote. The voting period ends on Saturday. India’s election body made additional arrangements for Delhi voters, including posting paramedics at polling stations due to the heat.
Severe heatwave claims 54 lives across India - - A severe heatwave has claimed at least 54 lives across central, eastern, and northern India, over the past couple of days, with record-breaking temperatures affecting regions including Delhi and Bihar. In Bihar, 32 people died from heatstroke. The fatalities in Bihar include 17 in Aurangabad, 6 in Arrah, 3 each in Gaya and Rohtas, 2 in Buxar, and 1 in Patna. Odisha reported 10 deaths in Rourkela. In Jharkhand’s Palamu and Rajasthan, 5 people died each, while 1 death was reported in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Additionally, a 40-year-old man from Darbhanga, Bihar, succumbed to heatstroke in Delhi after his body temperature rose to 42.2 °C (108 °F). This was Delhi’s first heat-related death of the year. Delhi-NCR registered a record-breaking temperature of 52.9 °C (127.2 °F) on May 29, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). This temperature, recorded in Mungeshpur, surpassed the previous national record of 51 °C (124 °F) set in Phalodi, Rajasthan, in 2016. However, IMD is currently investigating the accuracy of this reading due to potential sensor errors or local factors. Delhi’s primary weather station at Safdarjung Observatory recorded a maximum temperature of 46.8 °C (116.2 °F) on May 29, the highest in 79 years. The previous record was 46.7 °C (116.1 °F) on June 17, 1945. On May 30, the maximum temperature in Delhi was slightly lower at 45.6 °C (114.1 °F), still significantly above the normal. On May 30, IMD reported that maximum temperatures ranged between 45 – 48 °C (113 – 118.4 °F) across many parts of Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and isolated pockets of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, East Madhya Pradesh, and Vidarbha. The IMD also indicated that temperatures in the range of 42 – 45 °C (107.6 – 113 °F) were prevalent in parts of West Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Yanam, Gujarat, Telangana, and Rayalaseema. These temperatures were above normal by 3 – 6 °C (5.4 – 10.8 °F) in many regions of Northwest, Central, and East India. A duststorm is predicted in Uttar Pradesh between May 31 and June 1, and in Haryana, Chandigarh, and Delhi on May 31. The IMD forecasted very light to light rainfall with thunderstorms and lightning over the plains of Northwest India from May 31 to June 2. Heatwave to severe heatwave conditions are expected in isolated pockets of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha on May 31 and June 1.
Typhoon “Ewiniar” (Aghon) hits the Philippines, causing deaths and widespread damage - Typhoon “Ewiniar” — known as Aghon in the Philippines, formed on May 25, 2024, northeast of Davao City, Philippines as the first named storm of the 2024 Pacific typhoon season. The system made multiple landfalls, causing three fatalities, injuries to seven individuals, and impacting approximately 19 000 people across various regions. Heavy rain, landslides, and widespread damage were reported as the storm progressed. Initially identified as a tropical depression at 18:00 UTC on May 22, the system entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) early on May 23 and was named Aghon by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) on May 24. The storm made its first landfall over Homonhon Island and Giporlos, Eastern Samar, in the early hours of May 25 (PHT). Throughout the evening, Aghon made additional landfalls over the Basiao and Cagduyong Islands of Catbalogan, Batuan in Ticao Island, Masbate City, and Torrijos, Marinduque. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) reported that the tropical depression intensified into a tropical storm at 12:00 UTC on May 25 while still in Tayabas Bay. However, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) needed another 12 hours to classify the system as a tropical storm, naming it Ewiniar. The storm’s eighth landfall occurred over Lucena, Quezon, in Luzon on the morning of May 26 (PHT). On the same day, the JTWC upgraded Ewiniar to a typhoon after satellite imagery revealed the development of its eye feature over Lamon Bay. Ewiniar made its ninth landfall over Patnanungan in the Polillo Islands later that evening. By May 27, the JMA had also upgraded Ewiniar to a typhoon.
1.1 million evacuated, at least 65 killed as Tropical Cyclone “Remal” hits Bangladesh and India – 2 videos - Severe Cyclonic Storm “Remal” crossed Bangladesh’s southern port of Mongla and the Sagar Islands in India’s West Bengal on May 26, 2024. Over 1.1 million people were evacuated before the storm, which caused at least 65 deaths and extensive damage. Severe Cyclonic Storm “Remal” crossed the southern port of Mongla in Bangladesh and the adjoining Sagar Islands in India’s West Bengal late Sunday (LT), May 26, 2024. The governments of India and Bangladesh evacuated more than 1.1 million people ahead of the landfall, with over 1 million evacuated in Bangladesh and 110 000 in West Bengal. Evacuations in West Bengal focused on South 24 Parganas, particularly Sagar Island, Sundarbans, and Kakdwip. Remal made landfall with winds reaching approximately 135 km/h (84 mph) at around 20:30 LT, with the process lasting about five hours before weakening into a cyclone on Monday morning. The death toll in Bangladesh has risen to at least 10 people, with more than 30 000 homes destroyed and tens of thousands more damaged, according to top local officials on Monday, May 27. “They mostly died after they were crushed under fallen houses or collapsed walls,” said Showkat Ali, government administrator of Barisal district, where seven people died. Three others died in neighboring districts. Rain flooded roads and disrupted travel in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, where authorities had set up nearly 8 000 cyclone shelters and deployed 78 000 volunteers in preparation for the storm. YouTube video In India, one person died in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, due to a wall collapse, a senior NDRF officer reported on Monday. Another fatality occurred when a mud home collapsed on the island of Mousuni in the Sundarbans delta. Kolkata recorded 146 mm of rain between 08:30 on Sunday and 05:30 on Monday, with other areas such as Haldia (110 mm), Tamluk (70 mm), and Nimpith (70 mm) also experiencing heavy rainfall during this period. Remal disrupted air, rail, and road transportation in Kolkata and southern Bengal. The Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port in Kolkata also halted operations. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) mobilized 15 000 civic employees to manage post-cyclone recovery efforts, including the removal of uprooted trees. The Eastern, Northeast Frontier, and South Eastern Railways canceled several trains, and the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata suspended flight operations for 21 hours, affecting 394 flights. The airport resumed operations at 09:00 today. Fourteen teams from the federal contingency force are engaged in restoration and rescue work, clearing uprooted trees, electric poles, and helping people from marooned areas in West Bengal, said Showkat Ali. These teams have removed about 54 uprooted trees, two electric poles, and cleared approximately 18 km of roads in affected areas of Hasnabad, Sandeshkhali, Gosaba, Sagar, Shyampur, and Haringhata, he added. Remal is expected to weaken into a deep depression by this evening, but heavy rains are forecasted to continue. The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) has issued warnings of extremely heavy rainfall across Assam and other northeastern states on May 27 and 28. Orange and Red alerts have been issued for various districts, anticipating severe weather conditions. The Meghalaya government has advised residents to prepare emergency kits, avoid unnecessary travel, and stay updated with weather reports. Tripura’s government closed all educational institutions on May 27 and 28 and suspended flight operations on the Kolkata-Agartala route until Monday morning. Millions of people are still without power. India’s navy has put ships, aircraft, divers, and medical supplies on standby for rescue operations.
More than 75 killed as Tropical Cyclone “Remal” strikes India and Bangladesh - - 2 YouTube videos - Tropical Cyclone “Remal” — which made landfall over the southern port of Mongla in Bangladesh and the adjoining Sagar Islands in India’s West Bengal on May 26, 2024, has left more than 75 fatalities by May 29. At least 14 people are still missing. The cyclone brought heavy rain and gale-force winds, leading to widespread destruction and significant loss of life. The cyclone, described by Azizur Rahman, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, as “one of the longest in the country’s history,” caused extensive damage across both countries. In Bangladesh, 19 fatalities have been reported, with causes ranging from drowning to electrocution by fallen power lines. The cyclone’s impact began with rain and gale-force winds in coastal areas starting the morning of May 26. The Ministry of Disaster Management stated that approximately 800 000 people in coastal areas were forced to leave their homes and seek shelter due to the cyclone. Wind speeds ranged from 90 to 120 km/h (56 to 75 mph), and a high tide of 1.5 to 2.1 m (5 to 7 feet) caused significant flooding, damaging homes, crops, and livestock. In Khulna, two children went missing, and 13 people were injured when a trawler sank. More than 2.7 million people lost electricity, and over 27 000 mobile network towers were damaged. Dhaka experienced severe flooding, with 306 mm (12 inches) of rainfall, resulting in three fatalities due to electrocution from fallen electric wires. The cyclone affected around 3.7 million people in 107 upazilas of 19 coastal districts, completely destroying 35 000 houses and partially damaging 115 000 houses. In India, the cyclone claimed more than 60 lives, with the majority of deaths occurring in the northeastern state of Mizoram, where at least 30 people died, including 14 workers crushed in a quarry collapse. In West Bengal, ten people died, and 13 fatalities were reported in Telangana, with most deaths caused by falling trees or collapsing structures. Other fatalities were reported in Assam, Nagaland, and Meghalaya. The cyclone toppled 356 electricity poles and destroyed 2 500 houses while damaging another 27 000 in India. More than 50 000 people were evacuated from the Sundarbans region due to a tidal surge reaching over 3 m (10 feet), which lasted over 36 hours and caused significant saltwater incursion. Kolkata experienced severe disruptions, with 394 flights canceled and 400 trees uprooted. The city recorded 260 mm (10 inches) of rainfall in 24 hours, along with wind gusts of 90 km/h (56 mph), causing flooding and disrupting metro services.
International Court Holds Climate Hearings in Brazil After Deadly Floods - The Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Monday continued hearings in Brazil for a requested advisory opinion on countries' obligations related to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.After Chile and Colombia sought an advisory opinion from the IACtHR, hearings began in Barbados last month and kicked off in Brazil last week, as climate and humanitarian experts sounded the alarm about recent extreme flooding in the South American nation that killed at least 169 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.The people of El Bosque, the first Mexican community to be officiallyrecognized by authorities as climate-displaced, are among the groups demanding climate justice before the court, with support from Greenpeace Mexico, Nuestro Futuro Mexico, and Conexiones Climáticas."Countless claims by communities around the world who have suffered too long from harms imposed on them by colonialist, extractivist business practices, are a testimony to how the fossil fuel and agribusiness industries are impairing the full exercise of all of our human rights and also how the states are failing to guarantee these basic but fundamental rights," said Greenpeace Mexico climate campaigner Pablo Ramirez in a statement Monday.According to Greenpeace, "In written observations filed before the IACtHR... the El Bosque community asks the court to establish that states have an obligation to develop climate adaptation policies which effectively address internal displacement due to climate impacts."Others are calling on the IACtHR to "listen to and learn from children and adolescents about how we are living through the climate crisis and its impact on our rights," as Camila, a 14-year-old from El Salvador, put it. She testified before the court on Friday. "Climate change is affecting our right to health in many ways, for example, causing deaths and illnesses from extreme heatwaves, storms, and floods, toxic air pollution, droughts, food shortages, the spread of diseases like cholera and dengue fever, and serious infections from increased animal diseases that are transmitted to people," Camila said. "All this, in turn, generates poverty and displacement."Joselim, a 17-year-old from Peru who also provided testimony, emphasized that "looking after Mother Earth is urgent because time is against us. Children, adolescents, young adults, and humanity in general should enjoy a healthy, clean, dignified, and safe environment. This requires change to rebuild a conscious society, in which children and adolescents are active participants." "We should take care of the Earth we live on and preserve humanity. My call to action for authorities is to respect our Mother Earth, preserve it, and take care of it," she continued. "We need leaders to invest in the recovery of agriculture, in education, and in environmental plans and public policies with adequate resources and personnel. We need them to promote recycling, using renewable energy, and adopting agricultural production techniques that are friendlier to nature so that more children and adolescents can enjoy a healthy, clean, and safe environment."
Papua New Guinea landslide buried more than 2,000 people, government says (Reuters) - Papua New Guinea's massive landslide three days ago buried more than 2,000 people, the government said on Monday, as treacherous terrain impeded aid and lowered hopes of finding survivors. The National Disaster Centre gave the new number in a letter to the U.N., which had put possible deaths at more than 670. The variance reflects the remote site and the difficulty in getting an accurate population estimate. The Pacific island nation's last credible census was in 2000 and many people live in isolated mountain villages. Defence Minister Billy Joseph said 4,000 people had been living in the six remote villages in the Maip-Mulitaka area in Enga province, where the landslide occurred in the early hours of Friday while most were asleep. More than 150 houses were buried beneath debris almost two storeys high. Rescuers heard screams from beneath the earth. "I have 18 of my family members being buried under the debris and soil that I am standing on, and a lot more family members in the village I cannot count," resident Evit Kambu told Reuters. "But I cannot retrieve the bodies so I am standing here helplessly." More than 72 hours after the landslide, residents were still using spades, sticks and bare hands to try and shift debris. Only five bodies had been found, according to the provincial authority. Heavy equipment and assistance have been slow to arrive due to the remote location while tribal warfare nearby has made aid workers travel in convoys escorted by soldiers and return to the provincial capital, 60 km (37 miles) away, at night. Eight people were killed and 30 houses burnt down on Saturday in the violence, a U.N. agency official said. Aid convoys on Monday passed the still smoking remains of houses. The first excavator only reached the disaster site late on Sunday, according to a U.N. official.Many people are still unsure whether loved ones were caught as villagers often move between homes of friends and relatives, according to Matthew Hewitt Tapus, a pastor in the PNG capital Port Moresby whose home village is close to the disaster. "It's not like everyone is in the same house at the same time, so you have fathers who don’t know where their children are, mothers who don’t know where husbands are, it's chaotic," he told Reuters by phone. Joseph said the defence operations chief was sent to the disaster scene within 24 hours with assistance from the Australian Defence Force, and a PNG defence engineering team was on site, as well as a military helicopter for evacuations. The government has requested a New Zealand Defence Force geotechnical team to assess possibly unstable land nearby which would making heavy earth-moving equipment dangerous, he said.
More than 2 000 buried in massive landslide, Papua New Guinea government reports - (2 videos) A massive landslide in Papua New Guinea’s Enga province on May 24, 2024, buried over 2 000 people, according to government reports released today. In a letter to the United Nations resident coordinator, the acting director of the National Disaster Center, Luseta Laso Mana, stated that the landslide buried over 2 000 people and caused major destruction at Yambali village in Enga province on Friday, May 24, 2024. The disaster occurred at approximately 03:00 local time in a remote area about 600 km (370 miles) northwest of the capital, Port Moresby. The landslide also buried a 200-meter (650-foot) stretch of the province’s main highway under debris 6 to 8 m (20 to 26 feet) deep, creating a major obstacle for relief efforts. The updated casualty figure, released on May 27, is significantly higher than the United Nations’ earlier estimate of 670 fatalities. So far, the remains of only six individuals have been recovered. Mana indicated that the landslide would have a significant economic impact on the country. The situation remains unstable due to shifting ground, posing ongoing dangers to rescue teams and survivors.
Papua New Guinea: More than 2,000 people buried alive in landslide - as 'major destruction' hampers rescue efforts - (photo essay) More than 2,000 people have been buried by a massive landslide in northern Papua New Guinea, the country's disaster agency has said. The landslide levelled the mountainous Kaokalam village in Enga Province - about 370 miles (600km) northwest of the capital Port Moresby. It hit the Pacific nation at around 3am local time on Friday (6pm on Thursday UK time), and the United Nations had earlier said it estimated 670 people had been killed. Local officials had initially put the number of dead at 100 or more. The Papua New Guinea national disaster centre said the landslide had buried more than 2,000 people. "The landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major destruction to buildings, food gardens and caused major impact on the economic lifeline of the country," an official from the national disaster centre said in a letter to the United Nations. Earlier, Serhan Aktoprak, head of the United Nations' International Organisation for Migration mission on the island nation, said the figure of 670 deaths was based on calculations by local officials that more than 150 homes had been buried. The previous estimate was 60 homes. "They are estimating that more than 670 people [are] under the soil at the moment," he said. However, Mr Aktoprak added: "Hopes to take the people out alive from the rubble have diminished now." More than 4,000 people were likely impacted by the disaster, humanitarian group CARE Australia said earlier. It said the area was "a place of refuge for those displaced by [nearby] conflicts". The update comes as Australia said it was preparing to send aircraft and other equipment to help at the site of the landslide. Papua New Guinea is Australia's closest neighbour and Australia has been the most generous provider of foreign aid to its former colony, which became independent in 1975. Poor weather and overnight rains in the South Pacific nation's mountainous region have sparked fresh fears the rubble could become dangerously unstable. It's proving extremely difficult for emergency crews to reach the communities affected by the landslide which hit in the early hours of Friday when most people would have been sleeping. The area is remote, mountainous and largely undeveloped. The most recent footage from the scene shows local people having to resort to using basic shovels and sticks to try to clear the mud which has buried homes. The main access road has also been damaged, so crews are trying to clear that to help much-needed aid reach the scene. Helicopter crews, including the military of one of Papua New Guinea's closest allies, Australia, are also attempting to reach the area from the capital Port Moresby. The situation is complicated further by tribal tensions which often spill over into violence, including fighting over the weekend. A landslide of this sort would be a disaster in any country but for Papua New Guinea, this is a real catastrophe, with little chance of more survivors being found. China has said it will provide assistance for disaster relief and post-disaster reconstruction. "We believe that the people of Papua New Guinea will be able to overcome difficulties and rebuild their homeland at an early date," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily news briefing. About six villages were affected by the landslide in the province's Mulitaka region, according to Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Three bodies were pulled from an area where 50 to 60 homes were destroyed. Six people, including a child, were pulled from the rubble alive, the UN's Papua New Guinea office said. But hopes of finding more survivors were diminishing. Survivors searched through tonnes of earth and rubble by hand looking for missing relatives while a first emergency convoy delivered food, water and other provisions on Saturday. In February, at least 26 men were killed in Enga Province in an ambush amid tribal violence that prompted Prime Minister James Marape to give arrest powers to the country's military. Mr Marape has said disaster officials, the defence force and the department of works and highways were assisting with relief and recovery efforts.
Papua New Guinea landslide: satellite imagery shows scale of devastation | CNN — Images from the air and the ground have revealed the huge breadth of the devastating landslide that has left as many as 2,000 people buried under rubble in Papua New Guinea. Satellite imagery from before and after the landslide show a vast section of the landscape in the mountainous Enga region essentially torn away. The vast size of the slide is even more visible from nearer the ground. More than 150 houses in Yambali village were buried in debris, officials said Sunday. The country’s National Disaster Center said almost 2,000 were feared to be buried.The landslide hit the remote village of Kaokalam, about 600 kilometers (372 miles) northwest of the capital Port Moresby, at approximately 3 a.m. local time on Friday (1 p.m. Thursday ET), leaving a scar of debris that humanitarian workers said was as big as four football fields.The phenomenon slammed tons of rock and mud into locals’ homes as they slept, and rescuers struggled to reach such a remote part of what is already one of Asia’s poorest nations, leaving villagers with no choice but to dig through the collapsed mountainside with whatever tools they had.The area has remained unstable, with smaller landslides occurring regularly and endangering rescue workers, Sandis Tsaka told CNN.“We’re getting huge rocks and debris that keep falling down and land further beyond the original landslide area are being impacted,” Tsaka said. He added the government had ordered nearly 7,000 people to evacuate.Evit Kambu said after the disaster that she had lost more than a dozen family members. “I have 18 of my family members buried under the debris and soil that I am standing on and a lot more family members in the village I cannot count,” she told Reuters. “I am the landowner here … but I cannot retrieve the bodies so I am standing here helplessly.”Papua New Guinea is home to around 10 million people. Its vast mountainous terrain and lack of roads have made it difficult to access the affected area.Miok Michael, a local community leader, told CNN that it was likely there were few survivors. “People are gathering and mourning,” he said. “People have been digging since day one but can’t locate bodies as they are covered by huge rocks. Only machines will do.”
Fears rise of a second landslide and disease outbreak at site of Papua New Guinea disaster (AP) — Authorities fear a second landslide and a disease outbreak are looming at the scene of Papua New Guinea’s mass-casualty disaster because of water streams and bodies trapped beneath the tons of debris that swept over a village. Thousands are being told to prepare to evacuate, officials said Tuesday. A mass of boulders, earth and splintered trees devastated Yambali in the South Pacific nation’s remote highlands when a limestone mountainside sheared away Friday. The blanket of debris has become more unstable with recent rain and streams trapped between the ground and rubble, said Serhan Aktoprak, chief of the International Organization for Migration’s mission in Papua New Guinea. The U.N. agency has officials at the scene in Enga province helping shelter 1,600 displaced people. The agency estimates 670 villagers died, while Papua New Guinea’s government has told the United Nations it thinks more than 2,000 people were buried. Six bodies had been retrieved from the rubble by Tuesday. “We are hearing suggestions that another landslide can happen and maybe 8,000 people need to be evacuated,” Aktoprak told The Associated Press. “This is a major concern. The movement of the land, the debris, is causing a serious risk, and overall the total number of people that may be affected might be 6,000 or more,” he said. That includes villagers whose source of clean drinking water has been buried and subsistence farmers who lost their vegetable gardens. “If this debris mass is not stopped, if it continues moving, it can gain speed and further wipe out other communities and villages further down” the mountain, Aktoprak said. A U.N. statement later tallied the affected population at 7,849, including people who might need to be evacuated or relocated. The U.N. said 42% of those were children under 16. Some villagers were evacuated on Tuesday, Enga provincial disaster committee chairperson and provincial administrator Sandis Tsaka told Radio New Zealand. The number was unclear. As many people as possible would be evacuated on Wednesday, Tsaka said. Relocating survivors to safer ground has been a priority for days and evacuation centers have been established on either side of the debris heap, which is up to 8 meters (26 feet) high and sprawling over an area the U.N. says is equivalent to three or four football fields. Scenes of villagers digging with their bare hands through muddy debris in search of their relatives’ remains were also concerning. “My biggest fear at the moment is corpses are decaying, ... water is flowing and this is going to pose serious health risks in relation to contagious diseases,” Aktoprak said. Aktoprak’s agency raised those concerns at a disaster management virtual meeting of national and international responders Tuesday. The warning comes as geotechnical experts and heavy earth-moving equipment are expected to reach the site soon. The Papua New Guinea government on Sunday officially asked the United Nations for additional help and to coordinate contributions from individual nations. An Australian disaster response team arrived Tuesday in Papua New Guinea, which is Australia’s nearest neighbor. The team includes a geohazard assessment team and drones to help map the site. “Their role will be particularly helping perform geotechnical surveillance to establish the level of the landslip, the instability of the land there, obviously doing some work around identifying where bodies are,” said Murray Watt, Australia’s minister for emergency management. The Australian government has offered long-term logistical support for clearing debris, recovering bodies and supporting displaced people. The government announced an initial aid package of 2.5 million Australian dollars ($1.7 million). Earth-moving equipment used by Papua New Guinea’s military was expected to arrive soon, after traveling from the city of Lae, 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the east, said Justine McMahon, country director of for humanitarian agency CARE International. The landslide buried a 200-meter (650-foot) stretch of the province’s main highway. But the highway had been cleared from Yambali to the provincial capital Wabag through to Lae, officials said Tuesday from Enga. “One of the complicating factors was the destruction of parts of the road plus the instability of the ground, but they have some confidence that they can take in heavy equipment today,” McMahon said Tuesday. An excavator donated by a local builder Sunday became the first piece of heavy earth-moving machinery brought in to help villagers who have been digging with shovels and farming tools to find bodies.
Eruption starts north of Grindavik, lava fountains reach 50 m (164 feet) high, Iceland - A new eruption started near Sundhnúkur north of GrindavÃk, Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland at 12:46 UTC on May 29, 2024. The eruption is in the same area as the previous eruption (March/April 2024). “The lava has flowed about 1 km (0.6 miles) to the west during the first 45 minutes of the eruption,” the Icelandic Met Office (IMO) said at 14:15 UTC. The lava fountains were reaching 50 m (164 feet) high and the length of the fissure seemed to be around 2.5 km (1.5 miles). As of 14:05 UTC, the eruptive fissure was about 3.4 km (2.1 miles) long. “The crack has extended further south and is about 300 to 400 m (984 – 1 312 feet) north of the March – April crater.” reykjanes iceland eruption map may 29 2024 Image credit: IMO In an update posted at 14:45 UTC, IMO said lava is flowing at a rate of roughly 1 500 – 2 000 m3 (53 000 – 71 000 ft3) per second. “It seems that the greatest force in the eruption is now at the southern end of the fissure that opened earlier today. According to information from the Coast Guard’s surveillance flight, there is a fairly intense lava flow surrounding Hagafell to the east and then to the south towards Melhólsnáma. The southernmost opening of the fissure is now less than 1 km (0.6 miles) away from the defenses north of GrindavÃk. Gas pollution is reaching the southeast and later east today, and it could therefore be felt in Selvogi and Ölfus, IMO said. Tonight, the wind direction is expected to turn to the southwest, and therefore gas pollution is carried to the northeast, and it could be felt in the capital area tonight and tomorrow, May 30.
