Fed's Bostic says inflation moving in 'right direction,' sees one Q4 rate cut (Reuters) - Inflation in the U.S. "appears to be narrowing" and that should allow the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates later this year, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said in a policy essay released on Thursday. After concern that inflation might stall at an elevated level, Bostic said recent data point to renewed progress, including the fact that the share of goods and services increasing at a greater than 5% annual rate had dipped below 20% - more