Major X2.8 solar flare erupts from old Region 3664 — now returning into Earth view - A major solar flare measuring X2.8 erupted from the Sun’s southeast limb at 07:08 UTC on May 27, 2024, producing a strong coronal mass ejection (CME). The event started at 06:49 and ended at 07:25 UTC.
- A fast, halo CME was produced. While a strong Earth-directed component is not expected, shock influences can not be ruled out.
- This solar flare was produced by old Active Region 3664.
- The region produced an X8.7 solar flare on May 14, the strongest in Solar Cycle 25, and multiple Earth-directed CMEs in the first two weeks of May, resulting in G5 – Extreme geomagnetic storming — the strongest since 2003.
A Type II Radio Emission, with an estimated velocity of 1 135 km/s, was detected starting at 06:59 UTC — suggesting a CME was produced.A Type IV Radio Emission was detected at 07:05 UTC. Type IV emissions occur in association with major eruptions on the Sun and are typically associated with strong CMEs and solar radiation storms.Additionally, a 10 cm Radio Burst (tenflare), lasting 9 minutes and with a peak flux of 300 sfu, was registered from 06:56 to 07:05 UTC. A 10cm radio burst indicates that the electromagnetic burst associated with a solar flare at the 10cm wavelength was double or greater than the initial 10cm radio background. This can be indicative of significant radio noise in association with a solar flare. This noise is generally short-lived but can cause interference for sensitive receivers including radar, GPS, and satellite communications.Radio frequencies were forecast to be most degraded over eastern Africa, parts of eastern Europe, Asia and the Indian Ocean at the time of the flare.This region — previously numbered 3664 — produced around 100 M-class and over 10 X-class solar flares during its last rotation through the Earth side of the Sun in the first half of May. Multiple CMEs it produced at the time resulted in a G5 – Extreme geomagnetic storm — the strongest since 2003 — on May 10 and 11. On May 14, this region produced X8.7 solar flare — currently the strongest solar flare of Solar Cycle 25.The location of this region currently does not favor Earth-directed CMEs but this will change in the days ahead as it rotates toward the center of the disk.
Long-duration X1.4 solar flare erupts from old region 3664 - A major, long-duration solar flare measuring X1.4 erupted from Active Region 3697 (previously numbered 3664) at 14:37 UTC on May 29, 2024. This is the second X-class solar flare since May 27. A Type II Radio Emission with an estimated velocity of 878 km/s was associated with the event, suggesting a coronal mass ejection (CME) was produced. A Type IV Radio Emission was registered at 14:48 UTC. Type IV emissions occur in association with major eruptions on the Sun and are typically associated with strong coronal mass ejections and solar radiation storms. In addition, a 10 cm Radio Burst (tenflare) with a peak flux of 300 sfu was registered from 14:21 to 14:24 UTC. A 10cm radio burst indicates that the electromagnetic burst associated with a solar flare at the 10cm wavelength was double or greater than the initial 10cm radio background. This can be indicative of significant radio noise in association with a solar flare. This noise is generally short-lived but can cause interference for sensitive receivers including radar, GPS, and satellite communications. Radio frequencies were forecast to be most degraded over the Americas, Atlantic Ocean, Europe, and west Africa at the time of the flare. Solar activity was at moderate levels in 24 hours to 12:30 UTC on May 29 due to M1 flares at 01:06 and 06:45 UTC from Region 3697 (beta-gamma-delta). This region was previously numbered 3664. It produced around 100 M-class and over 10 X-class solar flares during its last rotation through the Earth side of the Sun in the first half of May. Multiple CMEs it produced at the time resulted in a G5 – Extreme geomagnetic storm — the strongest since 2003 — on May 10 and 11. On May 14, this region produced X8.7 solar flare — currently the strongest solar flare of Solar Cycle 25.
X1.4 solar flare erupts from Region 3697 - A strong solar flare measuring X1.4 erupted from Region 3697 (ex 3664) at 08:48 UTC on June 1, 2024. The event started at 08:26 and ended at 08:58 UTC. There were no radio signatures detected that would suggest a coronal mass ejection (CME) was produced during this event. A 10cm Radio Burst (tenflare) with a peak flux of 210 sfu was detected from 08:45 to 08:46 UTC. This indicates that the electromagnetic burst associated with a solar flare at the 10cm wavelength was double or greater than the initial 10cm radio background. It can be indicative of significant radio noise in association with a solar flare. This noise is generally short-lived but can cause interference for sensitive receivers including radar, GPS, and satellite communications. Radio frequencies were forecast to be most degraded over Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and most of Asia at the time of the flare. The region has a ‘beta-gamma-delta’ magnetic configuration and is capable of producing more strong to major eruptions on the Sun. This is the third X-class solar flare since May 29. The previous two were an impulsive X1.1 on May 31 and a long-duration X1.4 on May 29. Today’s X1.4 is also the 49th X-class solar flare of the current solar cycle (Solar Cycle 25). According to X-class flare list compiled by Kevin VE3EN of SolarHam.com, it marks a tie with the previous cycle for the total number of X-class flares produced. This cycle’s peak is expected in June 2025.
ITLOS declares greenhouse gas emissions as marine pollution - In a landmark and historic ruling, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) has issued a long-awaited advisory opinion on the responsibility of states to tackleclimate change, OceanCare highlights.The judges of the Hamburg-based court ruled unequivocally that under international law, carbon – and other greenhouse gas – emissions absorbed by the Ocean must be considered marine pollution, and that nations have an obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment. The ruling was sought by a group of small island nations whose very existence is threatened by rising sea-levels caused by climate change.“The Tribunal’s position was both unanimous and unequivocal – anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions constitute marine pollution under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). As a result, states have an obligation to take all necessary measures to prevent, reduce and control those emissions that cause climate change and hence the warming and acidification of the oceans.”…commenting on the ruling, OceanCare’s senior marine and climate scientist, Dr James Kerry said.Finally, the Tribunal highlighted the obligation of states to restore ecosystems as part of their UNCLOS commitments to preserve the marine environment. Such restoration must be based on the best available science and centred upon the ecosystem itself. OceanCare would like to see greater ambition from the international community in this regard, but notes that, as always, prevention is better than cure.”.. Dr James Kerry added.The advisory opinion itself is not a legally binding instrument. However, by interpreting existing international law, it serves as a clear directive to governments around the world and might form a basis for future litigation – meaning, for example, that states already facing major risks could sue other countries for inaction on climate change.
COP29 Host Set to Propose Levy on Fossil Fuels to Fund Climate Action - Azerbaijan, which will host this year’s United Nations climate summit, is working on a proposal to place a levy on oil, gas and coal production in order to fund climate action in developing countries. Azeri officials leading preparations for November’s COP29 gathering will talk about the initiative at a UN meeting next week, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not be named discussing confidential information. They’re unlikely to list countries in support of the levy at this early stage, they said. Called the “North-South Financial Mechanism,” the program would put some share of fossil fuel revenues into a fund that would finance climate projects. Fossil-fuel producing nations that participate would be shareholders and likely receive some of the profits from any ventures the fund invests in. A presentation seen by Bloomberg laid out an example of a $0.20 levy per barrel of oil being applied to Azerbaijan's annual output, which would raise $40 million a year. Based on an average 80 million barrels of oil produced daily around the world, that would equate to about $6 billion a year. It’s not clear if the idea will gain traction. Even if it does, the end result could look quite different from what the Azerbaijan presidency is advancing now. The proposal has already drawn a skeptical and cautious response from some countries, including the US, the world’s largest producer of oil and gas, people familiar said. Spokespeople for the US State Department climate office and COP29 team declined to comment. Climate finance is set to dominate the debate at COP29, which will be held in Baku, and the host country will be judged on its ability to find a breakthrough after years of rich nations falling short of promises to help developing countries cut emissions and deal with more extreme weather. The proposed levy could be a way of showing that fossil fuel producers are stepping up. Still, people briefed on the plan said that they were concerned it could provide oil-producing countries with a green light to keep volumes high, under the guise that sales would boost climate finance. Countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels for the first time at last year’s summit in Dubai, though Saudi Arabia has pushed back on the wording in the deal. The people were also concerned over how profits from the fund would be distributed: Would they be used to spur fresh climate action or simply reward shareholders? Negotiators will have to hash out is how much is apportioned to clean-energy projects, such as solar and wind farms, and how much will go to climate adaptation, such as building sea walls and setting up emergency warning systems. Full details of the proposal are unlikely to be announced before COP29, the people said. A fossil fuel levy isn’t a new idea. Small island nations first raised the prospect at COP27 in Egypt in 2022. But their proposal was to use the proceeds to fill a fund that would compensate climate-vulnerable countries — those that have contributed little to the climate crisis but bear the brunt of its consequences — for damages caused by more extreme weather.www.ri
Biden Administration Issues Voluntary Guidelines for Carbon Credits - The United States government has issued guidelines that encourage participants in the emission offset market to ensure accuracy, transparency and traceability. The Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCMs) Joint Policy Statement and Principles by relevant federal agencies affirms the role of carbon credits in the realization of climate goals but notes that it should not be taken as a substitute for activity-level emission reduction. “Widespread confidence in the integrity of credited emissions reductions and removals is critical for VCMs to reach their potential”, said the statement of policy and principles, crafted by the energy, agriculture and treasury departments and presidential climate and economic advisers. “However, researchers, journalists, and other observers have found that several popular crediting methodologies and activities that rely on them have not produced the decarbonization outcomes they claim”, it added. “Important questions have emerged about how to ensure that VCMs genuinely drive additional decarbonization action (rather than reward what would have happened anyway) that is sustained over time and does not simply shift emissions elsewhere. “In addition, barriers to market participation have inhibited market efficiency and opportunity”. The first principle states that a carbon credit must represent actual decarbonization and that the offset emissions must be kept out of the atmosphere for a specified time. Leakage within this period should be “fully remediated”. “One credit corresponds to only one tonne of carbon dioxide (or its equivalent) reduced or removed from the atmosphere and is not double-issued”, the statement said. Carbon credit certification bodies should have registries that transparently track the “attributes, issuance, ownership, and retirement and/or cancellation of credits, coordinating where appropriate to ensure that activities are not registered with more than one registry”. The bodies should have mechanisms to prevent buyers from registering credits more than once. The second principle calls for respect to the environment and human rights. “Safeguards should be put in place to identify and avoid potential adverse impacts on people and the environment, including as they relate to local communities, land use and tenure rights, food security, nature, and biodiversity”, the statement said. The third principle tells corporate buyers to prioritize “measurable emissions reductions within their own value chains”. Fourthly, credit users should disclose at least annually “the nature of purchased and retired credits” to enable the public to verify that the credits have real offsets and the activity that generated the credits avoided negative impacts on people and the environment. The fifth principle encourages “incentives to purchase high-integrity credits on an ongoing, regular basis without reducing incentives for companies to expeditiously pursue within-value-chain emissions reductions”. The sixth principle calls for mechanisms that allow market participants to take part in improving the integrity of the market. The seventh principle urges cooperation between policymakers and market participants to lower transaction costs. "If done right, Voluntary Carbon Markets can provide new revenue opportunities for farmers, ranchers, private forest landowners and the rural communities they live in, all while driving needed investment in nature-based climate solutions across the agriculture and forestry sectors”, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.
Corn price connection to carbon capture hard to pin down • The ethanol industry says capturing carbon emissions from ethanol plants and storing it underground is needed to help the industry keep up with the trend toward greener energy. But it’s unclear what the direct benefit to the farmers who supply corn to the ethanol plant might be. David Ripplinger is an associate professor at North Dakota State University, who specializes in renewable fuels. “So everybody always asks me, ‘Well, what’s the price of carbon?’” Ripplinger said. “The problem is, there isn’t a single price of carbon. “It’s not as if there’s a futures market or a spot market and transparency of a price, let alone what it might be for a particular farmer or rancher.” Two North Dakota ethanol plants are already capturing carbon, benefiting from being in the western part of the state where the right geology for underground storage is nearby. There’s also the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, which the Iowa-based company calls the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project. The company hopes to connect 57 ethanol plants to underground storage sites northwest of Bismarck. The pipeline project is expected to benefit from huge federal incentives in the form of tax credits. The tax credits go to the ethanol plant or to the pipeline developer. “The ones who are investing billions of dollars are the ones who are going to benefit,” Ripplinger said. While the investments may not be in the billions, investors in Summit’s $8 billion project include Continental Resources, an oil and gas company that operates in North Dakota; Gary Tharaldson, owner of Tharaldson Ethanol, the only North Dakota ethanol plant signed on to the project; and agribusiness giant John Deere. At the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck last week, Summit Carbon Solutions co-founder Bruce Rastetter took the stage with Harold Hamm of Continental Resources to highlight the ag-energy partnership of the two companies. “Profitability drives investment,” Rastetter said in attracting investors such as John Deere. The three-member Public Service Commission is in the middle of hearings on the Summit pipeline as it reconsiders the company’s permit application. Technical hearings are set this week in Bismarck and a public hearing is June 4 in Linton. The PSC denied Summit a permit last year but the company has made changes to its route and appealed that decision. Summit Carbon Solutions CEO Lee Blank, in an interview with the North Dakota Monitor, said the ethanol plant partners will benefit from the project, but how much of a benefit it provides will vary from plant to plant. He said the plants should get a minimum benefit of 20 cents per gallon of ethanol. But Blank would not offer an estimated price premium that could be passed on to farmers for the corn used to produce ethanol. “It is still the concept of a rising tide lifts all boats,” Blank said.
Vermont becomes first state to require oil companies to pay for climate change damage --Vermont will become the first state in the nation to require oil companies to pay for the impacts of climate change after the state’s GOP governor, Phil Scott, allowed a new bill to become lawwithout his signature.The state’s Climate Superfund Act is modeled on federal Superfund law and seeks to assess financial penalties for emissions generated between 1995 and 2024, which could total billions of dollars.The bill passed the state House in a 94-38 vote May 7, a margin just shy of a supermajority. In an earlier procedural vote, it received a veto-proof 100 votes, suggesting the Legislature had the votes to override a veto from Scott’s office.The Climate Superfund Act is the first of several similar state bills to become law. The New York state Senate passed its own legislation earlier this month, but earlier this week New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D) was leery of the measure, telling reporters he believed it would hurt utility customers.“I’ve never in my life seen corporations choose the ratepayer over the stockholder,” Heastie told reporters Thursday, according to WXXI. “Asking these companies to pay more, it’s going to be, of course, taken out on the ratepayer.” In a statement accompanying his decision to allow the bill to become law, Scott expressed concerns about the logistics of proceeding with the law alone, noting Vermont’s low population and gross domestic product relative to states such as New York and California.He also suggested that the law, which appropriates $600,000 to conduct an analysis of how the program will work and be defended in court, is “not positioning [us] for success.” However, he wrote, “I understand the desire to seek funding to mitigate the effects of climate change that has hurt our state in so many ways. I also note Attorney General [Charity] Clark and Treasurer [Mike] Pieciak have endorsed this policy and committed to the work it will require. I’m also comforted by the fact that the Agency of Natural Resources is required to report back to the Legislature in January 2025 on the feasibility of this effort, so we can reassess our go-it-alone approach.”
US voters support holding fossil fuel companies liable for climate change -- A majority of American voters support litigation against oil companies for the effects of climate change, according to a new survey by the left-leaning polling firm Data for Progress. The poll results, shared with The Hill, found 62 percent saying fossil fuel companies “should be held legally accountable for their contributions to climate change.” This included a majority of Democrats and independents — 84 percent and 59 percent, respectively — and 40 percent of Republicans. Among respondents who said fossil fuel companies should be held accountable, with the option to select more than one answer, 54 percent selected “endangering the public and causing potential harms to the public in the future,” while 43 percent picked both loss of plants and wildlife and human deaths and public health impacts. Among those who said they did not believe fossil fuel companies should be held liable, 41 percent said they do not believe there is a legal basis for it, 29 percent said they do not believe in climate change itself and 23 percent said they do not believe fossil fuels contribute to climate change. Another 22 percent said they believed it would be too difficult to prove illegal activity by oil and gas companies. Those who disagreed with the idea did not have the option to select more than one reason. The survey found broad support for litigating oil companies for the effects of climate change across racial groups, with 71 percent of Black or African American respondents, 66 percent of Latino respondents and 59 percent of white respondents agreeing. Although multiple individuals and organizations have filed civil lawsuits seeking to hold oil and gas companies civilly liable for climate change, others have argued in favor of charging oil and gas companies criminally on negligent homicide charges for deaths associated with climate change and its impact. This idea was more controversial but still supported by a plurality of respondents in the poll, with 19 percent saying they strongly support the idea and 30 percent saying they somewhat support it. However, more respondents — 21 percent — strongly opposed the idea than strongly supported it. Researchers from Data for Progress and Public Citizen surveyed 1,206 likely voters from May 3-4. The survey has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
A Debate Rages Over the Putative Environmental Benefits of the ARCH2 ‘Hydrogen Hub’ in Appalachia - Backers of a planned “hydrogen hub”’ in the Appalachian region have issued a document responding to criticism by environmentalists, saying that carbon capture and sequestration technology would mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from the project and that the hydrogen it produced would ultimately protect “environmental justice” communities from pollution currently emitted by heavy industry. The project, which would produce, distribute and consume hydrogen in West Virginia, Ohio and western Pennsylvania, plans to make so-called blue hydrogen from natural gas by combining it with steam at a high temperature and pressure, a commonly used process called “reforming” that creates most of the world’s industrial hydrogen. Instead of being released into the atmosphere, where it would warm the climate, the carbon dioxide produced by burning the natural gas would be pumped underground and permanently stored using carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), a process that critics say is unproven and expensive.Leaders of the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) rebutted claims that CCS would fail to prevent the escape of carbon dioxide from blue-hydrogen production, and said the United States is the world leader in the technology, with about two-thirds of global capacity.“CCS technologies encompass the capture of CO2 at emission sources, followed by its compression, transport and geologic storage,” ARCH2 said in the 24-page Frequently Asked Questions document. “Each has been proven effective as individual components, and as integrated systems at commercial scale in numerous settings.”ARCH2 is one of seven proposed hydrogen hubs which the Biden administration has funded with up to $7 billion as part of its effort to decarbonize sectors such as long-haul trucking and chemical manufacturing, helping to hit the national clean-energy goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Appalachian hub’s share of the public funding is up to $925 million. The project is a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy; state and local governments in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia; academic and technology institutions; community groups; and 15 companies, including the natural gas drillers EQT and CNX. Its leaders say it would create 3,000 permanent jobs and another 18,000 during construction. Overall, the build-out is expected to cost about $6 billion, of which some $5 billion would come from the private sector.The FAQs respond to a wide range of concerns raised by the public since the hub program was announced in October 2023, and aired in a series of online ‘listening sessions’ held by the U.S. Department of Energy starting in the spring of 2024.Despite critics’ claims that the production of blue hydrogen will perpetuate the production of natural gas in the energy-rich Appalachian region, ARCH2 leaders say their hydrogen will meet all the requirements of clean hydrogen, as defined by the federal government.Hydrogen produced by ARCH2 and the other hubs will cut C02 emissions by at least 5 million tons a year, or the equivalent of that produced by 1.1 million gasoline-powered cars, the document said. But the planned carbon cuts by all seven hubs combined would represent less than half of 1 percent of total national CO2 emissions, according to federal data for 2022.The new paper also argued the project will address environmental justice concerns in disadvantaged communities that have been harmed by the effects of industrial development such as poor air quality.It said the production of clean hydrogen will mitigate the impact of past industrial activities, and will comply with the Biden administration’s Justice40 initiative, which aims to deliver at least 40 percent of federal environmental investments to disadvantaged communities.ARCH2’s assurances on environmental justice followed comments at a ‘listening session in late March, when all but one of 20 public speakers voiced their opposition to the project.“It doesn’t matter what we want or what we fear as long as our concerns are never included in the calculus of decision making,” said John Detwiler, a retired engineer representing North Braddock Residents for Our Future, a community group that advocates for environmental justice issues in the heavily polluted Monongahela River area near Pittsburgh.“To be holding a mere listening session at this point in the process with proposals already in and contracts ready to be awarded just feels like a meaningless gesture or maybe a deliberate slap in the face,” Detwiler said in the 90-minute session.Other speakers accused the federal government of selling out to the natural gas industry, which has seen strong growth in the Appalachian region since the widespread adoption of fracking, starting in the mid-2000s. “ARCH2 appears to be another government-subsidized way to let the fracking industry continue to operate despite the known harms of its toxic pollution,” said Leatra Harper, another speaker at the listening session. “Instead of ARCH2, the government should give more incentive for electrification and reduction in energy consumption.”
Like it or not, a hydrogen ecosystem is coming to New Mexico - NM Political Report -- Over the past month, in public meetings stretching from the Navajo Nation to Albuquerque, public officials and company representatives unveiled a picture of a new hydrogen energy industry being built in the northwest corner of New Mexico. The presentations reveal hydrogen production, transportation, power generation and carbon sequestration projects arcing across the Navajo Nation to Farmington and down to the I-40 corridor between Gallup and Albuquerque. Most of the projects are underway, and it’s clear they’ll rely on fossil fuels.Tallgrass Energy sits at the center of all this activity and has the backing of the state’s biggest political player, New Mexico’s governor. The Denver-based company operates more than 7,000 miles of natural gas pipelines stretching from Oregon to Ohio, and it’s going all-in on creating the necessary pieces of a new economic base in New Mexico’s second-largest fossil fuel producing region. The region’s natural gas holds the key to many of the projects“Hydrogen is huge!” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham proclaimed while speaking at an event in Farmington in April. What came next is what many in the region fear.“Hydrogen uses the natural gas resources here we don’t know what to do with,” she said. Actually, plenty of people know what to do with natural gas. The issue is that fewer and fewer people want to use it, even as more and more of it is being produced. Historically, natural gas has been used most significantly for electrical grid power generation in the U.S., but its use in that arena is declining as renewable energy prices drop in the face of government climate policies and ever-cheaper solar technology.Meanwhile, natural gas prices have tanked due to a production glut caused by ever-increasing oil production using hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in places like the Permian Basin, shared between New Mexico and Texas. Producers want the oil, which brings a market price well above the cost of its production. But, pulled from the well, that fracked oil comes commingled with the less desired natural gas. Over the past month, natural gas prices dipped below zero at a main pipeline transit hub in Texas due to the glut. Some companies are storing gas underground, awaiting better days and prices.Enter hydrogen. The most plentiful element in the universe is a perfectly clean fuel when used to make electricity in a fuel cell. It’s generally cleaner than natural gas when burned to make heat, though the process produces nitrogen oxides that the EPA says damage the human respiratory system and contribute to acid rain. The crux lies in how you make your hydrogen, which rarely exists on its own on earth. The cleanest, most energy-intensive way breaks water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy. The common way breaks off hydrogen atoms from the methane in natural gas. Either way, it takes more energy to make hydrogen than it provides when converted to useful energy. When made with natural gas, the process also produces a lot of climate-damaging carbon dioxide. That defeats hydrogen’s clean bonafides unless the carbon dioxide is captured and buried underground, a process that uses even more energy.Furthermore, the natural gas production and transportation process often leaks, sometimes a lot. That gas is mostly methane, which is 80 times more capable of warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it’s released. The federal government incentivized so-called low-carbon hydrogen production from natural gas with carbon sequestration in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Many worry that this will lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions in light of New Mexico’s rocky track record of policing its oil and gas producers. All of this means a fuel promoted to fight climate change could actually exacerbate it, and cost a lot, too.
Virginia Has the Biggest Data Center Market in the World. Can It Also Decarbonize Its Grid? - Inside Climate News --While short-lived, the denial came as a surprise. This March, Loudoun County, a suburb of Washington, D.C. in Northern Virginia that is home to the greatest concentration of data centers in the world, made an unexpected move: It rejected a proposal to let a company build a bigger data center than existing zoning automatically allowed. “At some point we have to say stop,” said Loudoun Supervisor Michael Turner during the meeting, as reported by news site LoudounNow. “We do not have enough power to power the data centers we have.”County supervisors would later reverse the decision, approving a smaller version of the project. But the initial denial sent ripples throughout Virginia, where concern over the rapid growth of data centers and what that means for the state’s ambitious decarbonization goals is growing. “It is really a salient issue for climate right now,” said Tim Cywinski, a spokesperson for the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, which has been vocal about its desire to slow down data center development in the state. “The data center industry is about 2 percent of global carbon emissions. … In about two years, I think it will surpass the airline industry.”Dominion Energy, Virginia’s largest electric utility, has forecast that data centers will be the most significant driver of rising energy demand in the state over the next 15 years. And while the utility has pledged it will decarbonize its Virginia grid by 2045, in line with the Virginia Clean Economy Act passed by the state legislature in 2020, it has also indicated in its most recent long-range plan for utility regulators that new natural gas plants will be needed to meet demand. “We are 100 percent committed to achieving the goals of the VCEA. We are not taking our foot off the accelerator with renewables,” said Aaron Ruby, a spokesperson for Dominion. But, he added, “the clean energy transition is more challenging than it was a few years ago. The inescapable reality is we are experiencing unprecedented growth in electric demand.” While some environmentalists say the skyrocketing data center growth threatens Virginia’s ability to go zero-carbon, others say it can be done—but it will require new ways of managing the grid. Data centers and Virginia have been hand in glove for almost three decades, since companies like MAE-East, Equinix and AOL built some of the earliest modern facilities in the Washington suburbs. With close proximity to the federal government and the defense firms ringing it, Northern Virginia—and especially Ashburn in Loudoun County, known as “Data Center Alley”—quickly became the beating heart of the U.S. data center industry. “There are data centers located in other areas of Virginia, but roughly 80% of the industry is located in Loudoun County,” Dominion wrote in a recent long-term plan submitted to state regulators. “To put this in perspective, the aggregate of the next six largest data center markets in the U.S. is not as big as Loudoun County’s market.”
Can U.S. Grid Compete with Hot Summer and Increased Natural Gas Demand? ‘Extreme’ Weather a Concern - Hotter than normal weather this summer may pressure U.S. grid performance, as total load climbs year/year and natural gas consumption increases 1.7% from summer 2023 levels, according to federal officials. There is a “higher likelihood” of reliability issues across a broad swath of the nation under “extreme” conditions, FERC staff reported in the Summer Energy Market and Electric Reliability Assessment. For consumers, natural gas prices should remain lower through the summer months because of a storage surplus and near-record production. Using Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff detailed the difference in projected gas prices this summer from a year ago. Futures prices at Henry Hub and many “major hubs” as of...
Appalachian groups urge feds to suspend ARCH2 hydrogen hub -- More than 50 Appalachian community and environmental groups are calling on federal regulators to suspend a regional hydrogen hub until they get answers. A letter submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy urges the DOE to suspend negotiations with hub developers the agency selected to award up to $925 million last year until more officials provide more information and engagement regarding the enterprise with project nodes throughout West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Houston area cities wary of grid-scale battery storage - Battery energy storage systems, which have surged in popularity across Texas, are often heralded as a boon to the stability of the state’s power grid. But local opposition to utility scale projects is cropping up, much as it did with clean energy technologies that came before, potentially threatening the state’s ability to meet fast-growing power demand and decarbonize.Officials in cities around Houston are concerned battery sites could catch on fire or explode, as they have in other states, in some cases causing injuries or fires that have burned for days. “These things have come in so hot and heavy in the past six months. We need time to figure out what we need to do,” League City Mayor Nick Long said. “People are concerned that they’re unsafe. At this point, we don’t know enough about it and aren’t prepared to reassure them.”“If there are others that are seeking (to build), they use the experience of (the denial) to say, ‘Well, maybe Tomball is not ready for that,’” said Tomball Council Member John Ford, who also called battery storage “probably our best technology for supporting the grid.”And Texas City staff put forth an ordinance on battery storage, possibly the first of its kind in Texas, for a commission vote. It was tabled for revision after the Advanced Power Alliance, which represents clean energy companies, including numerous battery storage developers, sent a letter outlining its concerns. Industry groups say enhanced safety regulations have made battery failures increasingly rare. Judd Messer, APA’s Texas vice president, said he was worried potential misinformation about battery storage could stymie development as it has with solar and wind projects nationwide. Battery storage fires are caused by what is known as thermal runaway, which occurs when a battery cell overheats. Thermal runaway can be caused by internal cell defects, environmental contamination from humidity and dust, too much electricity input, improper voltage and other factors, said Lakshmi Srinivasan, principal team lead for energy storage at the Electric Power Research Institute, an energy research and development nonprofit. Though failures can be severe, the rate of battery storage failures has dropped 97% from 2018 to 2023, with an average of one failure per 3,000 megawatts of deployment globally, according to EPRI data tracking incidents that were reported in the media, Srinivasan said. That’s because the industry has incorporated lessons from a spate of battery storage failures in 2018 and 2019 into stringent design and safety standards, she said. “The top line here is that storage facilities are incredibly safe, and safety-related events are extremely rare. Even when they do occur, they are contained to the secure site,” said Noah Roberts, senior director of energy storage for the American Clean Power Association, a renewable energy industry group. Many nearby residents, however, remain unconvinced.
EPA Formally Denies Alabama’s Plan for Coal Ash Waste - —The Environmental Protection Agency has formally denied Alabama’s plan to allow Alabama Power and other utilities to continue storing toxic coal ash in unlined pits at sites across the state. The decision, formalized Thursday, is the culmination of months of back-and-forth between state and federal environmental regulators over coal ash storage sites. Environmental organizations have applauded the denial, arguing that Alabama’s plans were not protective of citizens or the environment. In a statement issued after the EPA announced its decision, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management said it was disappointed and would appeal. The state’s coal ash program “meets all the legal, environmental, and other requirements for approval. The program and the permits issued under the program are leading the way in protecting the public and the environment,” the ADEM statement said. ADEM plans to appeal the EPA’s denial in federal court, the agency said. Anthony Cook, an Alabama Power spokesperson, said in a statement that the utility is reviewing the EPA decision. “We remain committed to complying with all environmental rules and regulations,” the statement said. The EPA first announced a proposed denial of Alabama’s coal ash disposal plan last August, saying it did little to protect humans and the environment. The decision marked EPA’s first-ever denial of such a state plan. “Exposure to coal ash can lead to serious health concerns like cancer if the ash isn’t managed appropriately,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan wrote in a statement at the time. “Low-income and underserved communities are especially vulnerable to coal ash in waterways, groundwater, drinking water, and in the air. This is why EPA works closely with states to ensure coal ash is disposed of safely, so that water sources remain free of this pollution and communities are protected from contamination.” Regan had announced an enforcement crackdown on coal ash pollution in January 2022 after four years of effort by the Trump administration to relax coal ash regulations. As of 2012, more than 470 coal-fired electric utilities in 47 states and Puerto Rico had already generated about 110 million tons of coal ash, one of the nation’s largest industrial waste streams, according to the EPA. In 2015, the agency adopted a new Coal Ash Rule, providing a series of safe disposal requirements. But a 2019 report by the Environmental Integrity Project and other advocacy groups found that 91 percent of coal-fired plants still had ash landfills or waste ponds that leak highly toxic metals and chemicals such as arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium and cadmium into groundwater at dangerous levels, often threatening streams, rivers and drinking water aquifers. Federal law now requires that closures of so-called coal combustion residual (CCR) units either comply with federal regulations or with state-adopted regulations that, at a minimum, are as protective of humans and the environment as the federal requirements. So far, the EPA has approved three other states’ plans for CCR unit closure. But EPA officials, in reviewing Alabama’s plan, determined that it does not meet even those minimal requirements laid out in federal law regarding groundwater protection, monitoring and cleanup. Coal ash, or CCR, is an umbrella term that refers to several waste materials generated by the process of burning coal for electricity production. These waste materials can include fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag and flue gas desulfurization sludge. Often, energy utilities combine these waste materials with water and store them in ponds at or near electrical generating plants, a practice environmental groups have criticized as risking groundwater contamination. Currently, Alabama has nine coal ash disposal sites across the state, most of which are located near waterways.
Two people missing after building explosion in Ohio's Youngstown: Officials | World News - Two people were missing and seven were injured when a natural gas explosion caused extensive damage to a building in downtown Youngtown, Ohio, authorities said.The blast, which occurred around 2:45 pm Tuesday blew off the faade of Realty Tower. Firefighters helped some people get out of the building, which houses a Chase Bank on the ground floor and has apartments in upper floors.Youngstown Fire Chief Barry Finley said a man and a woman were missing following the blast. One is a Chase employee, he said.The blast collapsed the first floor into the basement, Finley said, and the building's structural integrity is in question so no firefighters were being allowed in to conduct a search.The seven injured people were taken to Mercy Health Hospital in Youngstown. A hospital spokesperson said one person was in critical condition, but did not release further details.A social media post by the Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency said there was a natural gas explosion and the situation is fluid but under control. The blast shook the downtown area of the city of about 60,000 residents. Bricks, glass and other debris littered the sidewalk.
27-year-old bank worker’s body found in rubble of massive Ohio explosion -- The body of a 27-year-old Chase Bank employee has been recovered from the rubble after a gas explosion destroyed the first floor of a building in downtown Youngstown, Ohio. The body was found in the Realty Building’s basement on Wednesday morning around 12.30am, Mayor Tito Brown said at a press conference on Wednesday. The worker has been identified as Akil Drake, 27, by the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office, local news outlet WFMJ reports. Officials did not confirm the name of the deceased man, nor the other seven who were injured. An autopsy will be carried out by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office. Fire Chief Barry Finley said that the most severely injured person is currently a woman on a ventilator in surgical intensive care. The others have varying levels of injuries. The Youngstown Police Department said in a statement that detectives were called out to assist with a missing person, and after a brief investigation, they determined the missing person was an employee of Chase Bank, where the natural gas explosion had occurred just before 3pm.“It was also discovered that he was at work and was observed inside the building right before the blast,” the department wrote. “During their rescue efforts, the Youngstown Fire Department recovered that missing person, who was unfortunately deceased.”
Damaged gas line found at site of deadly Ohio explosion, NTSB says -A cut natural gas line was found in a basement area of an Ohio building which was severely damaged by a massive explosion this week, the National Transportation Safety Board reported Thursday, but it’s not yet known if that played a role in the blast.The line was not supposed to have gas in it, NTSB board member Tom Chapman said during a news conference, but it was found to be pressurized. He said the line came off the main service line and led to the building in downtown Youngstown but did not service the structure.Chapman said investigators would try to determine whether third-party work to clear out old infrastructure in the basement may have led to the line cut and explosion and why it was pressurized. Chapman said he did not believe there was anything suspicious about the cut line.The explosion Tuesday afternoon blew out much of the ground floor of Realty Tower, killing a bank employee and injuring several other people. It collapsed part of the ground floor into its basement and sent the façade across a street where both sides had been blocked off by orange construction barriers. Bricks, glass and other debris littered the sidewalk outside the 13-story building, which had a Chase Bank branch at street level and apartments in upper floorsThe NTSB said pipeline and hazardous materials investigators were at the scene in Youngstown on Thursday to see the damage, which Chapman described as “devastating — really stunning.” He said the team would remain on the scene for about a week and likely issue a preliminary report within 30 days.
Cut gas line at center of NTSB investigation into deadly Ohio explosion - ABC News The National Transportation Safety Board said a cut to an inactive but still pressurized gas line will be a central focus of their investigation into what caused a devastating explosion that rocked downtown Youngstown, Ohio.The blast occurred near Central Square on Tuesday afternoon and impacted a building that contains a Chase bank and apartments. One person was killed and seven others injured in the explosion, officials said.The NTSB sent a team of pipeline and hazardous materials investigators to Youngstown on Wednesday to investigate the natural gas explosion.The preliminary investigation suggests that work crews were in the basement of the building to reportedly clear out old utility infrastructure prior to the explosion, according to NTSB board member Tom Chapman."A possible third-party cut to the pressurized service line is a central focus of our investigation to determine the cause of the gas release and subsequent explosion," Chapman told reporters during a press briefing Thursday.Following the explosion, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and Enbridge Gas, the service provider for the area, gained access to the basement and discovered a cut to the pressurized but inactive below-ground service line, Chapman said.Part of the investigation "will determine exactly why that apparently abandoned service line was still pressurized," Chapman said.Chapman said there is no evidence to suggest anything "nefarious" in the incident."Part of what we'll be looking at is what are the proper procedures and were those proper procedures followed," he said.
Bodycam captured desperate rescues after Ohio explosion, NTSB probes gas pipeline - The National Transportation Safety Board is now leading the investigation into a massive explosion that blew out much of the ground floor of an apartment building in Ohio this week, killing a bank employee and injuring several other people.The NTSB said pipeline and hazardous materials investigators were at the scene in Youngstown on Thursday and would announce details at an afternoon briefing.Police and emergency officials initially blamed natural gas, but the fire chief later said the cause remained under investigation. The NTSB is leading the investigation because pipelines are considered a mode of transportation.“We have no idea what caused the explosion. We know that there was an explosion and it did a lot of damage to the bottom of the building,” Youngstown Fire Chief Barry Finley said.The explosion shook downtown Youngstown around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, collapsing part of the ground floor of Realty Tower into its basement and sending the façade across a street where both sides had been blocked off by orange construction barriers. Bricks, glass and other debris littered the sidewalk outside the 13-story building, which had a Chase Bank branch at street level and apartments in upper floors. First responders were on the scene within minutes, and some of the initial search and rescue was recorded by a Mahoning County deputy’s bodycam video. “We’ve got civilians over here screaming for help,” the deputy yells into his radio as he runs up to the building. “Be advised, there are people trapped.”Moments later, the deputy helps arriving firefighters lower a ladder into a gaping hole where parts of the ground floor fell into the basement, and then helps a firefighter carry a woman to safety.Before the partial video released by the sheriff ends, the deputy can be heard warning other responders that natural gas was leaking from an area near the front of the building.The bank employee, 27-year-old Akil Drake, had been seen inside the building right before the blast, police said Wednesday. Firefighters rescued others as they cleared the building.Seven injured people were taken to Mercy Health Hospital in Youngstown. One woman was hospitalized in critical condition, but her name and further details on her injuries have not been disclosed. Three others were in stable condition, and the other three were released.
Ohio building explosion caused by crew cutting gas line they thought was off, NTSB says — A crew working in the basement area of an Ohio building intentionally cut a gas line not knowing it was pressurized before a deadly explosion this week, the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday.NTSB board member Tom Chapman said workers were in the basement to clear out piping and other outdated infrastructure. He said workers smelled no gas before they started cutting the pipe and knew there was a problem when they made the third cut. At that point, workers pulled the fire alarm and alerted residents and bank employees to evacuate. Chapman said the explosion happened six minutes after that cut. Investigators will try to determine why the pipe was pressurized.The explosion Tuesday afternoon blew out much of the ground floor of Realty Tower, killing a bank employee and injuring several other people. It collapsed part of the ground floor into its basement and sent the façade across the street. Bricks, glass and other debris littered the sidewalk outside the 13-story building, which had a Chase Bank branch at street level and apartments in upper floors.
Case over frozen-to-death Ohio woman should be heard by utility regulators, court holds (Reuters) - Ohio's top court ruled on Friday that the brother of a woman who froze to death after her gas service was cut off by a utility now owned by Enbridge must pursue wrongful death claims before the state's utility commission, not a trial court. The Ohio Supreme Court held that the case over 81-year-old Virginia Vigrass' 2022 death must first go before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio since it relates to actions that are normally authorized as a part of ordinary utility services. The unanimous seven-justice court said Ohio law requires people to first file complaints with the commission alleging that a public utility's services have violated the law, if the actions relate to a utility’s rates and services. Since the decision to shut off the Lakewood woman's gas falls under that umbrella, the utility commission must first hear the case filed against the utility, East Ohio Gas Company, before deciding whether to send it to a court, the justices held. The underlying lawsuit claims the utility disconnected natural gas service to the residence of Vigrass in January 2022 after the company repeatedly asked for access to her meter over months, despite her accounting being paid in full. Vigrass refused access because she was immunocompromised and susceptible to the risks of COVID-19, but had sent some letters to the company in response to their requests, according to the lawsuit. Frigid temperatures inside the residence after the gas shutoff caused water pipes to burst. Water then flooded the residence and froze. Police found Vigrass dead and frozen to the floor 19 days after the gas was disconnected. Her brother sued the utility on behalf of her estate in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Corrigan rejected a motion to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction, reasoning that he has jurisdiction over the complaint because the complaint asserted common-law claims of negligence, destruction of property and wrongful death. The utility on appeal argued Corrigan incorrectly asserted jurisdiction in the case. The case is East Ohio Gas Company DBA Dominion Energy Ohio v. Corrigan, Judge, Ohio Supreme Court, No. 2024-Ohio-1960.
Ohio moving forward with bids to frack under public lands including state parks | Ideastream Public Media (live radio video) Interview with Melinda Zemper, Save Ohio Parks, et al - A recently approved state law opened Ohio's public lands, including its parks, to fracking. To date, bids to drill under Salt Fork State Park near Cambridge and two wildlife areas in Columbiana and Carroll counties have received the greenlight from a state panel.A law passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Mike DeWine last year helped speed up the leasing process for companies to obtain rights to use hydraulic fracturing or fracking to extract oil and gas under state-owned lands including state parks. This week, the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission approved two bids for companies to drill for oil and gas under state-owned lands in Noble and Monroe counties.Back in February, the commission awarded bids for exploration under Ohio's largest state park, Salt Fork, as well as two wildlife areas in Columbiana and Carroll counties.State lawmakers who supported the law and leasing public lands for fracking say it will bring in revenue. Opponents say they are concerned about the environmental impact from fracking, especially in the pristine park lands.We will begin Wednesday’s “Sound of Ideas” discussing the fracking of public lands, including Ohio’s state parks with a representative from the Ohio oil and gas industry as well as a member of a grassroots group fighting to preserve the parks.
Supreme Court Of Ohio Holds Lease Language On Lessee's Right To Develop Point Pleasant Interval To Be Ambiguous -- Yesterday, in a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court of Ohio reversed the decision of the Seventh District Court of Appeals in Tera, L.L.C. v. Rice Drilling D, L.L.C., 2024-Ohio-1945, and held that there are triable issues of fact regarding (i) whether the oil and gas lease at issue included the right to drill wells into the “Point Pleasant” interval and, if not, (ii) whether the appellant Rice Drilling D, LLC engaged in a bad faith trespass by doing so.The case centered on the proper interpretation of an oil and gas lease that granted certain mineral rights “in the formations commonly known as the Marcellus Shale and the Utica Shale” and reserved all rights not specifically granted in the lease, including the rights in “all formations below the base of the Utica Shale.” After Rice drilled six wells into the Point Pleasant, its lessor, Tera, LLC, sued alleging bad-faith trespass and conversion. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Tera on liability and a jury found that Tera was entitled to over $40 million in damages. In a 2-1 decision, the appellate court affirmed after concluding that the lease language unambiguously reserved the Point Pleasant formation to the lessors.The Supreme Court rejected the lower courts' interpretation of the lease, finding the lease language to be ambiguous on whether it granted Rice the right to drill into the Point Pleasant. First, the Court noted that the phrase “Point Pleasant” did not appear within the four corners of the lease and, as a result, the plain language of the lease did not answer the question whether the parties intended to include the Point Pleasant in what the lease referred to as “the[] formation commonly known as the *** Utica Shale.” Next, the Court concluded that the plain language of the lease was unclear regarding whether the phrase “Utica Shale” referred to its common meaning or its technical, stratigraphic meaning or whether the common meaning and the technical, stratigraphic meaning were the same. Because the plain language could not answer these questions, the Court then turned to the extrinsic evidence offered by the parties. But even then, the Court was unable to give the phrase “Utica Shale” a definite legal meaning. Thus, the Court held that the lease was ambiguous, creating an issue of fact issue could not be resolved on summary judgment. The Court also reversed the judgment of the appellate court as to Tera's claim for bad-faith trespass, finding that the trial court and appellate court improperly relied upon the lease language instead of conducting a fact-driven analysis that considered all relevant material evidence. Based on these errors, the Court reversed and remanded the case for further proceedings.
Austin Master Services Claims It is “Effectively a Dead Company” - Marcellus Drilling News - We have been tracking and reporting on the drama surrounding Austin Master Services (AMS), a radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry ( Belmont County), Ohio, located close to the Ohio River (see our AMS stories here). Last week, a Belmont County Common Pleas Court judge ordered AMS to be fined $200 per day for failing to meet its permitted requirements for the amount of frack drill cuttings and other frack waste products housed at the Martins Ferry site. If the company fails to meet the order by July 22, AMS’ (and parent company American Environmental Partners’) CEO Brad Domitrovitsch will be required to serve a 30-day sentence in the Belmont County jail. Paperwork filed with the court by AMS claims the company is out of money, deep in debt, and is “effectively a dead company” that will not be able to meet the court’s order … unless it gets sold (quickly) to someone else who can do the cleanup work.
Environmental group calls on conservancy district to halt water sales to energy industry - ‒ The FreshWater Accountability Project is calling on the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) to halt the sale of water to the oil and gas industry over environmental concerns.John Stolz, director of the Center of Environmental Research and Education at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, speaks at a press conference held by the FreshWater Accountability Project in New Philadelphia.The group aired its concerns at a press conference Friday in front of the Tuscarawas County Courthouse in New Philadelphia as the Conservancy Court, the MWCD's governing body, met at the courthouse. The FreshWater Accountability Project had asked to testify at the annual meeting of the Conservancy Court but was denied.The organization is calling for a halt in water sales because of what it says is growing evidence of harm caused by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process used by the energy industry to extract gas and oil. The process has been used extensively in east central Ohio. The group wants sales stopped until a full assessment of current and projected impacts caused by fracking's water impacts is completed by independent experts."We have asked them (MWCD) to do a better job of protecting our water in the face of fracking," said Lea Harper, managing director of the organization. "I don't like to say, but I've said this many times, fracking is not as bad as I thought it would be at first. It's much worse than I could have ever imagined."She talked about how her family planned on retiring in Guernsey County, but then she learned that fracking was planned there."It was not just the truck traffic and the headaches and the smell of benzene, but for us it was the heartbreak of seeing the water taken from Seneca Lake and Wills Creek, knowing that water that was taken would never glisten in the sun again, at least we hope it doesn't, because after water is fracked, there's forever chemicals, there's proprietary chemicals, there's radioactive radium 226-228, and we know that sooner or later, when there's migratory pathways under our reservoirs, that it will be very difficult if not impossible and extremely costly to ever clean it up after it's been fracked."Over the past decade, the MWCD has spent around $160 million on projects throughout the 18-county district, including activity centers, visitors centers and improvements to campgrounds using money from oil and gas revenue."Someday, even the MWCD will be unable to deny the damage," Harper said. "We will continue to plead for protection and document the damage, so those who profited from fracking will be held accountable for those costs, and not the taxpayers, not the water rate payers, not the people who live here. The money is not worth it."The FreshWater Accountability Project is calling on the MWCD to:
- Continuously monitor fracking contamination incursions into stream and reservoirs.
- Install additional steam gauges as needed to determine if water quality is adequately protected.
- Require that no Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) chemicals be used to frack in areas near reservoirs it has leased in the region. PFAS are a health and environmental concern because they are known as forever chemicals.
- Set aside all revenue gained through leases and water sales for future remediation of water and soil contamination.
Anti-Shale Group to Hold Presser Outside Muskingum Watershed Mtg -- Marcellus Drilling News - For more than a decade, MDN has brought you stories about shale development on and under land controlled by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD), an agency formed in 1933 to help control flooding and promote water conservation in the Muskingum River watershed area of Ohio, an area that covers 8,000 square miles (see our Muskingum Watershed stories here). Over the years, MWCD has leased tens of thousands of acres for Utica Shale drilling and cut deals to sell water to drillers for fracking. It has been one of the biggest success stories in the Buckeye State in the last decade, generating more than $1 billion in economic stimulus (see Muskingum Watershed Generated $1B in Econ Impact from Utica Drilling). Yet anti-fossil fuelers are *still* trying to shut down this success story!
Punxsutawney Phil’s New Neighbor – Shale Wastewater Injection Well - Marcellus Drilling News - Nearly a year ago, MDN brought you the news that the federal EPA had issued a permit to G2 STEM LLC based in Fairfax, Virginia, to build a Class IID oil and gas wastewater underground injection well in Young Township, Jefferson County, PA (see Punxsutawney Phil Getting a New Neighbor – Shale Injection Well). You may know the area by its nearby boro, Punxsutawney, along with its most famous resident, Punxsutawney Phil. We have great news! The Pennsylvania State Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued a permit for the project, allowing it to move forward.
Researchers make massive lithium discovery in Pennsylvania natural gas wells -- Scientists from the University of Pittsburgh have discovered a large amount of lithium located in Pennsylvania, saying it could eventually supply more than a third of America’s needs for the mineral. Researcher and study lead author Justin Mackey told CBS Pittsburgh in an article published Wednesday that the wastewaters of the Marcellus Shale gas wells could cover “somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the current U.S. national demand.” “This study estimates that Marcellus Shale related Li yields have potential to make a significant contribution to US domestic consumption with a set of reasonable, conservative assumptions,” says the research, published in the Nature Journal last month. “If you can extract value out of materials, and specifically lithium from this, then you reduce the cost of remediating and handling this waste,” Mackey said. The researchers analyzed compliance data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to determine their results. The study noted that as decarbonization efforts across the U.S. grow more popular, the demand for lithium increases despite rising supply chain concerns. The researchers also said lithium is “considered essential to the US economy due to domestic consumption in energy, manufacturing and defense.” The U.S. Geological Survey labels lithium as a critical mineral; its biggest uses include rechargeable batteries, including in cellphones and electric vehicles. Speaking with CBS News, Mackey acknowledged that fracking is a highly controversial topic. “I do hope that it sheds light on creative remediation and reuse of these fluids. There’s a lot of materials that are embodied in the water,” he said.
As Production Returns, Natural Gas Forwards Sink, Appalachian Basis Diffs Widen - Regional natural gas forwards sold off heavily during the May 23-29 trading period as the unofficial start of summer – and the ramp up in prices during the month of May – brought a shift in the production outlook. June fixed prices at benchmark at Henry Hub tumbled 34.4 cents for the period to finish at $2.501/MMBtu, paralleling the sell-off in Nymex futures over the same time frame, according to NGI’s Forward Look. Most other Lower 48 hubs followed the national benchmark lower, with fixed price discounts across the balance of 2024 widespread during the period, Forward Look data show. EQT Bringing Production Back? The May 23-29 trading period brought with it rumblings of a bump in output from EQT Corp. The largest U.S. natural gas producer began curtailing 1 Bcf/d in March...
18 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 20 – 26 - Two weeks ago, 16 new permits were issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica region. Last week, May 20-26, the number increased by two to 18. Two drillers tied for the top prize for most new permits. Chesapeake Energy received five new permits, all of them for drilling in Sullivan County, PA. Ascent Resources also received five new permits, with four of them to drill in Jefferson County, OH, and one in Guernsey County, OH. Antero received three permits for drilling in Wetzel County, WV. EQT Corporation got two permits to drill in Washington County, PA. Range Resources, Olympus Energy, and INR each got a single new permit (see below for where). ALLEGHENY COUNTY | ANTERO RESOURCES | ASCENT RESOURCES | CHESAPEAKE ENERGY | EQT CORP | GUERNSEY COUNTY | INR | JEFFERSON COUNTY (OH) | OLYMPUS/HUNTLEY & HUNTLEY | RANGE RESOURCES CORP | SULLIVAN COUNTY | WASHINGTON COUNTY | WETZEL COUNTY
MVP Protest Arrest --The Virginia State Police were called to remove an individual which was blocking pipeline access on Yellow Finch Road this morning. State Police responded at 6:21 a.m. for a protestor suspended on a tripod in the roadway.Elsa McLaughlin Schlensker, 25, of Cleveland, OH. was taken into custody without incident and transported to the Montgomery County Jail and charged with Obstructing the Free Passage of Another.
Southeast Natural Gas Summer Price Premiums Rise as Transco Constraint Crimps Flows Regional natural gas forwards continued to soar during the May 16-22 trading period in parallel to the recent bullish momentum lifting summe0r Nymex futures to new heights, data from NGI’s Forward Look show.Fixed prices at Henry Hub rallied 42.3 cents week/week to finish at $2.845/MMBtu for June delivery. Gains at the benchmark were strongest toward the front of the curve. January 2025 prices at Henry rose 20.9 cents for the period to $4.037, Forward Look data show. Fixed price gains across the curve were the norm for much of the Lower 48 during the May 16-22 period, with increases especially pronounced in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic.
Comment Period Opened for Enbridge's Tennessee Gas Pipeline Expansion - The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a staff-level draft environmental impact statement (EIS) on a proposed 122.2-mile gas pipeline in Tennessee, opening the public comment period. Enbridge Inc’s Ridgeline Expansion Project would build a 30-inch-diameter pipeline and associated facilities across the counties of Trousdale, Smith, Jackson, Putnam, Overton, Fentress, Morgan and Roane, the FERC said in a statement. The project expands Enbridge’s existing East Tennessee Natural Gas pipeline system. The existing system and the proposed project are under East Tennessee Natural Gas LLC (ETNG). “For most resources, the construction and operation of the Project would result in limited adverse environmental impacts”, said the statement on the FERC website. “Most adverse environmental impacts would be temporary or short-term during construction, but some long-term and permanent environmental impacts would occur on some forested lands, including forested wetlands”. “We conclude that impacts would be less than significant with implementation of East Tennessee’s proposed avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures as well as the environmental conditions we recommend the Commission include in any Project authorization it may issue to East Tennessee”, the statement added. The staff’s comments will be taken into consideration when FEFC commissioners decide on the project. The Ridgeline Expansion Project aims to add a daily transport capacity of 300,000 dekatherms of firm natural gas and up to 95,000 dekatherms of customized delivery service from multiple providers to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant, according to the FERC. Enbridge says on its website, “Replacing coal-fired generation at the Kingston Fossil Plant with natural gas would provide Tennesseans with a lower-carbon, cleaner-burning energy source as we transition toward the future”. The mainline would measure 118.2 miles, according to the FERC. Associated facilities would include a 14,600-horsepower, electric-driven compressor and an associated solar array in Trousdale to provide some of the needed power; a meter and regulating station to receive gas from Columbia Gulf Transmission LLC in Trousdale; and a delivery meter station to measure gas delivered to the Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane. Two existing meter and regulating stations would also be modified to receive gas from Texas Eastern Transmission LP and Midwestern Gas Transmission Co. in Trousdale. ETNG is also proposing to remove about 24 miles of pipe segments along its existing 22-inch-diameter Line 3100-1. ETNG wants to relay the 30-inch-diameter mainline of the proposed pipeline to the same trench, the FERC said. The public has until July 15 to submit comments. Calgary, Canada-based Enbridge plans to start construction next year. It expects to put the Ridgeline Expansion Project onstream in the fall of 2026.
securing America's liquified natural gas future by Brett Guthrie, who represents the 2nd District of Kentucky and is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. American national security has increasingly been tested by those who wish to do our nation harm. From the Chinese spy balloon that flew across the country last year, to Russia’s war in Ukraine, to Iran funding terrorist organizations that attack Israel, our nation has been under near-constant threats from foreign adversaries that wish to threaten our way of life.America’s status as the world’s leading democracy, military superpower and a leading energy exporter has been key to protecting our homeland and to defending our allies abroad. America’s leadership as an energy exporter has been crucial to ensuring our NATO allies’ security in an increasingly uncertain and dangerous geopolitical environment. The Biden administration is squarely to blame for many of the challenges the U.S. and the world face today. Since Day One of his administration, President Biden has undermined our energy independence, instead prioritizing his green new deal agenda.On his first day in office, Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline, eliminating American energy jobs and preventing hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil from reaching the American public each day.The Biden administration also cancelled leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as well as in the Gulf of Mexico in order to fulfill a campaign promise to “end all fossil fuels.” Meanwhile, Biden used our own Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency tool to use in national security events, as a gimmick to lower gas prices that had skyrocketed because of their own misguided environmental policies.
Memorial Day Jet Fuel Demand Outshines Gasoline -- Summer markets for refined oil products are anticipating big numbers, with the AAA teasing the potential for a 4.8% surge in Memorial Day weekend air travelers and rising demand for jet fuel as opposed to gasoline for the busiest driving period of the year, Bloomberg reports. AAA is expecting a two-decade record high number of travelers flying for Memorial Day weekend, further supported by global crude oil consumption that analysts at JPMorgan Chase said on Friday would soar by 2.8 million barrels a day from May through August. The analysts also predicted an increase of 430,000 barrels per day in jet fuel demand during that same time period. Bloomberg NEF is projecting that flying passengers will continue to increase in number in the coming weeks, with jet fuel demand already at its highest seasonally since 2019. “We see jet as our fastest-growing fuel globally,” Bloomberg cited Wood Mackenzie analyst Austin Lin as saying on Monday, adding that we could see U.S. jet fuel demand increase another 5% this year amid strong American consumer spending. At the same time, gasoline demand is rather duller by comparison, up this week but still hovering around two-year seasonal lows, according to JPMorgan, which sees global demand for gasoline declining next year by around 100,000 bpd. AAA also indicated that post-COVID changes in how Americans view international air travel could be contributing to increasing jet fuel demand, with the association seeing less reluctance to spend on big trips to Europe and Asia. Just over a month ago, Reuters reported that global flight activity had managed to crawl past its pre-pandemic levels for the “first time in four years” but that jet fuel demand growth was not yet keeping pace. Still, citing the IEA, Reuters reported that jet fuel had been the largest contributor to oil-positive performance in the post-pandemic period.
US LNG exports drop to 23 shipments - US liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports dropped in the week ending May 22 compared to the week before, according to the Energy Information Administration. The agency said in its weekly report that 23 LNG carriers departed the US plants between May 16 and May 22, five shipments less compared to the week before. Citing shipping data provided by Bloomberg Finance, the EIA said the total capacity of these LNG vessels is 84 Bcf. Natural gas deliveries to US terminals slightly up Average natural gas deliveries to US LNG export terminals increased less than 0.1 Bcf/d from last week to 12.8 Bcf/d, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights. Natural gas deliveries to terminals in South Louisiana increased by 1.7 percent (0.1 Bcf/d) to 7.5 Bcf/d, while natural gas deliveries to terminals in South Texas decreased 2.4 percent (0.1 Bcf/d) to 4 Bcf/d. The agency said that natural gas deliveries to terminals outside the Gulf Coast increased 0.5 % (less than 0.1 Bcf/d) to 1.2 Bcf/d. Cheniere’s Sabine Pass plant shipped seven cargoes and the company’s Corpus Christi facility sent four shipments during the week under review. The Freeport LNG terminal shipped five cargoes while Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu Pass facility, Sempra Infrastructure’s Cameron LNG terminal, and the Elba Island facility each shipped two cargoes during the period. Also, the Cove Point facility sent one cargo during the week under review. Freeport LNG, the operator of the 15 mtpa liquefaction plant in Texas, told LNG Prime last week it has resumed operations at all of its three liquefaction trains. The LNG terminal operator said on March 20 that only the third liquefaction train was operating. Since then, the plant has been shipping about one LNG cargo per week. Compared to the week before, Freeport LNG sent one cargo more while the Sabine Pass LNG plant shipped three cargoes less and the Calcasieu Pass plant sent two cargoes less. Henry Hub highest since January This report week, the Henry Hub spot price rose 36 cents from $2.15 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) last Wednesday to $2.51/MMBtu this Wednesday. The agency said this price is the highest price at the Henry Hub since January of this year and two cents below the 2023 annual average. Moreover, the price of the June 2024 NYMEX contract increased 42.6 cents, from $2.416/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.842/MMBtu this Wednesday. According to the agency, the price of the 12-month strip averaging June 2024 through May 2025 futures contracts climbed 27.7 cents to $3.326/MMBtu. Bloomberg Finance reported that weekly average front-month futures prices for LNG cargoes in East Asia increased $1.04/MMBtu to a weekly average of $11.50/MMBtu. Natural gas futures for delivery at the Dutch TTF increased 69 cents to a weekly average of $10.20/MMBtu. In the same week last year (week ending May 24, 2023), the prices were $9.73/MMBtu in East Asia and $9.27/MMBtu at TTF, the agency said.
Kinder Morgan secures more time for Gulf LNG export project - US energy company Kinder Morgan and its partners have secured more time from the US FERC to add liquefaction and export facilities at the existing Gulf LNG import terminal in Mississippi. According to a filling dated May 23, Gulf Liquefaction and Gulf Energy won an extension of time, until July 16, 2029, to construct and make available for service the Gulf LNG liquefaction project. “The Commission has found that good cause exists for an extension of time where the authorization holder has made a good faith effort to complete authorized actions within the time allotted but encountered circumstances that prevented it from doing so,” the FERC said. Back in July 2019, the regulator granted approval to the two companies to construct and place into service the liquefaction project in Jackson County, Mississippi, by July 16, 2024. In February this year, the companies requested a five-year extension of time to construct the project and place it into service, saying that the Covid-19 pandemic and a litigation with the import customers had affected the project to meet its deadline. Kinder Morgan owns 50 percent in the project through its unit, Southern Gulf LNG Company, the operator of the Gulf LNG terminal, according to its website. Thunderbird Resources Equity, partially owned by Blackstone’s GSO Capital Partners, owns 30 percent, while other partners include Zenith Energy, controlled by Warburg Pincus and Kelso, and Chatham Asset Management. The existing import terminal has a single jetty that is currently permitted to receive up to 170,000 cbm LNG vessels and designed to handle vessels with capacities of up to 250,000 cbm. As part of the liquefaction project, the permitted limit will be increased to 208,000 cubic meters, according to Kinder Morgan. The import facility has two LNG storage tanks, each with a capacity of 160,000 cbm, and a storm surge protection wall. Kinder Morgan said that KBR has previously completed FERC FEED engineering for two liquefaction trains and associated facilities based on its design using APCI C3MR technology. The project will enable the receipt, treatment, liquefaction, and export of up to 10.85 mtpa per year of LNG. Also, the project has received authorization from the US Department of Energy to export to both free trade agreement and non-free trade agreement countries, Kinder Morgan said. Gulf LNG said in its filling in February that it had been involved in “complex litigation with its existing import customers over the scope and status of their terminal use agreements.” The import customers are not bringing in ships to the LNG import facility, which was placed in-service in October 2011. Gulf LNG said this litigation has progressed and “only a small remaining piece remains on appeal at the NY Appellate Division”. “The litigation has hampered GLLC’s ability to execute commercial liquefaction off-take contracts with commercially manageable contingencies because the existing GLE facilities are tied up in litigation,” it said.
Texas LNG Looks to Push In-Service to 2029 After ‘Protracted’ Legal Challenges - The developer of the proposed Texas LNG project has asked FERC for an additional five years to build and place the 4 million metric ton/year (mmty) export terminal into service. Texas LNG Brownsville LLC, a unit of Glenfarne Energy Transition LLC, reported to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff in a recent filing that the “protracted legal battle” over its authorization order has made it impossible to meet its in-service deadline of Nov. 22, 2024. “These legal challenges and the various uncertainties the challenges caused delayed the project from multiple perspectives including commercial and marketing, regulatory and construction and constitute extenuating circumstances outside of Texas LNG’s control,” Texas LNG’s Oscar Lopez, regulatory and permitting...
US natgas prices climb 3% on higher demand forecasts, rising LNG feedgas - (Reuters) -U.S. natural gas futures climbed about 3% on Tuesday on forecasts for more demand over the next two weeks than previously expected and as more gas flowed to liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants. Prices rose despite signs that some drillers were starting to pull more gas out of the ground and the tremendous oversupply of gas still in storage. Analysts forecast gas stockpiles were about 27% above normal levels for this time of year. On its second to last day as the front-month, gas futures NGc1 for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 7.0 cents, or 2.8%, to settle at $2.590 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). Futures for July NGN24, which will soon be the front-month, were up about 2.0% at $2.83 per mmBtu. Power demand in Texas hit records for the month of May four times in a row over the long Memorial Day weekend as homes and businesses cranked up their air conditioners to escape a brutal heat wave. The heat was finally broken by storms that then left over 939,000 homes and businesses without power from Texas to West Virginia. In the spot market, next-day gas prices in Southern California fell to a record low, while power in Arizona and California remained in negative territory amid low energy demand and ample cheap hydropower and other renewable supplies. Gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states fell to an average of 97.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in May, down from 98.2 bcfd in April, according to financial firm LSEG. That compares with a monthly record of 105.5 bcfd in December 2023. On a daily basis, output was up about 1.5 bcfd since hitting a 15-week low of 96.3 bcfd on May 1. Energy traders said that increase was a sign that the 56% gain in futures prices over the past four weeks prompted some drillers to start producing more gas. Overall, however, U.S. gas production remained down around 8% so far in 2024 as several energy firms, including EQT EQT.N and Chesapeake Energy CHK.O, delayed well completions and cut other drilling activities after prices fell to 3-1/2-year lows in February and March. LSEG forecast gas demand in the Lower 48, including exports, would hold near 93.7 bcfd over the next two weeks. Those forecasts were higher than LSEG's outlook on Friday. Gas flows to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants rose from an average of 11.9 bcfd in April to 12.8 bcfd so far in May with the return of Freeport LNG's 2.1-bcfd plant in Texas. That LNG feedgas, however, remained down from the monthly record of 14.7 bcfd in December due to ongoing spring maintenance at Kinder Morgan's Elba Island in Georgia and several plants in Louisiana, including Cameron LNG, Cheniere Energy's LNG.N Sabine Pass and Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass. U.S. exports to Mexico rose to an average of 7.2 bcfd so far in May, up from 6.5 bcfd in April and the current monthly record of 7.0 bcfd in August 2023. Analysts said that signaled that U.S. energy firm New Fortress Energy NFE.O was preparing to turn U.S. gas into LNG at its export plant in Altamira, Mexico.
US natgas prices fall 4% on bigger-than-expected storage build (Reuters) -U.S. natural gas futures fell about 4% on Thursday on signs some drillers were starting to pull more gas out of the ground and on worries about the tremendous oversupply of gas still in storage with a bigger than expected storage build last week. Lending some support to prices were lifted demand forecasts for next week and an increase in gas flowing to liquefied natural gas export plants. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)said utilities added a bigger-than-expected 84 billion cubic feet of gas into storage during the week ended May 24. That was bigger than the 78-bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an increase of 106 bcf in the same week last year and a five-year (2019-2023) average rise of 104 bcf for this time of year. Analysts noted last week's build was small for this time of year after producers cut output over the past few months due to a drop in futures prices to 3-1/2-year lows in February and March. The build left gas stockpiles about 27% above normal for this time of year. On its first day as the front-month, gas futures NGc1 for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 9.4 cents, or 3.5%, to settle at $2.572 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). Gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states fell to an average of 97.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in May from 98.2 bcfd in April, according to financial firm LSEG. That compares with a monthly record of 105.5 bcfd in December 2023. But on a daily basis, output was up about 1.4 bcfd since hitting a 15-week low of 96.3 bcfd on May 1. Energy traders said that increase was a sign that the 56% gain in futures prices over the past four weeks prompted some drillers to start producing more gas. LSEG forecast gas demand in the Lower 48, including exports, would rise from 93.6 bcfd this week to 95.1 bcfd next week. The forecast for next week was higher than LSEG's outlook on Wednesday. Gas flows to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants rose from an average of 11.9 bcfd in April to 12.8 bcfd so far in May with the return of Freeport LNG's 2.1-bcfd plant in Texas. That compares with a monthly record high of 14.7 bcfd in December 2023. On a daily basis, LNG feedgas was on track to rise to a preliminary 12-week high of 13.8 bcfd on Thursday, up from 13.6 bcfd on Wednesday and an average of 13.1 bcfd over the prior seven days. That daily feedgas increase came with small increases in flows to several plants in Louisiana, including Cameron LNG, Cheniere Energy's LNG.N Sabine Pass and Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass. Flows to Freeport were on track to reach a six-month high of 2.1 bcfd. U.S. exports to Mexico rose to an average of 7.1 bcfd so far in May, up from 6.5 bcfd in April and the current monthly record of 7.0 bcfd in August 2023. Analysts said U.S. exports to Mexico rose as power generators in Mexico burned more gas to produce electricity to meet record power demand earlier this week and as U.S. energy firm New Fortress Energy NFE.O prepares to start producing LNG at its Altamira export plant.
The ‘Necessary Evil’ of Four-mile Laterals - Not that long ago, Diamondback Energy President and CFO Kaes Van't Hof was skeptical, to put it mildly, about drilling a 21,000-ft lateral well. “A few years ago, I said we'll never drill four mile laterals,” Van’t Hof said at Hart Energy’s SUPER DUG Conference & Expo. Now, “here we are, saying we should be drilling four-mile laterals, you know, almost as much as we can.” Technological advances in the oil patch have come a long way, and drilling has been a less mysterious process than the early days of the shale boom. Despite the ease of development when compared to wellbores of yesteryear, operators are still picky when choosing which areas to develop and how far out their lateral wellbores should stretch. Ultimately, drilling three- or four-mile laterals is about profitability. “If the land is available and the opportunity to drill the well is there, it comes down to economics,” Jim Jacobsen, drilling manager for IPT Solutions, said during a conference panel after Van’t Hof spoke. “You need to make sure that you drill a well that the completion team can complete and we can make money doing it.”Jacobsen’s fellow panelists concurred. Their consensus: one way of increasing the viability of a development is by drilling long laterals, particularly as fewer above ground vertical wells are needed on a pad. “There is a lot of room to save on building a pad and drilling the well,” Sola Oluwadare, drilling engineer forSLB, told the audience. “The ability to extend the length of the lateral right away eliminates all those additional costs. As technology becomes available for us to be able to extend those laterals and deliver to completion safely, those savings go directly to bottom line.”And as Van’t Hof noted, lateral wells are getting extremely long.“To me, these four mile laterals are a necessary evil,” Jacobsen said. “If you are doing these four mile laterals and you are seeing a linear production increase with each extra section of land that you drill, then it’s worth the time and money, but if you’re seeing diminished recovery with longer laterals, then at some point it’s going to become more cost effective and enable more recovery if you just drill another well.”
Energy Transfer Snapping Up Permian Assets in $3.25B Deal for WTG Midstream - Energy Transfer LP is expanding its access to Permian Basin natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) in a $3.25 billion deal to acquire WTG Midstream Holdings LLC from a subsidiary of independent Diamondback Energy Inc. and investment firm Stonepeak. (Energy Transfer and WTG combined pipeline asset map) Private midstreamer WTG primarily operates in the Permian’s prolific Midland sub-basin. Through the deal, Energy Transfer would gain more than 6,000 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines spanning some of the most active areas of West Texas. “The addition of WTG assets is expected to provide Energy Transfer with increased access to growing supplies of natural gas and NGL volumes enhancing the partnership’s Permian operations and downstream businesses,” Energy Transfer said.
ConocoPhillips to buy Marathon Oil in $22.5 bln deal in latest energy merger (Reuters) - Top U.S. independent oil and gas producer ConocoPhillips on Wednesday agreed to buy Marathon Oil for $22.5 billion, the latest in a series of mega-deals in the energy industry. The U.S. oil and gas industry has been riding a consolidation wave over the last two years as companies look to bolster reserves and create economies of scale. Last year was one of the most active, with some $250 billion in deals struck. The momentum has carried over into this year as the stock market continues to boom and as U.S. shale oil production scales new records."We're heading into a period of kind of Shale 2.0, which is more about using technology and efficiencies, data analytics and some of the refrack potential that allows us to extend some tier one inventory," said ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance.The all-stock offer equates to $30.33 per Marathon share, a premium of nearly 15% to the stock's Tuesday close, according to Reuters calculations. The transaction, which includes $5.4 billion of Marathon's debt, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024.Shares of Marathon Oil rose 9% to $28.85, while ConocoPhillips fell 3.8% to $115.10 in morning trading."The deal makes sense operationally given the asset overlap most meaningfully in the Eagle Ford and Bakken in L48," . Marathon Oil's international gas assets fit well with the Conoco's global gas footprint, ConocoPhillips expects cost savings of $500 million within the first full year after the closing of the transaction. The acquisition adds over 2 billion barrels of reserves to its portfolio.
ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Join Mega Merger Parade to Create Giant in U.S. Onshore - Houston-based ConocoPhillips, the world’s largest independent producer, is moving to become even bigger in an estimated $22.5 billion all-stock takeover of crosstown rival Marathon Oil Corp. The transaction, which includes $5.4 billion net debt, would add “complementary acreage to ConocoPhillips’ existing U.S. onshore portfolio,” CEO Ryan Lance said. The transaction includes more than 2 billion boe of resources, weighted to the Bakken and Eagle Ford shales and Permian Basin – regions where ConocoPhillips already works. It also would increase opportunities in the Montney Shale in Western Canada and the Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma.
Crude oil spill reported near Cow Bayou Bridge — The Texas General Land Office along with Orange County Emergency Services District 2 and Orange County Sheriff's Office responded to a crude oil spill near the Cow Bayou Bridge at TX-105 in Orange County. Bridge City Fire Department reported that around 11 a.m. Thursday morning, Orange County ESD 2 and other local and state agencies responded to the incident in the Orangefield and Bridge City area. When emergency crew arrived, they discovered an undetermined amount of crude oil in the Cow Bayou, which is considered coastal water. A tank, located in the Railroad Commission's jurisdiction, was breached and suffered damage that caused a release into Cow Bayou, according to the Texas General Land Office. In response to the spill, containment booms were placed approximately 2500 feet downstream from the Highway 105 bridge to prevent further spread of the oil. The GLO is overseeing the cleanup portion that concerns oil in coastal waters. Cow Bayou is currently closed in the area from the boom location to upstream, including the boat ramp. The GLO oil spill team is currently on scene and will work to ensure that Cow Bayou is cleaned of the discharged oil.
Two companies plead guilty to environmental crimes - According to U.S. Department of Justice, two related companies that operated the motor tanker PS Dream – Prive Overseas Marine LLC and Prive Shipping Denizcilik Ticaret – pleaded guilty.As explained the companies pleaded guilty to conspiracy, knowingly violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and obstruction of justice related to the falsification of the tanker’s Oil Record Book, which is a required log.The guilty pleas were entered in federal court in New Orleans before Chief U.S. District Court Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown. If the court approves the plea agreement, the companies will be fined a total of $2 million and serve four years of probation. Separate charges have been filed against Captain Abdurrahman Korkmaz, a Turkish national who was the ship’s master.The criminal case stems from the report of a crew member who, on Jan. 11, 2023, contacted the Coast Guard in New Orleans, which was the next port-of-call, and shared a video showing oil being pumped overboard and trailing behind the tanker. When the ship arrived in New Orleans two weeks later, this individual and another crew member blew the whistle and provided evidence to the Coast Guard. Video and photographic images were filed in court today by the prosecutors.“Deliberate pollution from ships, intentional falsification of records and obstruction of justice are serious environmental crimes that will be vigorously prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”…said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This case involved deceit and willful pollution, and this prosecution is intended to hold both the corporations and individuals accountable.”..said U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans for the Eastern District of Louisiana. According to court documents, the ship’s master ordered crew members to pump overboard from the residual oil tank, which contained oily waste. A portable pump placed inside the tank and connected to a long flexible hose was used to discharge directly into the ocean without any required pollution prevention equipment or monitoring.The waste oil, including sludge, originated in the engine room and had been improperly transferred into the residual oil tank on the deck of the ship by a prior crew. Senior managers at Prive Shipping were aware that the oil-contaminated waste remained in the tank and were informed by the ship’s master that it had been dumped overboard.The proposed $2 million criminal penalty includes $500,000 in organizational community service payments that will fund various maritime environmental projects in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Those projects will be managed by the congressionally established National Fish & Wildlife Foundation. The court also has authority to award up to $500,000, half of the APPS portion of the fine, to the whistleblowers that provided evidence leading to conviction.
Texas petrochemical giant fined $30 million for plant explosions in 2019 - On Tuesday, Texas Petrochemical Company (TPC Group) pleaded guilty to one criminal count of violating the Clean Air Act before the US District Court for Eastern Texas for its criminal negligence that led to its Port Neches plant experiencing two explosions in November 2019. The devastating blasts, occurring 13 hours apart, left three workers injured and necessitated an emergency evacuation of more than 50,000 residents from the surrounding area. The impact of the blasts were reportedly felt as far as 30 miles away. The TPC Group’s Port Neches petrochemical facility is one of three plants the Houston-based corporation operates along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The company’s other facilities are located in Houston and Lake Charles, Louisiana. According to an investigation into the industrial disaster by the US Department of Justice, the explosions released more than 11 million pounds of extremely hazardous chemical substances, caused more than $130 million in offsite property damage, and inflicted enormous impacts to human and environmental health. The Port Neches facility is responsible for 20 percent of butadiene production in the US, a central ingredient in the manufacture of rubber. Butadiene is a colorless gas with a gasoline odor that is extremely flammable and known to cause respiratory illnesses and cancer if one is exposed to it for long periods without proper equipment. For more than three months leading up to the explosions at the facility, a dangerous chemical material began to build up inside of a 16-inch diameter steel pipe critical to the facility’s production, forming a highly pressurized and toxic “popcorn” that pushed against the pipe’s walls. Finally, the pipe gave way to tremendous pressure and exploded. The fierce explosions blasted from the plant after igniting 6,000 gallons of the highly flammable butadiene, stored in liquid form, in less than one minute, engulfing a large section of the facility in flames.
Crews work together to clean up Lake Superior diesel spill - Efforts to clean up the almost 400 gallons of diesel that spilled in Lake Superior Wednesday morning are still underway. Officials said the incident that happened near Silver Bay was caused by a transfer of fuel between a privately owned barge and tugboat. Joseph McGinnis with the U.S. Coast Guard said on Thursday the Oil Spill Recovery Association put up booms around the vessel in an effort to move it into a different spot so they can clean up the surrounding area. After that, they’ll start cleaning along the shore. McGinnis said they’re continuing to monitor the situation and that this is an ongoing effort. As of right now there’s no definite timeline for how long the cleanup will take. Bevery Godfrey with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said that a vacuum truck has been on site since Thursday morning to recover the fuel. Godfrey said U.S. Coast Guard and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will continue to work on-site with local officials on the cleanup efforts. The Coast Guard and MPCA said the investigation into potential impacts to the environment, wildlife, and marine life will be a priority as the cleanup progresses. The Coast Guard said the spill is contained, so there is no water emergency.
Alberta's Surge Energy Makes Crude Discovery in Hope Valley Calgary-based Surge Energy Inc. has drilled three successful multi-leg oil wells in Hope Valley, Alberta, which it calls “an exciting new crude oil discovery” in the Sparky formation. Surge said in a news release it has identified the potential for up to 100 multi-lateral drilling locations at Hope Valley. The company’s technical interpretation of its recent 46 square-kilometer 3D seismic program has allowed it to de-risk these future drilling locations in Hope Valley, it added. Over the last four years, Surge assembled a 32.5 net section block of land on the Sparky play trend, called Hope Valley. As part of the recent Alberta Crown sale, Surge strategically acquired 7.0 net sections of prospective land on the Hope Valley Sparky play trend. Production from Surge's latest Hope Valley well, the first well drilled incorporating the new 3D seismic data, has exceeded management's type curve with an IP60 day production average of 255 barrels of oil production, the company noted. For the remainder of the year, Surge is planning six additional multi-lateral wells targeting the Sparky formation at Hope Valley. In addition, Surge is building a multi-well oil battery to accommodate planned future growth in the area. Meanwhile, Surge also closed the sale of two non-core assets at Shaunavon and Westerose for total net proceeds of $27.42 million (CAD 37.4 million). The non-core Assets have associated production of 1,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd). The net proceeds have been applied against the company's outstanding debt on its revolving first lien credit facility, it said. As a result of the non-core asset sale, Surge updated its 2024 exit rate production guidance to 24,000 boepd, consisting of 86 percent light/medium oil, down from 25,000 boepd previously. Its capital expenditures for 2024 remain unchanged at $139.32 million (CAD 190 million). In its most recent earnings release, Surge said it posted first-quarter average daily production of 24,903 boepd, consisting of 86 percent liquids. The company said the strong quarterly production levels were achieved even when it drilled four less net wells than originally budgeted for the first quarter, as it reacted to earlier than anticipated spring break up conditions in both SE Saskatchewan and Sparky core areas. Surge also reported that it reduced its Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 18 percent in 2023 year over year. Surge has now reduced its Scope 1 emissions intensity by 28 percent since 2021. The results demonstrate the company's continued commitment to reducing the emissions intensity of its operations, it said. Surge said it has assembled “dominant operational positions” in two of the top four crude oil plays in Canada in its Sparky and SE Saskatchewan core areas, with over 11,500 boepd and approximately 8,000 boepd, respectively.
Mexico’s Nearshoring Opportunity Said Threatened by Insufficient Energy Infrastructure - Natural Gas Intelligence - Mexico’s reliance on U.S natural gas to meet national electricity needs would continue to represent a short-term risk for the country in the event of extreme climate conditions, according to the credit rating agency Moody’s Ratings. Throughout early May, Mexico experienced a nationwide heatwave that drove a surge in electricity demand across the country. The national electricity grid was unable to support the increased demand, leading the power system operator, known as Cenace, to issue critical alerts for inadequate supply on 11 of the first 18 days of the month. The grid’s inability to meet national power needs led to blackouts in 21 of Mexico’s 32 states on May 7. The natural gas system held up during the heatwave, but a lack of sufficient power generation supply...
Mexico Appetite for Financing Energy Said Strong Amid Nearshoring Boom - Improving Mexico’s energy and natural gas fortunes may be as simple as changing the regulatory environment, experts said recently in San Antonio, TX. Share of US natural gas imports by country of origin “Between banks and the capital markets, there is an infinite capacity to finance needs” in Mexico’s natural gas and energy sector, said Société Générale SA’s Adolfo Villareal, Energy Project Finance director of Corporate and Investment Banking. “But the right regulation needs to be in place. The debt financing is there, the appetite is there.” Experts at the Mexico Gas Summit who spoke at the event said recent power outages in Mexico were a reflection of underinvestment in the sector. There was a dearth of regulatory permits handed out by the government to proceed with infrastructure projects.
Mexico Natural Gas Production Hits Three-Year Low as Heat Dome Strains Power Grid - Mexico’s natural gas production averaged 3.76 Bcf/d in April, versus 4.40 Bcf/d in the same month a year ago. Last month’s production was the lowest amount recorded since April 2021, data from upstream regulator Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos (CNH) show. State oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) supplied 3.57 Bcf/d or 95% of the total, down from 4.18 Bcf/d a year earlier. Private sector operators accounted for the remainder. Only a fraction of the gas produced by Pemex reaches Mexico’s internal market – which is the world’s eighth-largest – as Pemex consumes most of its own output for use in enhanced oil recovery and refining, among other applications. As a result, Mexico is increasingly dependent on pipeline gas imports from the United States to meet its needs...
Mexico's Pemex crude oil exports drop 31% in April from year earlier, data shows (Reuters) -Mexican state energy company Pemex exported 681,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in April, a year-on-year decrease of 31%, company numbers showed, as production has been declining for the past few months. Pemex's sales to its biggest export market, "America", which mainly consists of the United States, amounted to 484,000 bpd in April, 16% lower year-on-year. Meanwhile, sales to Europe amounted to 99,000 bpd that month, 54% lower over the same time period. Pemex, which published the figures late on Friday, gave no reason for the lower export numbers. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Crude oil exports have been declining for decades from an all-time height of 1.8 million bpd in 2004, when the company pumped some 3.4 million bpd. Over the past decades, large fields have been depleted and new discoveries have failed to compensate for the decline. The government has previously said that crude oil exports would decline as Pemex uses more for its domestic refineries and the Olmeca refinery in Dos Bocas. However, Reuters revealed last week that the new refinery only started taking in 16,300 bpd in mid-May. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's Olmeca refinery in the port of Dos Bocas, in the southern state Tabasco, has been running over budget and behind schedule. Startup has been pushed back repeatedly over the past two years. Pemex officials have in the past said that production had taken a hit after several fields declined. Last week, two sources at the company said it was also affected by oil service companies that partially or completely started operating after they did not get paid. To be sure, Pemex's six local refineries substantially increased local processing during the six-year term of Lopez Obrador that will end in October. In April, these refineries processed on average 950,699 bpd, almost 4% more year-on-year. This compares to an average of 611,000 bpd at the end of the past government in late 2018. Together, they have a capacity to process 1.6 million bpd. Pemex has said that it expects to process around 1.45 million bpd by the end of 2024 in all its Mexican refineries, including the new Olmeca refinery. In April, Pemex pumped 1.5 million bpd of crude oil, the numbers showed, a 6.7% decline from a year earlier, and continuing a downward trend it started in May 2023. Including condensate, a very low-density, very low-viscosity liquid hydrocarbon that usually comes to the surface with natural gas, Pemex produced 1.78 million bpd in April, a 6.3% decline from a year earlier.
Panama & Suez Canals Fall Out of Favor for LNG Exports to Asia - LNG (liquefied natural gas) that is exported from the U.S. to Asia takes one of three routes to get there. One route is via the Panama Canal, crossing into the Pacific Ocean and on from there. Another is via the Atlantic Ocean to the Suez Canal and from there via the Red Sea, which connects to the Indian Ocean. The third way is sailing through the Atlantic Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope off the southern tip of Africa. In the past, both the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal were the preferred routes, shaving weeks from the journey. However, given recent events, the dynamic has completely changed. Now, the preferred route is the longest route — around the Cape of Good Hope.
Panama Canal Completes Clean-Up from MSC Boxship Oil Spill --The Panama Canal Authority was working to complete the clean-up of one of the locks at the southern end of the waterway near Balboa after an oil spill. The incident happened on Sunday, May 26 while an MSC vessel was transiting the locks bound for Ecuador. According to the report, the authority suspended operations in one lane at the Miraflores locks after they discovered the oil during the locking operation. Crews were able to contain the spill to the one lock chamber and began a cleaning and recovery operation. The MSC Kataya R. (63,259 dwt) was held in the lock chamber during the cleanup. The vessel, built in 2002, is approximately 922 feet (281 meters) in length with a capacity of 4,100 TEU. She is owned by SFL and has been operating for MSC on charter since 2015. The containership is registered in Liberia. The lock remained closed all day on Monday, May 27, with pictures showing crews washing down the vessel and collecting the oil from the lock water. The authority said the vessel would remain in the upper chamber of the lock until the clean-up operation was completed and inspections were completed. No reason was given for the oil discharge. As of Wednesday, the vessel has been moved into the Panama Anchorage and the canal was reporting that the Miraflores center was reopening. The temporary delay comes as the Panama Canal is working to increase the number of daily transits. The authority reported this week that water levels in the main reservoirs had for the first time exceeded levels of a year ago. With increased rain and waterflow the authority plans to restore transits. By June 1, the authority expects to be back to 32 daily transits and they are planning to begin increasing the draft levels to ease the transit for more vessels. Panama begins its rainy season in June which is expected to contribute to further improvements after severe restrictions due to the lack of rain in 2023.
Vessel tied to $23m Caribbean oil spill detained off Africa | TradeWinds -A tug believed to be responsible for a $23m oil spill in Trinidad and Tobago has been held in Angola. The Caribbean nation started a clean-up operation after a barge called Gulfstream washed up on its shores in February, leaking fuel across beaches, coral reefs and mangroves. The barge was being towed by a vessel identified by the government as the Tanzania-flagged Solo Creed. Information released by the Angolan Navy has revealed the Solo Creed was seized off Luanda on 11 May for an unauthorised breach of the offshore security perimeter of oil extraction blocks 17 and 18. The exclusive zones are operated by subsidiaries of BP and TotalEnergies. The tug has broadcast no AIS data for 112 days, but investigative website Bellingcat verified its location off Angola using satellite imagery. Angola Press News Agency quoted Angolan Navy commander Divaldo Fonseca as saying the crew claimed they had intended to load water and other supplies. Fonseca reiterated the commitment of the navy to continue developing actions to guarantee the “inviolability of national waters”. The identities of the two vessels involved in the Caribbean spill were unknown for more than a week. The national security ministry said the tug and barge were heading to Guyana. TankerTrackers said the Gulfstream was seen in Pozuelo Bay, Venezuela, during the entire final week of January. The Gulfstream may have been carrying as much as 35,000 barrels of fuel oil. The 38-metre tug was operating out of Panama, according to the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard. Its ownership is not known.
Tug behind Trinidad and Tobago oil spill arrested in Angola - Bellingcat has provided an update on the tug boat involved in the oil spill which occurred in Trinidad and Tobago a few months ago, saying that it was detained in Angola for breaching security parameters. In February 2024, an oil spill occurred in Trinidad and Tobago, despite efforts to locate the tug involved in the incident, the tug Solo Creed disappeared until May 11, 2024, when it was detained by the Angolan Navy off Luanda for breaching security perimeters near oil extraction blocks 17 and 18.The vessel claimed it was seeking supplies without authorization. This incident came amidst disputes over maritime borders between Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bellingcat reports.According to Bellingcat, satellite imagery confirmed the Solo Creed’s presence in Luanda, Angola, matching its appearance prior to the spill. The vessel, now labeled “SC,” arrived between May 9 and May 16 and was still present as of May 25.Despite local media coverage of its detainment, there was no mention of its involvement in the Tobago oil spill. However, on May 23, Trinidad and Tobago’s government acknowledged the connection and sought communication with Angola. The oil spill’s cleanup cost is estimated at $23.5 million USD, with no identified insurer for the Solo Creed.
Norway Raises Projected Oil and Gas Investments for 2025 to $21B - Statistics Norway has increased the country’s forecast oil and gas investments next year by 5.2 percent to NOK 216 billion ($20.5 billion) compared to the previous quarterly survey. The upward adjustment was driven by higher growth estimates for field development and exploration, the government agency reported on its website. The projection for 2025 indicates a nominal growth of 19 percent against the corresponding estimate for 2024, given in the second quarter of 2023. The previous growth estimate from 2024 to 2025 was 15 percent. Extraction and pipeline are forecast to account for 19 percent of oil and gas investments in the Nordic country in 2025. Producing fields are estimated to have an 11 percent share, followed by field development with three percent and exploration and concept studies with two percent. Onshore activities are projected to contribute one percent, similar with shutdown and removal. “There will also be high investment activity next year on the many field developments that were started at the end of 2022”, Statistics Norway said. “New pipelines are also being built in connection with some of these developments, which increases investments in pipeline transportation. “In addition, clearly higher activity within fields on stream is planned for next year”. Meanwhile the new estimate for 2024 climbed from NOK 244 billion ($23.2 billion) in the previous survey, given in the first quarter of this year, to NOK 247 billion ($23.5 billion), the highest nominal estimate since this statistic started. Last year’s second quarter forecast for 2024 was NOK 182 billion ($17.3 billion). Compared to actual oil and gas investments in 2023, investments in 2024 are expected to grow 14.7 percent, Statistics Norway said. “Investments in all investment areas are expected to increase compared to the corresponding estimates given for 2023, but it is a marked increase in field development that contributes the most to the projected increase in 2024”, it said. “The many field developments for which a plan for development and operation was delivered late in 2022 will overall have higher investment activity in 2024 than in 2023. It is common for development projects to have higher investments in the second year of development than in the first”. On April 22, 2024, Aker BP ASA said it started production in the Hanz field on the Norwegian side of the North Sea. The subsea development, which has an estimated investment of nearly NOK 5 billion ($475 million), holds reserves of about 20 million barrels of oil equivalent, according to Aker BP, which operates the field with a 35 percent stake. In the Norwegian Barents Sea, three fields are expected to start producing by the end of 2024, according to a press release by the Norwegian Offshore Directorate April 17, 2024. “Forecasts indicate that production on the Norwegian shelf will peak in 2025”, the directorate said at the time. “Johan Castberg coming on stream is one of the contributing factors”, it said. The field is operated by Norway’s majority state-owned Equinor with a 50 percent interest.
Equinor, Troll Partners Plan $1B Natural Gas Production Expansion to Meet European Demand - Equinor ASA and its partners in Norway’s Troll field plan to invest more than $1.1 billion in the western part of the production area to sustain high levels of natural gas exports to Europe beyond 2030. Norway’s largest oil and gas producer plans to present to Norway’s Ministry of Energy a plan from the Troll partnership that could boost annual peak production from the prolific offshore field to 7 billion cubic meters (Bcm), or roughly 247 Bcf/y. “We have been working alongside our partners, Gassco and the Norwegian authorities to maximize energy deliveries from the Norwegian Continental Shelf since 2022,” Equinor’s Kjetil Hove, executive vice president of Norwegian Exploration and Production, said. “This project will allow Troll and Kollsnes to continue their...
Turkey, Azerbaijan Ink Deal for Turkmenistan Natural Gas to Flow to Europe - As negotiations with Russia for regional export projects have failed, Turkey is working with other partners and moving forward on plans to form a regional natural gas export hub. Turkey and Azerbaijan’s recent agreement to enable delivery of Turkmenistan natural gas to Europe displayed the two countries’ commitment to help Europe replace Russian pipeline imports with alternative supplies. The agreement excluded Iran from the planned transit route. Turkey and Azerbaijan would expand capacity of several natural gas pipelines to facilitate Turkmen fuel transit into Turkey and then to Europe.
Qatar Bullish on More LNG Supply Contracts Despite Growing Global Natural Gas Competition - Worldwide demand for LNG has driven buyers to sign more than 25 million metric tons/year (mmty) in supply contracts in the last year for Qatar’s next generation of export projects. Looking into the rest of 2024, QatarEnergy CEO and Energy Minister Saad-al-Kabbi said in early May he is “confident” the state-owned firm would sign more contracts later this year. Qatar’s expansion plan outlines a boost in liquefied natural gas production volumes by 85% from current levels to 142 mmty by 2030 from its North Field expansion projects.
EU Weighs Proposal to Sanction Russian Oil Tanker Insurer - The European Union’s executive arm is examining the feasibility of a proposal by one of its member states to sanction Russia’s Ingosstrakh Insurance Co., as part of efforts to choke revenue generating streams that Moscow needs to finance its war against Ukraine. The proposal, which may require the EU to expand its listing criteria, aims to target one of the main providers of insurance to tankers hauling Russian oil after the Group of Seven introduced price caps on most Russian seaborne crude and fuels in late 2022 and early 2023, according to people familiar with the matter. Were it to go through, the idea would create sprawling and hard-to-quantify risks and costs — not just for Russia’s oil trade but for wider international commodities shipments that Ingosstrakh provides coverage for. The evaluation is still at an early stage and Moscow-based Ingosstrakh is currently not included in the latest draft of a new sanctions package the bloc is currently negotiating, the people said on condition of anonymity. Even if the proposal gets a nod from the European Commission, it would still face numerous hurdles given that several member states, including Hungary, have opposed most measures targeting Russia’s energy sector, the people said. EU sanctions require the backing of all member states. The listing criteria is aimed at people and entities operating in economic sectors that are providing the Russian government with substantial sources of revenue — something that would need to be demonstrated in the case of Ingosstrakh. “Listings are discussed and decided by the member states in a procedure that is confidential,” said Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for the EU’s foreign affairs and security policy. Ingosstrakh, a top-five Russian insurance provider, said it “operates in strict compliance with all applicable legislation, and follows strict compliance procedures.” The firm “follows the recommendations found in relevant Sanctions Guidance for Entities Operating in the Maritime Shipping Sector published by OFAC and other relevant guidelines, as applicable,” it said in emailed comments. The EU, US and other allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russian exports, companies and officials following the invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv’s allies are especially focused on cracking down on Moscow’s ability to circumvent sanctions and on curbing its future revenue to reduce Vladimir Putin’s ability to finance and sustain Russia’s war. The G-7 price cap on Russian crude oil and petroleum products bans western shipowners, insurers and intermediaries from providing vessels and services for cargoes priced above the thresholds. The restrictions prompted a pivot away from western insurance and a need for alternatives. In April, the International Group of P&I Clubs, a London-based umbrella organization for clubs providing coverage of shipowners’ liability against risks including spills and collisions, provided services for just 16 percent of all tankers shipping Russian oil. That’s the lowest since at least the start of 2023, according to shipping data compiled by Bloomberg. Moscow has been able to skirt much of the impact of the price cap by assembling a fleet of tankers operating in difficult-to-trace jurisdictions and turning to non-western service providers to ship its barrels to new markets such as India. Ingosstrakh said in the months that followed the invasion that it would not fill the void if sanctions forced western firms to stop covering the nation’s petroleum shipments. It is known to be the provider of at least some protection and indemnity cover, but the full extent of its involvement is not clear and there is no suggestion the company has breached sanctions. It also provides P&I to some other commodity trades.
Asian Natural Gas Prices Continue Climb Amid Spot Buying, Supply Concerns – Asian buyers are seeking more LNG spot cargoes and shoring up long-term supply while Europe awaits the impacts from further cuts of Russian natural gas imports and global terminal outages. Prices in east Asia rose to the mid-$12/MMBtu range to start off the week amid a fresh wave of spot purchases and tenders. Korea Middle Power Co. Ltd. (KOMIPO) purchased a cargo for delivery in mid-July, according to data from Kpler. Thailand’s PTT LNG Co. Ltd. also is seeking three liquefied natural gas cargoes through July. One of South Korea’s largest LNG buyers, Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) also opened a short-term and long-term tender for up to 2.1 million metric tons/year (mmty) each. Meanwhile, supply in the Pacific has been limited by several outages at key facilities in Australia,
Atlantic LNG shipping rates, European and Asian prices climb - Atlantic spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) freight rates rose this week, while European and Asian prices also increased compared to the previous week.Last week, charter rates were almost flat compared to the week before.“Freight rates in the Atlantic experienced the largest week-on-week increase of the year thus far, with the Spark30S Atlantic spot rate increasing by $5,500 per day to $48,250 per day” Qasim Afghan,” Spark’s commercial analyst told LNG Prime on Friday.He said this is the “highest Atlantic freight rate since the end of March, ending the almost two-month period where freight rates were extremely steady, remaining within a $2,000 range.”The Spark25S Pacific rate decreased by $1,250 per day to $44,500 per day this week, Afghan said.Flex LNG’s CEO Øystein Kalleklev said during the company’s first quarter conference call on Thursday that a “lot of ships” are scheduled for delivery in 2024 and 2025, while the new LNG volumes to the market are coming at the end of 2025 and into 2026 and onwards.He said there are currently “numerous” ships in the “weak” spot market.Looking at rates today, with spot rates for modern tonnage at around $50,000, he said that this means the “steam ships are making rates in the low $20,000, which means that when you take in the cost of docking these ships, these are very expensive ships to dock because they are old.”“It means that these ships are running at OpEx level. So if you add installment and interest cost on top of that, these ships are not making any money at all,” he said.So that together with a lot of ships coming off long-term contracts would result in more steam ships being scrapped in the coming years, he said.“And that together with more growth, will rebalance the market sometime from the end of 2025, 2026, and 2027 onwards,” he said.In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG front month increased compared to the last week.“SparkNWE DES LNG prices have hit a yearly high for 2024, with the front month price for June delivery assessed at $11.003/MMBtu and at a $0.175/MMBtu discount to the TTF,” Afghan said.He said this is a $1.552/MMBtu increase in DES LNG price, the largest week-on-week increase since October 2023.European prices rose this week following an announcement by Austria’s OMV indicating a potential disruption in gas supplies from Russia’s Gazprom to Austria due to a court ruling.OMV said it would “still be able to supply its contractual customers with gas from alternative, non-Russian sources, through its extensive diversification efforts over the last several years.”This includes long-term LNG supply contracts, which are imported into Europe via OMV’s LNG regasification capacities at the Gate terminal in Rotterdam.Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU continued to rise and were 67.72 percent full on May 22.Gas storages were 66.06 percent full on May 15, and 66.34 percent full on May 22 last year.In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia, for July settled at $12.255/MMBtu on Thursday, rising from the previous week.The data shows that this is the first time that the JKM rose above $12/MMBtu since December last year.JKM for July settled at 11.160/MMBtu on Friday last week, rising from the previous week.State-run Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) said in a report earlier this week that JKM rose in the latter half of the last week due to the shift in delivery months from June to July, as well as supply concerns caused by troubles at Gorgon LNG, Bintulu LNG, and Nigeria LNG.Spot LNG prices also rose due to heatwaves in Southeast Asia and South Asia, and demand for summer season.US LNG exports dropped to 23 shipments in the week ending May 22 compared to 28 shipments in the prior week, with the Freeport LNG terminal shipping five cargoes during the period, according to the EIA.Freeport LNG, the operator of the 15 mtpa liquefaction plant in Texas, told LNG Prime on Wednesday last week it has resumed operations at all of its three liquefaction trains.Malaysian energy giant Petronas also said this week it has resumed full operations on May 19 at its giant Bintulu LNG plant.
LNG imports may hit record in 2024 -- Fueled by strong demand from the industrial sector amid an economic recovery and industrial decarbonization, China's liquefied natural gas imports could hit a record in 2024, company executives and experts said. China, the world's top importer of the super-chilled fuel, is on course to import around 80 million metric tons of LNG this year, driven by increased demand from the industrial and commercial sectors, said Zhang Yaoyu, global head of LNG and new energies for PetroChina International under China National Petroleum Corporation. China's LNG imports rose 12.6 percent year-on-year in 2023 to 71.32 million tons, overtaking Japan as the world's largest LNG importer. This was a significant rise compared to 63.44 million tons of LNG imported in 2022. China has shipped nearly 20 million tons of LNG already during the first three months, with the chemicals, paper, steel and cement industries driving growth in demand, making the estimated 80 million tons achievable, said Zhang. Li Ziyue, an analyst with BloombergNEF, said China has become the dominant force in LNG worldwide amid the country's energy transition. Gas consumption in the transport sector, seen as a relatively clean bridge fuel, is projected to experience the fastest growth due to the cost-effectiveness of natural gas commercial vehicles, she said. The country's State-owned enterprises have also led China's expansion of its capacity to handle LNG, while private companies are playing an increasingly active role in building LNG terminals, she said. About 60 percent of the LNG facilities under construction are by State-owned enterprises and the rest by private domestic companies, she said. BloombergNEF said it expects China's base-case natural gas demand in 2024 to increase 8 percent year-on-year to 421 billion cubic meters, while LNG imports are estimated to rise 17 percent annually to 81 million tons this year. The transportation sector is expected to see the largest increase in gas consumption during the warmer months (April to September) due to the good economics of natural gas commercial vehicles, it said. Chinese companies are on course to buy more LNG on a long-term basis than any single nation, as it is looking to sign more deals to avoid possible shortages and reduce dependence on spot deliveries. Of all global long-term liquefied natural gas volumes last year, 33 percent is going to China, according to Bloomberg. According to Shell's LNG Outlook 2024, the global LNG market will continue to grow into the 2040s, mostly driven by China's industrial decarbonization. The development of China's gas infrastructure has been accelerating in recent years and the long-term gas and LNG demand outlook in China remains strong as the country has been also diversifying its import destinations, it said. "China is likely to dominate LNG demand growth this decade as its industry seeks to cut carbon emissions by switching from coal to gas," said Steve Hill, executive vice-president for Shell
RIL: Reliance Industries signs deal with Rosneft to buy Russian oil in roubles - Times of India -- Reliance Industries, operator of the world’s biggest refining complex, has signed a one-year deal with Russia’s Rosneft to buy at least 3 million barrels of oil a month in roubles, four sources aware of the matter said.Shift to rouble payments follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s push for Moscow and its trading partners to find alternatives to Western financial system to facilitate trade despite US and European sanctions.A term deal with Rosneft also helps privately run Reliance to secure oil at discounted rates at a time when the Opec+ group of oil producers is expected to extend voluntary supply cuts beyond June. reuters
Court dismisses N143b oil spill claims against Mobil - --The Federal High Court in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has dismissed four oil spill suits instituted against Mobil with a claim of over N143 billion. The plaintiffs are: Unwon Ama Oyorkoto Unity Fishing Cooperative Society, Mgbambop Otako Fishing Cooperative Investment and Credit Society Limited, Oyorokoto Unity Fish Farming Cooperative, and Mr. Dimkpa Ataukot), represented by Kingsley Uzoukwu, Esq. They sued Mobil in November 2022, alleging that the oil company caused an oil spill to occur in their communities in 2012, which severely impacted the livelihood and sources of income of the plaintiffs. Mobil, represented by Prof. Fabian Ajogwu (SAN) of Kenna Partners, filed preliminary objections challenging the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the suits. Read Also: The Most Popular Games in Nigeria Ajogwu argued that the suits were statute-barred as they were initiated beyond the limitation period stipulated under Section 16 of the Akwa Ibom State Limitation Laws, 2000. The court, in its verdict yesterday, agreed with the submissions of Mobil’s counsel that the plaintiffs commenced their suits more than 10 years after the cause of action arose, and as a result, the suits were held to be statute-barred. The court upheld Mobil’s argument that even if there were indeed oil spill incidents, the plaintiffs’ cases were at best hinged on the continuing effect of the alleged spills, as against the continuation of the oil spill incidents. Justice Onnah dismissed all the claims by the plaintiffs.
Iran Concludes Oil Spill Cleanup at Chabahar Port - Deputy Director of the General Administration of Ports and Maritime Affairs of Sistan and Balouchestan province Seyed Ahmad Hashemi said that an oil spill caused by an unknown source off the coast of Iran’s Southeastern Chabahar port has been cleaned up. “Oil pollution, without a clear source, was contained and collected in the sea and on the coast of Chabahar, with the timely action of the anti-pollution team,” Hashemi said. “After the discovery of oil pollution on the coast of Chabahar, four pollution control and sea cleanup teams were immediately sent to the polluted area,” he added. Noting that the exact origin of the pollution is being investigated, Hashemi said, “The operation to contain and clean up the oil pollution in Chabahar was completed with the 72-hour and non-stop efforts of the pollution control teams.” Cleanup and recovery from an oil spill is difficult and depends on different factors, including the type of the material spilled, the temperature of the water, and the types of shorelines and beaches involved. Chabahar is a free port on the coast of the Gulf of Oman, situated on the Makran Coast of the Southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan Province. It is located 700 km South of provincial capital Zahedan.
Iranian Knowledge-Based Firm Launches Domestic Production of Thermoplastic Polyurethane (ANA)- Researchers at an Iranian knowledge-based company have managed to produce thermoplastic polyurethane which is a highly advanced and complicated polymer used in the automobile industry, shoe making, sportswear, adhesives and other industrial parts. “Thermoplastic polyurethanes, known in the industry as TPU, are a versatile elastomer with unique properties,” Nima Eskandari, a board member of the Iranian knowledge-based company told ANA correspondent in an interview. He said that the TPU produced in their company offers optimal performance in the most demanding industries. “Thermoplastic polyurethanes have high elasticity, high mechanical strength, and very high abrasion resistance; Due to its high mechanical properties, this product has many applications in various industrial fields, including automotive, military, electrical, industrial and health,” Eskandari said. “This product had not been produced in the country due to the complicated process of its production and its time-consuming nature. It was only produced in the region by a company in Turkey, and fortunately, we have now been able to be the second producer of this product in the region,” he further asserted. “TPU is composed of an alternating sequence of hard and soft segments, and its production requires reactive extrusion and complicated reactors in order to first combine polyols (soft segment) and then combine it with the hard part in a reactive extruder and convert it into granules,” added the company’s member of board of directors. According to him, the production of the TPU is highly dependent on the stoichiometric ratio of the raw materials, and any slightest deviation in its production will result in gelation or a polymer with unflavored properties. Given the specifications of the product, its production is highly expensive compared to other polymers. “Different grades of this product have been imported from countries such as China, Italy, Turkey and Germany for various applications in recent years, including high pressure hoses (pneumatic), auto parts (dust collector), industrial adhesives and many other industrial applications,” said Eskandari, stressing, “But now consumers in the country can easily replace these previously imported foreign-made products with the domestically-made ones at a 20% lower prices.” “The granules produced in this company are competitive with similar foreign models. For example, the soles of sneakers are cracked due to high abrasion, but this product is very elastic due to wear resistance and comes out with no problems that the old products used to have.”
Oil Prices Jump as Europe Hints at June Rate Cuts -- Brent crude and U.S. benchmark crude oil prices gained well over 1% in thin Monday trading, with international inflation data and the potential for rate cuts globally taking center stage on Memorial Day weekend, with U.S. and London markets closed for the holiday. At 12:48 p.m. ET on Monday, Brent crude was trading at $83.07, up 1.16% on the day, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading at $78.68, up 1.24% on the day. Asian and European stock markets also benefited on Monday, with some renewed optimism about rate cuts after the U.S. Federal Reserve last week dulled markets by seeking more time to make sure that inflation was really on track for the 2% target. Strengthening optimism that the European Central Bank, which meets on June 6, could make positive moves towards a rate cut have also buoyed stocks and oil prices. The governor of the Bank of Finland, Olli Rehn, who is also the European Central Bank (ECG) governor, helped matters on Monday by suggesting that rate cuts could begin in June because inflation was closing in on its 2% target across the euro zone and that the drop in inflation was “sustained”. “Thanks to this disinflationary process, inflation is converging to our 2% target in a sustained way, and the time is thus ripe in June to ease the monetary policy stance and start cutting rates,” Rehn said. “This obviously assumes that the disinflationary trend will continue and there will be no further setbacks in the geopolitical situation and energy prices,” he added. For April, Euro zone inflation was 2.4%, the seventh consecutive month in which it remained below 3%, with May figures due out on Friday this week expected to be highly anticipated by markets.
Expectations That OPEC+ Will Maintain Crude Supply Cuts at its June 2nd Meeting - The oil market rallied higher on Tuesday, following the Memorial Day holiday, amid expectations that OPEC+ will maintain crude supply cuts at its June 2nd meeting and amid increasing tension in the Middle East. The market posted a low of $77.69 and extended a more than 1% increase in prices on Monday that was muted due to the holiday. However, the market continued to trend higher on Tuesday and rallied to a high of $79.90 in afternoon trading as the U.S. dollar fell 0.1% to a more than one-week low. The market later settled in a sideways trading range ahead of the close. The July WTI contract settled up $2.11 at $79.83 and the July Brent contract settled up $1.12 at $84.22. The WTI market rallied higher in the post settlement period and retraced more than 38% of its move from a high of $86.16 to a low of $76.15, as it posted a new high of $80.20. The market was well supported by news of an Israeli strike in Rafah that killed dozens of civilians and a cross border clash between Israeli and Egyptian forces that left an Egyptian officer dead. The product markets ended the session higher, with the heating oil market settling up 5.14 cents at $2.4650 and the RB market settling up 2.48 cents at $2.5090. UBS said oil remains a valid geopolitical hedge and it sees Brent crude oil trading at around $87/barrel by the end of the year. It expects OPEC+ to extend the current production cut for at least another three months. The Buzzard oilfield in the North Sea is experiencing a temporary production outage. Buzzard is linked to the Forties crude oil stream. The North Sea Oseberg crude oil stream will load three cargoes in July, up from two in June. The Troll crude oil stream will load 5 cargoes in July, unchanged from June. Nigeria is set to export five cargoes of Qua Iboe and four cargoes of Bonny Light crude in July. For June, Nigeria is scheduled to export five cargoes of Qua Iboe crude and five cargoes of Bonny, including one cargo deferred from May. Iraq’s Oil Ministry called for a meeting “as soon as possible” with the Kurdish energy ministry and international companies operating in the Kurdish region in an effort to reach a deal on resuming oil exports through the Turkish port of Ceyhan. U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly improved in May after deteriorating for three consecutive months amid optimism about the labor market. The survey from the Conference Board also showed more consumers believed that the economy could slip into recession in the next 12 months. The Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index increased to 102.0 in May from an upwardly revised 97.5 in April. Consumers' 12-month inflation expectations increased to 5.4% from 5.3% in April.
Oil up on OPEC+ meeting, summer driving season and weaker US dollar (Reuters) - Oil prices gained more than $1 a barrel on Tuesday on the expectation that OPEC+ will maintain crude supply curbs at its June 2 meeting, while the start of U.S. summer driving season and a weaker dollar also boosted the commodity.Brent crude futures for July delivery settled up $1.12, or 1.4% at $84.22 a barrel. U.S. crude ended at $79.83 a barrel, gaining $2.11, or 2.7% from Friday's close, having traded through Monday's U.S. mark Memorial Day holiday without a settlement. For the online meeting of OPEC+ oil producers coming up on Sunday, traders and analysts are predicting 2.2 million barrels per day of voluntary production cuts to stay in place."We expect OPEC+ to extend the current cut for at least another three months at its upcoming meeting," UBS analysts said in a note. "This week's upside follow through is being facilitated by a significant weakening in the dollar and a growing consensus that OPEC+ will extend production cuts at the upcoming weekend meeting," The dollar slipped 0.1% to a more than one-week low.Oil extended a more than 1% rise in trade on Monday that was muted due to the holiday, with hopes of a demand boost from the first tradable day since the start of the U.S. summer driving and vacation season providing support.Worries over U.S. interest rates remaining elevated for a longer period contributed to a weekly loss for crude last week. Higher rates boost the cost of borrowing, which can dampen economic activity and demand for oil.Investors will watch the U.S. core personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE), which is a main inflation gauge for the Federal Reserve, due on Friday. "Despite the indisputably brighter mood seen in the last two days, interest rate concerns will most plausibly act as a (brake) on further attempts to send oil prices meaningfully higher in the immediate future," Air travel data also helped to buoy oil prices, with U.S. seat numbers on domestic flights for May rose by 5% month on month and almost 6% year on year to slightly above 90 million, data from flight analytics company OAG showed, surpassing 2019 levels. Continuing conflict in the Middle East, which on Monday included the death of a Egyptian security service member in an exchange of gunfire with Israeli forces, also helped boost oil prices.
Oil gains as geopolitical tensions rise ahead of OPEC+ meeting - Oil advanced as tensions flared in the Middle East, with a vessel attacked in the Red Sea and reports that Israeli tanks have reached the center of Rafah. Global benchmark Brent traded above $83 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate topped US$79. Israeli tanks have reached the center of Rafah in southern Gaza, AFP reported, citing witnesses. Elsewhere, a Greek-managed bulk carrier was attacked while sailing through the Red Sea. Oil has risen this year on persistent geopolitical risks and OPEC+’s roughly 2 million barrels a day of output cuts, with the group expected to prolong its curbs into the second half of 2024 at a meeting on Sunday. Still, prices have dipped since early April amid signs of weakening demand from Asia, causing Brent’s prompt spread to get closer to a bearish contango structure that indicates supply is plentiful relative to consumption. The bulk carrier Laax was targeted with three missiles around 54 miles southwest of the Yemeni city of Hodeida, according to maritime security firm Ambrey. Yemen’s Houthis have not been identified as the attackers, but the group has carried out a series of assaults on ships transiting the waterway that is crucial to international shipping over the past few months in retaliation for Israel’s war in Gaza. “A confluence of factors suggest some upside sensitivity in oil — from fraught geopolitics to inventory drawdown to OPEC’s assumed preference to maintain curbs,” said Vishnu Varathan, chief economist for Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho Bank Ltd. However, “the Gaza situation is only a warning not to be aggressively short, but not quite the unbridled bullish trigger.” The death of the Egyptian soldier, which followed Israeli airstrikes on Sunday on a camp for displaced people that were condemned by governments across the world, is an added risk to oil markets, but the conflict has largely stayed contained so far. There has been no major disruption to crude flows from the Middle East — which accounts for about a third of global output — though the Houthis’ attacks in the Red Sea have led to the rerouting of some supply. Investors will also be looking for signs of US fuel demand data after the Memorial Day holiday, which traditionally marks the start of the peak summer driving season. Brent for July was up 0.6 per cent at $83.56 a barrel at 2:40 p.m. in London. WTI for July rose to $79.25 a barrel. There was no settlement on Monday due to a US holiday.
Oil prices ease on US gasoline demand worries, economic data (Reuters) - Oil prices eased about 1% on Wednesday on worries over weak U.S. gasoline demand and economic data that could cause the U.S. Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher for longer. High interest rates used to tackle lingering inflation can weigh on economic growth and reduce demand for oil. Brent futures fell 62 cents, or 0.7, to settle at $83.60 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WIT) crude fell 60 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $79.23. The premium of the Brent front-month over the second month , known in the industry as backwardation, fell to its lowest since January. When a market is in backwardation, energy firms are more likely to pull oil out of storage and use it now rather than wait for prices to decline in the future. If the market switches to contango, with future contracts worth more than the front-month, energy firms could start storing oil for the future, which could depress prices. U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly improved in May after deteriorating for three straight months amid optimism about the labor market, but worries about inflation persisted and many households expected higher interest rates over the next year. "Hopes of (Fed) rate cuts ... continue to be pushed back further out into the year," Worries about U.S. gasoline demand, meanwhile, have kept gasoline futures prices near a recent two-month low, cutting gasoline and 321- crack spreads, which measure refining profit margins, to their lowest levels since February. "Gasoline demand (is) still surprisingly weak in keeping supplies near normal levels as bullish seasonals diminish," . Looking ahead, investors are waiting for the release on Friday of the U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index report for April. The PCE, which is the Fed's preferred inflation barometer, is expected to hold steady on a monthly basis. Expectations for the timing of rate cuts have see-sawed, with policymakers wary of sticky inflation. Traders and analysts also said they expect OPEC+, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, to keep voluntary production cuts of about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in place at its meeting on Sunday. In China, the world's second biggest economy after the U.S., the economy is set to grow 5% this year after a "strong" first quarter, the International Monetary Fund said, upgrading its earlier forecast of a 4.6% expansion. The IMF, however, said it expects slower growth in China in the years ahead. Heightened tensions in the Middle East also held back the crude price decline. Israel sent tanks on raids into Rafah and predicted its war on Iran-backed Hamas militants in Gaza would continue all year. The Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, meanwhile, launched attacks on six ships in three different seas and Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency said Tehran's sea-launched ballistic missile Ghadr was made available to the Houthis.
WTI Extends Losses After Crude Draw, Production Holds Near Record Highs -Crude prices have given back the brief gains overnight (following API's report of a big crude draw) as US GDP slowed and weighed on demand expectations (offsetting nervousness from another attack on a ship in the Red Sea, and Israeli comments that it probably wouldn’t be able to defeat Hamas before the end of this year). Additionally, traders are anxiously awaiting the OPEC+ meeting over the weekend for more clarity on the supply-demand outlook.“There’s some caution in the market, with attention on slowing consumption just before the high-demand summer season,” “But a surprise from OPEC+ can’t be completely ruled out and that could drive prices immediately higher.”The official inventory data will trigger the next leg if it confirms API's print.API
- Crude -6.49mm (-1.9mm exp)
- Cushing -1.71mm
- Gasoline -452k
- Distillates +2.05mm
DOE
- Crude -4.16mm (-1.9mm exp)
- Cushing -1.76mm
- Gasoline +2.02mm
- Distillates +2.54mm
Crude inventories and stocks at the Cushing Hub tumbled last week, confirming API's overnight report. Inventories built though on the product side... The Biden admin added 485k barrels to the SPR (while drawing down from the gasoline reserve)... US Crude production remained flat near record highs...
The Market Was Pressured by the Release of the U.S. GDP Data - The oil market continued to trend lower on Thursday in follow through selling seen on Wednesday. The market was pressured by the release of the U.S. GDP data and unexpected builds in product stocks, which offset a large draw in crude oil stocks. The market traded mostly sideways in overnight trading and posted a high of $79.42. However, it erased its slight gains, breached its previous low and continued to trend lower throughout the session on news that the U.S. economy grew slower than initially estimated in the first quarter, largely due to softer consumer spending. The market was further pressured following the release of the EIA’s weekly petroleum stocks report, which showed unexpected builds in distillates and gasoline stocks of over 2 million barrels each as demand weakened. The crude market extended its losses to $1.60 as it sold off to a low of $77.63 in afternoon trading. The market later retraced some of its losses ahead of the close, with the July WTI contract settling down $1.32 at $77.91. The July Brent contract settled down $1.74 at $81.86. The product markets also ended lower in light of the build in inventories, with the heating oil market settling down 6.76 cents at $2.3694 and the RB market settling down 5.98 cents at $2.4046. The EIA reported that U.S. refinery net input of crude oil in the week ending May 24th increased to 17.1 million bpd, its highest since Dec 2019. It said net input of crude to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries increased to 9.3 million bpd, its highest since Jan 2020. Goldman Sachs remains selectively bullish on commodities, citing solid demand growth, expectations of more structural upside in industrial metals and gold, and a declining geopolitical risk premium for oil. The bank said it expected Brent to stay in $75 to $90/barrel range. It also said it sees limited further upside to natural gas prices this summer in the U.S. and Europe given the elevated storage levels. Three OPEC+ sources said OPEC+ is working on a complex deal to be agreed at its meeting on Sunday that will allow the group to extend some of its oil production cuts into 2025. The deal may include extending some or all of the current voluntary production cuts of 2.2 million bpd, expiring in June, into the third or fourth quarter of 2024. The deal would also include extending a separate part of cuts of 3.66 million bpd, expiring at the end of 2024 into 2025. Two of the sources stated that the extension of some cuts into 2025 will likely be made conditional on OPEC+ agreeing new individual member output capacity figures later in 2024. Colonial Pipeline Co is allocating space for Cycle 33 shipments on Line 20, which carries distillates from Atlanta, Georgia to Nashville, Tennessee. The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy grew more slowly in the first quarter than previously estimated after downward revisions to consumer spending. It reported that U.S. GDP grew at a 1.3% annualized rate from January through March, down from the advance estimate of 1.6% and slower than the 3.4% pace in the final three months of 2023.
Oil falls as US reports surprise fuel build, weak demand (Reuters) - Oil prices fell for the second consecutive session on Thursday, after the U.S. government reported weak fuel demand in the country and a surprise jump in gasoline and distillate fuel stockpiles. Brent crude futures fell by $1.74, or 2.1% to settle at $81.86 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell by $1.32, or 1.7%, to $77.91 a barrel. U.S. crude stocks fell more than expected last week as refiners ramped up to their highest utilization rates in over nine months, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed. However, there was a surprise jump in gasoline and distillate fuel inventories as demand weakened even as output rose. "Weakness in gasoline markets have continued to drag down the rest of the oil complex," Analysts had expected the U.S. Memorial Day holiday on May 27, the start of the U.S. summer driving season, would boost fuel demand. Yet EIA's measure of gasoline demand slipped about 2% from the prior week to 9.15 million barrels per day. "I was looking for a draw in gasoline, in particular, ahead of the holiday weekend but when refiners are cranking it out, that is too much to drain product inventories," "The gasoline demand is still a good number, even though I would have expected that to be up closer to 9.5 (million bpd) going into the last holiday weekend," U.S. gasoline futures fell more than 2% to a 3-month low of $2.40 a gallon, while ultra-low sulfur diesel futures settled at an over 11 month low. Further pressuring oil prices, investors' risk-appetite has been subdued by the prospect of delayed monetary easing in the U.S. and Europe, "Fear trading" is dominating financial markets ahead of Friday's U.S. consumer price index data. Oil investors are also cautious ahead of an OPEC+ meeting this weekend. The producer group will decide whether to extend, deepen or unwind supply cuts. Soft fuel demand and rising global oil inventories may help convince OPEC+ producers, which include the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, to maintain supply cuts when they meet on June 2, OPEC+ delegates and analysts say.
Oil stabilises ahead of US inflation data and OPEC+ meeting - Oil prices held steady on Friday as investors await U.S. inflation data for clues on the demand outlook before turning attention to Sunday's OPEC+ meeting to determine the state of supply into next year. Brent futures were up 14 cents, or 0.17%, at $82.00 a barrel by 0908 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 4 cents, or 0.05%, at $77.87. The more liquid August Brent contract was trading at $81.93, up 5 cents from the previous settlement. Brent futures are on track for a monthly loss of almost 7% after dropping 2% in the previous session on a surprise build in U.S. fuel inventories. Higher refinery utilisation brought a deeper than expected draw in crude oil stocks in the week to May 24, Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed. However, gasoline inventories rose by 2 million barrels, against expectations of a 400,000 barrel draw and higher demand ahead of the Memorial Day weekend. In the euro zone, inflation rose by 2.6% in May, Eurostat data showed, beating the 2.5% expected by economists polled by Reuters. The increase is unlikely to deter the European Central Bank from cutting borrowing costs next week, but it could slow the rate-cutting cycle in the coming months. The oil market has been under pressure in recent weeks over the prospect of borrowing costs staying higher for longer, which ties down funds and can curb oil demand. U.S. inflation data is due to be released at 1230 GMT. Markets are also awaiting the OPEC+ meeting on Sunday, with the producer group working on a complex deal that would allow it to extend some of its deep oil production cuts into 2025, three sources familiar with OPEC+ discussions said on Thursday. "The probable extension of the voluntary production cuts by OPEC+ should cause oil prices to rise again," Commerzbank analysts said. "Ultimately, this would threaten a significant undersupply on the oil market in the third quarter."
Oil settles down ahead of OPEC+ meeting, posts weekly loss – CNA -Oil prices fell on Friday and posted a weekly loss as investors awaited an OPEC+ meeting on Sunday that will determine the fate of the producer group's output cuts. Brent futures for July delivery were down 24 cents, or 0.3 per cent, to $81.62 a barrel, while the more liquid August contract was down 77 cents, or 0.8 per cent, at $81.11. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 92 cents, or 1.2 per cent, at $76.99. For the week, Brent settled down 0.6 per cent, with WTI posted a 1 per cent loss. "It's the trepidation ahead of the OPEC meeting over the weekend," , referencing the potential for the group to do something unexpected. "It's widely expected that they'll roll over the cuts," he added. Markets are awaiting the OPEC+ meeting on Sunday, with the producer group working on a complex deal that would allow it to extend some of its deep oil production cuts into 2025, sources told Reuters. Saudi Arabia invited ministers to gather in person in Riyadt for the June meeting in a last minute change of plans, sources said on Friday. The gathering is still officially scheduled as an online meeting. U.S. crude production rose in March to its highest level this year, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Friday, while fuel product supplied, a proxy for demand, fell 0.4 per cent to 19.9 million barrels per day. The oil market has been under pressure in recent weeks over the prospect of U.S. borrowing costs staying higher for longer, which ties down funds and can curb oil demand. Both oil benchmarks were on course for their biggest monthly declines since December after dropping in the previous session on a surprise build in U.S. fuel inventories. "U.S. summer travel season kicked off with Memorial Day weekend, with initial indications showing strong driving and flying activity — but fuel use looks more muted, implying efficiency gains," Citi analysts wrote in a note. Oil prices rose briefly after U.S. government data showed inflation tracked sideways in April, strengthening traders' bets that the Fed would deliver a long-awaited rate cut in September. Euro zone inflation rose more than expected in May, Eurostat data showed. The increase is unlikely to deter the European Central Bank from cutting borrowing costs next week, but it could slow the rate cutting cycle. U.S. energy firms held oil and gas rig count - an early indicator of future output - steady at 600 in the week to May 31, energy services firm Baker Hughes said in its closely followed report on Friday. Oil rigs fell by one to 496 this week, while gas rigs rose by one to 100. However, the total rig count fell for the third month in a row in May, dropping by 13, the most in a month since August. Money managers raised their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions in the week to May 28, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.
Analysts Look at Speculative Oil Positioning and OPEC+ As part of their usual due diligence in advance of strategy discussions, key OPEC+ ministers tend to take at least a quick glance at speculative positioning, among a raft of other more fundamental indicators, analysts at Standard Chartered Bank stated in a report sent to Rigzone late Wednesday. The key questions for ministers are usually whether positioning has any unusual features and whether it might represent a source of significant price distortion, the analysts, including Standard Chartered’s Commodities Research Head, Paul Horsnell, added in the report. The analysts went on to note that, had this due diligence taken place in mid-April, they think the examination would not have taken long. “Speculative positioning had moved from bearish to neutral over the first 15 weeks of the year, with net buying across the main Brent and WTI contracts averaging a robust but unspectacular 2.8 million barrels per trading day (mb/td),” they said in the report. However, the position has changed markedly over the past five weeks, the analysts added. “Speculative net selling has averaged 8.8mb/td since mid-April, with 87 percent of the 219.5mb of net selling taking place in Brent,” they said. “Speculative shorts in ICE Brent increased by 28.2mb in the latest week’s data alone; they now stand at 115.7mb, the highest since November 2020,” they warned. “With longs being liquidated in addition to the new shorts, net selling of ICE Brent over the past three weeks has amounted to 174mb, an unusually rapid rate of 11.6mb/td; this is fastest rate over a three-week period since the start of the March 2020 oil price collapse, when net selling averaged 14.6mb/td,” the analysts went on to state. “While recent speculative flows have been more positive in WTI, we think bearish Brent flows stand out enough to represent a target for OPEC+ policy makers,” they continued. The analysts said in the report that they expect the next leg higher in oil prices to be led by short-covering in Brent as producers provide a positive twist in announcements of output targets and timing. The Standard Chartered analysts highlighted in the report that oil prices have started to rally in advance of the June 2 OPEC+ meeting and “the likely imminent series of unilateral announcements by the eight OPEC+ producers who have made additional voluntary cuts”. “Front-month Brent rallied to a four-week high above $85 per barrel in early trading on 29 May, injecting some volatility into a market that has been remarkably stable despite the scale of recent speculative selling,” they said. “The 30-trading day measure of annualized realized Brent volatility fell as low as 16.8 percent at settlement on 24 May; this is in the one percent left tail of the distribution of volatility over the past five years and within the eight percent left tail of all trading days since the launch of the Brent futures contract in 1988,” they added. “We think there is scope for a significant short-covering rally in the wake of OPEC+ announcements, enough to lay a base to challenge the year to date high of $91.17 per barrel,” they continued. The Standard Chartered analysts highlighted in the report that the company’s machine learning oil price model, SCORPIO, expects a week on week fall of $0.41 per barrel at June 3 settlement. “While from a fundamental viewpoint we expect OPEC+ related announcements to be a cathartic event that should push prices higher, SCORPIO, our machine-learning oil price model is a little more cautious in the very short run,” the analysts said. “SCORPIO indicates a week on week fall of $0.41 per barrel to the 3 June Brent settlement. While current short positioning is a positive factor in the SCORPIO model, it is offset by technical trading indicators,” they added.
Spain, Norway, and Ireland Formally Recognize a Palestinian State - Spain, Norway, and Ireland formally recognized a Palestinian state on Tuesday, a move that doesn’t change the situation on the ground for Palestinians but is meant to pile on the international pressure on Israel.The three European countries join over 140 nations that already recognize Palestine as a state. The recognition comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood in any future scenario.Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a televised address that “this is a historic decision that has a single goal, and that is to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace.”Israeli officials are fuming over the move by the three EU countries. In response to Sanchez’s comments, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katzaccused the Spanish leader of “being complicit in inciting genocide against Jews and war crimes.”The recognition means that 10 out of 27 EU nations now recognize a Palestinian state, a position that puts them at odds with the US. When Spain, Norway, and Ireland first announced their plans, the Biden administration said President Biden believes “a Palestinian state should be realized through direct negotiations between the parties, not through unilateral recognition.”
US and UK Launch Round of Heavy Airstrikes on Yemen - The US and the UK launched multiple airstrikes in Yemen, the first time the two countries launched a joint heavy bombing on the country in over three months.Yemeni media reported that five airstrikes hit Yemen’s Red Sea province of Hodeida and that a radio building was hit in one of the strikes, and at least two people were killed in the al-Hawk district. A communications network in the neighboring Taiz province was also reported to be targeted.US Central Command said that its forces “alongside UK Armed Forces conducted strikes against 13 Houthi targets” in Houthi-controlled Yemen, which is where most Yemenis live. CENTCOM said that it also conducted unilateral strikes that it claimed destroyed eight Houthi drones in Yemen and over the Red Sea.The British Defense Ministry said that its forces “participated in a joint operation with US forces against Houthi military facilities to degrade their ability to persist with their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.”The bombing marks the fifth time that the US and the UK launched joint airstrikes on Yemen since January. The US has also launched hundreds of unilateral strikes, which have done nothing to deter Houthi attacks on shipping that began in response to Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.The latest round of US-UK airstrikes came after the Houthis struck a ship in the Red Sea and said they downed a US MQ-9 Reaper drone for the sixth time since November 2023. The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, have made clear they will not stop their attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and a lifting of the Israeli siege.The US backed a brutal Saudi/UAE war against the Houthis from 2015-2022 that involved heavy airstrikes and a blockade, and the Houthis only became more of a capable fighting force during that time.The war killed at least 377,000 people, with more than half dying of starvation and disease caused by the siege. A ceasefire between the Houthis and Saudis has held relatively well since April 2022, but new US sanctions are now blocking the implementation of a lasting peace deal.
Houthis Say They Downed Another US MQ-9 Reaper Drone - The Houthis said Wednesday that their forces downed another US MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen and also claimed attacks on several ships as their campaign in response to Israel’s onslaught in Gaza continues.The Associated Press reported that it analyzed images showing a US MQ-9 on its belly in a desert and noted that the aircraft looked relatively intact. The Houthis said the drone was downed over Yemen’s Maarib province and released footage that showed an aircraft being hit with surface-to-air missiles.A Pentagon official told AP that “the US Air Force has not lost any aircraft operating within US Central Command’s area of responsibility” and did not elaborate further. AP noted that MQ-9 Reaper drones are sometimes operated by the CIA.The incident marks the sixth time the Houthis said they downed a US MQ-9 Reaper drone since November 2023. The drones cost about $30 million a piece, putting the cost for the US at about $180 million, on top of the over $1 billion it spent on munitions in its bombing campaign in Yemen and other operations in the region since October.The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, also claimed that its forces targeted six ships in three different seas: the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Arabian Sea. The only attack that was confirmed was a missile attack on the Laax, a Greek-owned bulk carrier.While the Houthis say they’re targeting Israeli-linked shipping, the Laax’s security company, LSS-SAPU, said the vessel had no connection to Israel, and shipping data showed its destination was Iran. LSS-SAPU said the ship and crew were safe and headed for their destination.
'US Expected To Resume Sale of Offensive Weapons to Saudi Arabia -The US is expected to resume the sale of “offensive” weapons to Saudi Arabia, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.US officials told the paper that President Biden was expected to lift a ban on the sale of offensive weapons to Riyadh that he put in place over three years ago, although US support for Saudi Arabia has continued.In February 2021, President Biden said he would end “offensive” support for Saudi Arabia’s brutal war in Yemen and paused a bomb sale to Riyadh. However, the US continued to support the Saudi bombing campaign, as it was revealed a few months later that the US was still servicing Saudi warplanes.President Biden also continued to push forward arms deals for Saudi Arabia, including a $650 million air-to-air missile deal, which the administration claimed was for defense. Before the Saudis and the Houthis reached a truce at the end of March 2022, Riyadh launched heavy airstrikes in Yemen, and it was one of the deadliest periods of the war for Yemeni civilians.Saudi Arabia and the Houthis have negotiated a peace deal, but it hasn’t been finalized as new US sanctions are blocking it from being implemented. The US has said it would lift the sanctions and stop its new bombing campaign in Yemen if the Houthis halted attacks on commercial shipping, which the group started in response to the Israeli onslaught in Gaza. But the Houthis say they will only stop once there’s a ceasefire in Gaza, which Biden refuses to call for.The US has been in talks with Saudi Arabia about a potential deal that would involve the normalization of Saudi-Israeli ties. In exchange, Saudi Arabia is looking for a mutual defense commitment from the US and assistance in establishing a civilian nuclear program. But there are major impediments to the deal, as the Saudis want Israel to make commitments toward a Palestinian state, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out the idea of Palestinian statehood in any post-war scenario.
Global shock after Israeli airstrike kills dozens in Rafah tent camp - An Israeli airstrike that caused a huge blaze at a tented area for displaced people in Rafah has killed 45 people, medics have said, with images of charred and dismembered children prompting an outcry from global leaders and putting ceasefire talks in jeopardy.Bombing overnight that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said targeted senior Hamas militants in a precision strike appears to have ignited fires that spread quickly through tents and makeshift accommodation, overwhelming a nearby field hospital operated by the International Committee of the Red Cross and overstretched local hospitals.“We pulled out people who were in an unbearable state,” Mohammed Abuassa, who rushed to the scene in the north-western neighbourhood of Tel al-Sultan, told the Associated Press. “We pulled out children who were in pieces. We pulled out young and elderly people. The fire in the camp was unreal.The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled area said about half of the dead were women, children and older adults. Barefoot children wandered around the smoking wreckage on Monday as searches for the dead continued and mourning families prepared to bury their loved ones.Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in parliament that “something unfortunately went tragically wrong” with the airstrike. “We are investigating the incident and will reach conclusions, because this is our policy,” he said.The US, Israel’s staunchest ally and weapons supplier, described the images from the aftermath as devastating.The strike, one of the deadliest single incidents in the eight-month war to date, came two days after the international court of justice in The Hague, which arbitrates between states, ordered Israel to stop its operation in Rafah immediately.
Israeli strike on Rafah camp fuels global outrage, calls for cease-fire— An Israeli strike that set fire to a displaced persons camp in Rafah — killing an estimated 45 Palestinians and wounding another 200 — has fueled international outrage toward Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and further divided his country over the war efforts. On top of the global condemnation, Netanyahu is also under attack at home from Israeli officials inside and outside his party calling for a vision to end the war, as he expands a campaign into the southern Gazan city of Rafah despite the U.S. and other allies urging restraint.The Israeli public is largely supportive of the Israeli military and its campaign to ensure the threat from Hamas is eliminated and hostages kidnapped from Israel during Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7 are returned.But they are deeply divided over the conduct of the war, as illustrated by the response following the tragedy in Rafah. Amid grisly images of charred bodies and dead children, some segments of Israeli society put the blame on Hamas for operating near civilian sites. But others said the carnage must stop.Protests against Israel’s war in Gaza took place Tuesday at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, with Jewish and Arab students protesting against the war, and counterprotesters for it, the Times of Israel reported.This followed protests Monday night in the mixed Jewish and Arab city of Haifa, where Hebrew media reported that about 100 people called for an immediate end to Israel’s military operations. Eight people were arrested in that protest. Some far-right personalities made fun of the fire as part of the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer — where bonfires are the traditional custom — that took place on the same night as the Rafah strike.“Toddlers go up in flames, and the public in Israel celebrates, ignores, babbles or yawns – this is what our hell looks like,” Yoana Gonen wrote in an opinion piece for the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper.“Israel is slowly sinking into a dark abyss, hand in hand with the devastated Gaza.” By Tuesday morning, the White House had yet to publicly comment on its assessment of the Israeli strike on Rafah. President Biden had earlier warned he would hold back weapons deliveries for Israel if protection for civilian lives are not prioritized in Rafah.Still, Netanyahu is rejecting calls to halt the war, and on Tuesday Israeli tanks reportedly rolled into central Rafah for the first time. A separate strike killed 21 Palestinians in a cluster of tents near Rafah, in an area where Israel had advised civilians to move for safety, according to Reuters.
Eyewitnesses describe horrific scenes after Israeli strike on Rafah camp - The Washington Post — A deadly Israeli airstrike on a tent camp in Rafah late Sunday drew widespread international condemnation Monday — focusing further scrutiny on Israel’s controversial offensive againstHamas in the south and the desperate plight of Gaza’s civilians.Witnesses described a horrific scene late Sunday as fires tore through the makeshift encampment in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, killing at least 45 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Parents were burned alive in their tents while children screamed for help. Doctors recounted struggling to treat gruesome shrapnel wounds with dwindling medical supplies.In an address to parliament Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Rafah strike a “tragic accident.” It was a departure from public statements by the Israeli military, which had previously referred to a targeted strike on a Hamas compound using “precise munitions” and “precise intelligence.”The Israel Defense Forces said two militants were killed in the attack, including the commander of Hamas operations in the West Bank. “There were many measures taken before the attack to minimize harm to non-involved people,” the IDF said Monday, adding that the incident was under investigation.A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said the images from Rafah were “heartbreaking.” “Israel has a right to go after Hamas,” the spokesperson said, noting the killing of the two militants, but “Israel must take every precaution possible to protect civilians.”The United States has yet to weigh in publicly on Friday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice ordering an immediate halt to Israel’s offensive in Rafah. Nearly a million Palestinians have been displaced this month, the vast majority from Rafah, which had been a place of last refuge for tens of thousands of families.On Sunday night it was the site of one of the most horrifying scenes of the war. Mohammad Al-Haila, 35, was headed to buy some goods from a local vendor when he saw a huge flash followed by successive booms. Then he saw the flames.“I saw flames rising, charred bodies, people running from everywhere and calls for help getting louder,” he said. “We were powerless to save them.”Haila lost seven relatives in the attack. The oldest was 70 years old. Four were children.“We were not able to identify them until this morning because of the charred bodies,” he said. “The faces were eroded, and the features were completely disappeared.”
Israel Massacres Children, Which The Western Press Says Is Fine -by Caitlin Johnstone -- Israel has not only completely disregarded the orders of the International Court of Justice to cease its assault on Rafah as we expected it to do, but has actually ramped up its ruthlessness as though trying to make a point. There were reportedly more than 60 Israeli airstrikes on the southernmost city in the Gaza strip in the 48 hours after the ICJ ruling, including a horrifying massacre on a displacement camp full of civilians in tents.The ABC reports:Israeli air strikes have killed at least 35 Palestinians and wounded dozens in an area in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah designated for the displaced, Palestinian health and civil emergency service officials said.Gaza’s Health Ministry said women and children made up most of the dead and dozens of wounded.The strike took place in Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood in western Rafah on Sunday, local time, where thousands of people were taking shelter after many fled the eastern areas of the city where Israeli forces began a ground offensive over two weeks ago.The video footage coming out about this massacre is extremely graphic and will stay with you for the rest of your life if you choose to watch it. It shows charred and dismembered bodies, and small children whose heads are missing and partly missing. On social media I’ve seen numerous people observing that the lies about Hamas beheading babies on October 7 have been used by Israel to justify atrocities in which actual babies are really being beheaded. Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah notes that this was at a camp which just days ago Israel had told civilians was a safe zone that they should move to.The Gaza media office reports that the attack took place next to an UNRWA logistics base, which is about as clear an answer to the UN court’s order to cease its genocidal massacres in Rafah as you could possibly ask for. As Maya Angelou said, when someone shows you who they are, believe them.This happens to have occurred at precisely the same time viral attention is coming to an article The Atlantic published a few days ago which includes the assertion that killing children is legally permissible under certain circumstances. Writing that allowing journalists into Gaza would be a “risk” for Israel because “war is ugly”, The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood uses the phrase “legally killed child” to argue that journalistic footage of dead children which Israel killed lawfully would still be damaging to Israeli PR interests.“To rebut Hamas’s allegations by letting journalists see the war up close would be a calculated risk,” Wood writes. “Even when conducted legally, war is ugly. It is possible to kill children legally, if for example one is being attacked by an enemy who hides behind them. But the sight of a legally killed child is no less disturbing than the sight of a murdered one.”Think about the kind of worldview which could publish something like that. This made it through the entire editing process in a mainstream liberal publication.Anyone who’s been following the Gaza genocide on social media today will be seeing this phrase “legally killed child” alongside footage of children ripped apart by Israeli military explosives in a civilian displacement camp — a pairing which, if you have a beating heart in your chest and a functioning empathy center in your brain, will spark a very special kind of rage inside you.The way these two points dance together just says so much about what we’re dealing with here, when you take a step back and really look at it. It says so much about Israel. It says so much about western civilization. It says so much about the western press in general and liberal war propaganda rags like The Atlantic in particular. It says so much about the kind of mainstream political worldview which could allow for such a thing to exist. And it says we live in a civilization that has gone completely, utterly insane.
Shrapnel from Israeli strike may have ignited fuel tank near Rafah tents – report --Israeli officials have told the US that they believe tents housing displaced Gazans went up in flames after a fuel tank was set alight following an airstrike on top Hamas terrorists nearby, according to a report Monday.The tank was located some 100 meters (330 feet) from the area targeted in the airstrike, but was ignited by shrapnel or something else following the Israeli attack, ABC News reported, citing an unnamed US official.According to the report, the US has no way to validate or reject Israel’s version of events and is awaiting the outcome of a probe into the deadly incident.The official also reiterated the Biden administration’s opposition to a major ground offensive in Rafah, while stressing that’s not what Israel is currently doing.The strike, which is being investigated by an independent military body responsible for investigating unusual incidents amid the war, targeted and killed the commander of Hamas’s so-called West Bank headquarters — charged with advancing attacks against Israel in and from the West Bank — as well as another top member of the unit.Hamas health authorities said some 45 people were killed in the strike, which had also engulfed several tents and shelters where thousands of people were taking shelter in the Tel Sultan area of western Rafah.Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike adjacent to where displaced people were staying in Rafah, Gaza Strip, May 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)The strike drew fiercer condemnations from the European Union, the United Nations, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, France, and others, who called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.The US on Monday lamented the “devastating” and “heartbreaking” images from the strike.
Netanyahu calls civilian deaths in Rafah after latest Israeli attacks ‘tragic mistake’ -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an Israeli strike that killed at least 45 Palestinians over the weekend a “tragic mistake” and called for an investigation into the civilian deaths Monday.The Israeli strike on the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah targeted a humanitarian zone filled with tents, where Israel’s military previously instructed displaced Palestinians to shelter from the ongoing war against militant group Hamas, the Gaza Health Ministry said. The Israeli military claimed the strike killed two senior Hamas leaders.“Despite our utmost efforts not to harm innocent civilians, last night, there was a tragic mistake,” Netanyahu said Monday in an address to Israel’s parliament. “We are investigating the incident and will obtain a conclusion, because this is our policy.”Gaza health officials said most of the dead were women and children, and noted that the death toll is likely to rise as “countless” were trapped in rubble.The strike was widely denounced, as criticism rises on the Israeli military operation in Rafah. A White House National Security Council spokesperson told Axios on Monday that the attack was “heartbreaking.”“Israel has a right to go after Hamas… but as we’ve been clear, Israel must take every precaution possible to protect civilians,” the spokesperson said. “We are actively engaging the IDF and partners on the ground to assess what happened.”The attack comes just days after the United Nations’s International Court of Justice ordered Israel to stop its operations in Rafah, the last remaining major settlement in Gaza that has not been invaded by Israel.
Piers Morgan to Benjamin Netanyahu on Israel bombing Rafah: 'Stop this now' --Television host Piers Morgan backed a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war Monday morning, saying in a string of social media posts that a recent Israeli strike in a Rafah “safe zone” that killed more than 40 people was too far.“The scenes from Rafah overnight are horrific,” Morgan wrote on the social platform X. “I’ve defended Israel’s right to defend itself after Oct 7, but slaughtering so many innocent people as they cower in a refugee camp is indefensible.”He added a message for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Stop this now.”The Israeli strike on the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah targeted a humanitarian zone filled with tents, where Israel’s military previously instructed displaced Palestinians to shelter from the ongoing war against militant group Hamas, the Gaza Health Ministry said. The Israeli military claimed the strike killed two senior Hamas leaders.The death toll was at least 45 people, the Gaza health officials said, adding that most of the dead were women and children. The ministry also noted that the death toll is likely to rise as “countless” were trapped in rubble.The attack comes just days after the United Nations’s International Court of Justice ordered Israel to stop its operations in Rafah, the last remaining major settlement in Gaza that has not been invaded by the Israeli military.Morgan also endorsed French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement Monday denouncing the attack and again calling for a cease-fire.“Outraged by the Israeli strikes that have killed many displaced persons in Rafah. These operations must stop,” Macron wrote on X. “There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire.”
New Israeli strikes kill 16 in Rafah, first responders say --New Israeli strikes killed 16 people in Rafah on Tuesday, first responders said, as an incursion into the southern Gaza city, which once had more than a million Palestinians, expands. The latest attacks occurred in northwest Rafah, according to The Associated Press, citing the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Palestinian Civil Defense. The strikes, which took place overnight in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, were conducted in the same area as the deadly Israeli attack over the weekend, which killed at least 45 Palestinians, sparking international outrage.The Sunday attack targeted a humanitarian zone, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged Monday that the strike on civilians was a “tragic mistake” and called for an investigation.Tuesday’s strike, which occurred in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, presents further escalation in Rafah, an area that was once considered one of the last remaining places for Palestinians fleeing the military operation to shelter.Since the beginning of Israel’s steady incursion toward Rafah, once seen as a place of refuge for displaced Palestinians, around 1 million civilians have fled the southern city, according to the main humanitarian agency providing relief to Palestinians in Gaza, known as UNRWA. Those who have fled the city are scattered around in tents. The U.S. and other Israel allies have cautioned Tel Aviv against executing a full-throttled invasion into Rafah, with President Biden warning he would halt offensive weapons transfers. Israel has argued the operation needs to proceed in order to eradicate militant group Hamas and return the remaining hostages that were taken on Oct. 7, when more than 1,100 Israelis in the south of the country were killed by a Hamas-led attack.
Group Files New ICC Complaint Over Journalists Killed by Israel in Gaza -The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders announced Monday that it has filed a third complaint at the International Criminal Court alleging "war crimes against journalists in Gaza," where over 100 media professionals have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7.Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is asking the ICC to investigate the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) killing of eight Palestinian journalists and wounding of another between December 15 and May 20 and, more broadly, the over 100 media workers slain during the course of Israel's 234-day assault on Gaza.RSF said it "has reasonable grounds for thinking that some of these journalists were deliberately killed and that the others were the victims of deliberate IDF attacks against civilians" and accused Israel of "an eradication of the Palestinian media.""Impunity endangers journalists not only in Palestine but also throughout the world," RSF advocacy and assistance director Antoine Bernard said in a statement. "Those who kill journalists are attacking the public's right to information, which is even more essential in times of conflict. They must be held accountable, and RSF will continue to work to this end, in solidarity with Gaza's reporters."Journalists in RSF's latest complaint include Mustapha Thuraya and Hamza al-Dahdouh, freelancers working for Al Jazeera in Rafah when they were killed by a targeted Israeli drone strike on their vehicle on January 7, and Hazem Rajab, who was injured in the strike.According to RSF:The complaint also cites the cases of Hadaf News website reporter Ahmed Badir, who was killed by an airstrike at the entrance to Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah on 10 January; Kan'an News Agency correspondent Yasser Mamdouh, who was killed near Al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on 11 February; Ayat Khadoura, an independent video blogger killed by an Israeli strike on his home on 20 November shortly after posting a video; Yazan Emad Al-Zwaidi, a cameraman with the Egyptian satellite TV news channel Al Ghad, who was killed on 14 January when an Israeli strike hit the group of civilians he was with in Beit Hanoun; Ahmed Fatima, a journalist with the Al Qahera News TV channel, who was killed during a bombardment in Khan Yunis on 13 November; and Rami Bdeir, a reporter for the Palestinian New Press media outlet, who was killed during an Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis on 15 December.Another advocacy group, the Committee to Protect Journalists, previously condemned what it called an "apparent pattern of targetingjournalists and their families," noting cases in which media workers were killed while wearing press insignia and after being threatened by Israeli officials.
Rough seas damage US-built Gaza pier; deliveries suspended -The U.S.-built pier on the Gaza Strip coast will be removed for repair after it was damaged by rough seas, causing Washington to temporarily suspend aid deliveries to starving Palestinians via the structure, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. The pier, which was damaged earlier Tuesday, will be removed from its anchored position on the coast over the next 48 hours, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters. The structure will be towed to Ashdod in southern Israel where U.S. Central Command will conduct repairs, which are expected to take “at least over a week” before it can be re-anchored to the coast of Gaza, she said. “I can’t predict weather patterns, I can’t predict that there won’t be high seas again. But from when it was operational, it was working. And we just had sort of an unfortunate confluence of weather storms that made it inoperable for a bit,” Singh added. “Hopefully, just a little over a week, we should be back up and running.” The incident highlights the many difficulties around conducting the humanitarian assistance operation via the quickly built, $320 The pier’s suspension comes after more than 1,000 metric tons of food aid was delivered through the pier, though U.S. officials have stressed that structure won’t make up for the aid that could be getting through land corridors. Only about 500,000 Palestinians could be fed with the supplies from the pier, with the Biden administration pushing for more checkpoints to open for humanitarian trucks so the remaining 1.8 million civilians can be fed. The U.S. has continued to provide airdrops of food, but Singh said there are no current plans to increase the airdrops while the pier is being repaired.
US-Constructed Pier Off Gaza Breaks Apart - The US-constructed pier off Gaza broke apart on Tuesday due to heavy seas, suspending aid deliveries indefinitely, in the latest setback for the disastrous project that was ordered by President Biden.The Pentagon said that the pier, which cost $320 million for the US to build, was damaged and sections of it need to be repaired. According toCNN, it will be removed from the coast of Gaza over the next 48 hours and taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod for repairs.Just a few days earlier, four vessels supporting the pier broke off their moorings due to heavy seas. Two of them washed up ashore, while the other two were able to drop anchor. Before that, the Pentagon said three US troops suffered non-combat injuries on the pier, which were likely also caused by rough seas.CNN previously reported that the pier could only be safely operated in a maximum of 3-foot waves and winds less than approximately 15 miles per hour. Heavier conditions caused a delay in the first aid deliveries through the pier, which only began on May 17, and were suspended for a few days due to distribution issues.Biden ordered the construction of the pier instead of pressuring Israel to open more land border crossings to aid deliveries, which is by far the most efficient way to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza. Barely any aid has been entering the Strip since Israel captured the Rafah border crossing on May 7.Besides being an incredibly expensive and inefficient project, the pier also risks a major escalation of US involvement in Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. About 1,000 troops have been supporting the project just off the coast of Gaza, putting them in range of Hamas rockets. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has acknowledged that there’s a risk of the US troops deployed for the pier mission coming under attack and said they would be able to shoot back.
Israeli Forces Now Operating in Most Areas of Rafah - On Friday, the Israeli military said it had expanded its operations to the central area of Rafah. Before the assault on the city, Rafah served as a refuge for over one million displaced Palestinians.The Associated Press reported that the Israeli military confirmed its forces were now fighting throughout most of Rafah. President Joe Biden claimed that if Israel attacked the population centers in the city without a plan for the civilians living there, it would cross his “red line.”However, as Israeli troops continue to push into the city, killing hundreds in the process and forcing over one million to flee, Biden administration officials have asserted that Tel Aviv has not crossed the red line. After Israel used a US bomb to kill 45 people living in a tent camp in Rafah, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, “As a result of this strike on Sunday, I have no policy changes to speak to.”The assault on Rafah has pushed the overall death toll to over 36,000, including tens of thousands of women and children. The IDF has also sustained losses in Rafah, increasing the number of soldiers killed to289 since October 7.As Israeli forces are pushing deeper into Rafah, the IDF announced the end of weeks of operations in the Jabalia refugee camp, located in northern Gaza. Tel Aviv initially devastated the city in the early months of the war on Gaza, but its forces returned in May. During the operations, the IDF dropped over 200 bombs.The attacks on Jabalia and Rafah have caused aid deliveries into Gaza to plummet. Trucks crossing into the Strip in May decreased by two-thirds. This week, two Biden administration officials resigned in part because of the Israeli imposed restrictions on aid deliveries into Gaza and the lack of a response from the White House.A letter signed by 19 aid agencies released on Tuesday warned that the lack of aid was increasing the risk of death due to starvation and disease. “As Israeli attacks intensify on Rafah, the unpredictable trickle of aid into Gaza has created a mirage of improved access while the humanitarian response is in reality on the verge of collapse,” it says. “Aid agencies now fear an acceleration in deaths from starvation, disease and denied medical assistance.”While many are on the brink of death, Tel Aviv says it will not sign on to an agreement that would bring the war to a close and Israeli hostages freed. On Thursday, Hamas officials said the group was willing to come to a “complete agreement” that ends the conflict and frees the hostages. On Friday, the Israeli government told the families of the hostages that Tel Aviv was unwilling to end the conflict in exchange for the release of their relatives.
Report: IDF Negotiator Says There Will Be No Hostage Deal Under Netanyahu Govt - An Israeli military officer involved in the indirect hostage deal negotiations with Hamas has expressed frustration with the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a report from Israel’s Channel 12.The report said that Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon told Israeli military officials that Israel wouldn’t reach a deal with Hamas under the current government. “We are desperate. With this government formation, there will be no deal,” he said.Alon also explained that it would be possible to restart military operations in Gaza even if Israel agreed to a deal that would include a commitment to a permanent ceasefire, which has been Hamas’s main demand. Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the idea and continues to vow he will “eradicate” Hamas, a goal the US believes is unrealistic.“The deal I’m pushing for would provide for the return of all the hostages, while Hamas insists that it must provide for an end to the war,” Alson said. “I told the prime minister that it will be possible to return to fighting at any given moment.”In response to the report, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) insisted Alon was taken out of context. “Gen. Alon was asked a question by the public about the effect the political leadership has on the talks, and he answered that as one in uniform, he cannot answer such questions,” said IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari. Netanyahu’s office released a statement criticizing Alon’s comments. “The clashes from within the negotiating team only strengthen Hamas’s position, harm the families, and distance the release of our hostages,” the office said.
Israeli Official Says Gaza Slaughter Will Continue for at Least Another 7 Months - Tzachi Hanegbi, head of the Israeli National Security Council, said Wednesday that he expects Israeli military operations in Gaza to continue for at least another seven months into early 2025.“We expect another seven months of fighting in order to deepen the accomplishments and achieve what we have defined as ‘the destruction of the governmental and military capabilities of Hamas,'” Hanegbi said.According to the latest numbers from Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 36,171 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war, and the Palestinian Red Crescent estimates over 15,000 children have been killed. June 7 will mark eight months since Israel unleashed its campaign after the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.Many more Palestinians could die of starvation and disease caused by the Israeli siege, as barely any aid has entered Gaza since Israel captured the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border on May 7. Hanegbi said that Israel currently controls 75% of the border between Egypt and Gaza, known as the Philadelphi Corridor.“Inside Gaza, the IDF is now in control of 75% of the Philadelphi Route and I believe it will be in control of it all with time. Together with the Egyptians, we must ensure weapon smuggling is prevented,” Hanegbi said.Later in the day, the Israeli military announced that it had achieved “tactical control” of the Philadelphi Corridor. Israel’s control of the Philadelphi Corridor is technically a violation of the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, which was signed following the 1978 Camp David Accords. On Monday, Israeli gunfire killed at least two Egyptian soldiers, risking a major escalation, although Cairo has been quiet about the incident.
Israel DM Warns Hezbollah of Escalation, Vows Lebanese Will 'Pay the Price' - Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant took a tour of command-and-control centers attached to Israeli Northern Command today, holding what officials are describing as an “operational situation assessment.”Gallant praised the precision of the Israeli troops, citing the 320 Hezbollah members who have been killed, and saying Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is “dragging Lebanon into a very, very different reality.”Although Gallant talking up escalation into Lebanon is nothing new, he ominously added “the ones who will pay the price are the residents of Lebanon. ”Gallant appeared to be most concerned about challenging Hezbollah’s dismissal of his claims in April that half of Hezbollah’s commandershad been killed in military operations. The DM then displayed photos of nine Hezbollah officers killed by the IDF, who were described in the press as equivalent to brigadier generals.At the time, Gallant claimed half of Hezbollah’s commanders were dead and the other half were in hiding. Analysts said this was likely a broad overestimation, as the size and structure of Hezbollah is not well understood.Accusing Nasrallah of claiming there were no casualties at all, Gallant challenged him with these photos asking, “all these people aren’t yours?” and insisting the nine photos were only a partial list.
Ukraine Targets Radars That Are Part of Russia's Nuclear Warning System - A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters that a Ukrainian drone targeted a radar deep inside Russian territory that’s part of Russia’s early-warning system to detect nuclear missiles. The incident marks the second time within a week that Ukrainian officials reported attacks on a Russian nuclear warning system, known as “Voronezh M” radars.The source said that the strike targeted a radar near the city of Orsk in Russia’s Orenburg Oblast, which is over 900 miles away from Ukrainian-held territory. The source didn’t say if there was any damage, and Russian media reported a drone was downed in the Orenburg region and that no civilian infrastructure was hit. On May 22, a Ukrainian drone targeted a Voronezh M radar in Russia’s Krasnodar Oblast at a radar station about 300 miles from Ukrainian-controlled territory. The US-state-funded RFE/RL reported there was damage to the radar site, citing satellite images, although Reuters said it could not verify the imagery.While the Russian radars can track missiles fired by Ukraine, the primary function of the early-warning system is to detect intercontinental ballistic missiles to determine if Russia is coming under a nuclear attack. Ukraine’s targeting of the systems could lead to a major response from Russia or potentially a miscalculation as the attacks come at a time of unprecedented nuclear tensions between Washington and Moscow.The Telegraph reported that the attack on the radar in Krasnodar “sparked alarm” in the west. The report quoted Thord Are Iversen, a Norwegian military analyst, who said it was “not a particularly good idea…, especially in times of tension” and that it was “in everyone’s best interest that Russia’s ballistic missile warning system works well.”
Stoltenberg Joins Calls for NATO Weapons To Be Used on Russian Territory - On Friday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg joined calls for Ukraine to be able to use NATO-provided weapons to strike Russian territory, a step that would mark a major escalation in the proxy war.“The time has come for allies to consider whether they should lift some of the restrictions they have put on the use of weapons they have donated to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told The Economist.“Especially now when a lot of the fighting is going on in Kharkiv, close to the border, to deny Ukraine the possibility of using these weapons against legitimate military targets on Russian territory makes it very hard for them to defend themselves,” he added.Russia’s offensive in Kharkiv has prompted calls from many members of Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), for President Biden to allow Ukraine to use US-provided missiles in strikes on Russian territory. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is reportedly leading the charge within the administration to get the restriction lifted.Russia has made clear that it could have a major response to NATO missiles hitting its territory. After UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Ukraine could use British missiles on Russian territory, Russia warned the UK that it could strike British military sites in Ukraine and “beyond” in response.Ukraine has been using US and other Western-provided missiles to target Crimea, which has been controlled by Russia since 2014. But Russia appears to be drawing a red line when it comes to attacks on territory inside the Russian mainland.
Putin Warns West of 'Major Consequences' If Ukraine Strikes Russian Territory With NATO Missiles - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned Western countries against allowing Ukraine to use long-range NATO missiles in strikes on Russian territory.Putin pointed to comments from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who recently suggested NATO members should lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of their weapons.“This constant escalation can lead to serious consequences. If these serious consequences occur in Europe, how will the US behave, bearing in mind our parity in the field of strategic weapons? Hard to say. Do they want global conflict?” Putin said during a visit to Uzbekistan, according to RT.The Russian leader said that long-range strikes would require NATO support and that it would take “highly qualified specialists” from the West to do the targeting. A recent German military leak revealed that British soldiers are “on the ground” in Ukraine helping fire Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of about 155 miles.“So, these representatives of NATO countries, especially in Europe, especially in small countries, must be aware of what they are playing with,” Putin said.This week, Sweden said Ukraine could use Swedish weapons to hit Russian territory, although Stockholm has not provided long-range missiles like the US and the UK have. London had previously given Ukraine the green light to use British weapons on Russian territory, which prompted a strong warning from Moscow. Russia said it would hit UK military sites in Ukraine and “beyond” if British weapons hit its territory, and there have been no reports of British missiles targeting the Russian mainland. Both US and British-provided weapons have been used in attacks on Crimea over the past year.The calls to allow Ukraine to strike Russian territory with NATO weapons have increased since Russia launched its offensive in Kharkiv, which Putin said was a response to Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s Belgorod Oblast. He warned of another escalation if long-range NATO weapons hit Russia.“What caused this? They did, with their own hands,” Putin said, referring to the Kharkiv offensive. “Well, then, they will reap what they have sown. The same thing can happen if long-range precision weapons are used.”
Abandoned in the desert: The EU’s murderous anti-migrant and refugee policy - People fleeing war, violence and poverty, and hoping for a better future and a life of human dignity in Europe, are being abandoned in the desert with the knowledge and funding of the European Union (EU), and their deaths are being condoned at the least. These so-called “desert dumps” are not isolated cases. Rather, they are the result of a deliberate EU policy aimed at creating a deterrent effect against unwanted migrants.This is shown by research conducted by the investigative network Lighthouse Reporters in conjunction with international media outlets, including Bayrischer Rundfunk, Der Spiegel, the Washington Post and others. Over the course of a year, the journalists analysed hundreds of mobile phone videos of migrants and confidential documents. They researched the stories of over 50 migrants and recorded first-hand accounts of how people were abducted and dumped in the desert by security forces in Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania. The story of Francois from Cameroon, who was stopped by the Tunisian National Guard as he attempted to flee to Europe in September 2023 while crossing the Mediterranean, is illustrative. Francois, his wife, his six-year-old stepson and the other refugees from the boat were captured, driven into the desert to the Algerian border in their wet clothes, abandoned there without drinking water and left to their fate. “There is Algeria, go towards the light,” said the Tunisian security forces. “If we see you here, we’ll shoot you.” This was followed by a nine-day trek through the desert by the group of 30 refugees, which Francois was able to document with photos, videos and GPS data. The group also included two pregnant women. They survived by chance and with a lot of luck, as they found streams of water. The harrowing images can be seen in a short report by Bayrischer Rundfunk, among others, and the Washington Post also used the case as a hook for its report on the EU’s deadly deterrence policy on the African continent. This practice of abandoning migrants in the desert and condoning their deaths had been reported and sharply criticised by the United Nations in the summer of 2023. A video broadcast on ZDF in early August 2023 shows the same treatment of refugees by Tunisian authorities. Tunisian Interior Minister Kamel Fekih spoke of individual cases and denied that it was a “collective practice.” In July 2023, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Tunis together with far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the then Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to conclude an agreement with the authoritarian Tunisian President Kais Saied. The EU promised Tunisia financial aid totalling €105 million in return for “effective border management” and the “development of a system to identify and return irregular migrants” from Tunisia to their countries of origin. Like Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania are also partner countries of the EU in the deterrence and containment of immigration from sub-Saharan Africa. Morocco and Tunisia are already considered “safe third countries” by some EU countries and are also being discussed as countries in which extraterritorial asylum procedures could be carried out. This means that asylum seekers from Europe would be transferred to these countries so that their asylum procedure could take place there—and they could remain there even if the decision was positive. The UK’s agreement with Rwanda, which is already in force and allows all asylum seekers from the UK to be deported to the West African country, is often cited as a model. The latest revelations confirm prior reports of abuse and clearly show that the security forces in the North African countries that are partners of the EU in “migration control” are systematically committing serious human rights violations against refugees. These are not only tacitly condoned and accepted by Brussels but are the direct result of EU migration policy in the Mediterranean region. This inhumane practice of pushbacks by sea and land, and the intentional death by abandonment in the desert, is what the EU expects from the authoritarian regimes of its partner countries in the Maghreb. They are doing the dirty work of the EU, which itself is taking increasingly aggressive action against refugees and migrants. When EU representatives, such as Green Member of the European Parliament Erik Marquardt, now shed a few crocodile tears and call for a “human rights-orientated asylum policy,” this is the height of hypocrisy. In fact, migration policy shows the true face of an EU in which human life has no value. This cruel policy and attitude towards refugees, just like the pro-war policy, is supported by all the establishment parties, which openly adopt the programme of the extreme right, especially on the refugee issue.
North Korea sends fleet of balloons carrying excrement to South Korea --“As already warned by the [North Korean] vice minister of National Defence, a large amount of waste paper and rubbish are being scattered in the border and deep areas of the ROK from the night of May 28,” reads a statement from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong,according to state-run news agency KCNA. “According to the [South Korean] media, waste paper and rubbish were found not only in the border area with [North Korea] but also in Seoul and other parts of [South Korea].”“The Joint Chiefs of Staff of the [South Korean] puppet army said that [North Korea] is scattering a large number of balloons over [South Korea] from last night,” the statement continues. “It urged [North Korea] to stop such an act at once, claiming that it is a clear violation of international law, an act of seriously threatening the security of [South Korean] people and an unethical and lowbrow act.”According to The Associated Press, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North has been sending balloons carrying trash in the direction of the South beginning Tuesday, responding to activists from South Korea sending anti-Northern leaflets over the border.South Korea’s military also said that in multiple areas of the country, around 260 balloons had been discovered by Wednesday afternoon, according to the AP. According to the military, the balloons carried different types of trash and manure.
"Never Intended To Offend" - Pope Apologizes After Homophobic Slur Leak - Pope Francis has issued an apology this morning after reports surfaced that he used a homophobic slur during a private meeting. He reportedly used the Italian term “frociaggine," which translates to “faggotry” or "faggotness" in English. Citing sources from inside the meeting, the Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica newspapers reported Monday that the Pope had made the comments while meeting with Italian bishops on May 20. The remarks took place in the context of proposals from the Italian bishops to amend guidelines on candidates to seminaries. As CNN reports, The Vatican ruled in 2005 that the church cannot allow the ordination of men who are actively gay or have “deep-seated” homosexual tendencies. In 2016, Francis upheld this ruling. Responding to journalists' questions, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, said the following:Pope Francis is aware of the articles that came out recently about a conversation, behind closed doors, with the bishops of the CEI (Italian Episcopal Conference).As he has said on several occasions:"In the Church there is room for everyone, for everyone! No one is useless, no one is superfluous, there is room for everyone. Just as we are, everyone"."The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who felt offended by the use of a term, reported by others."
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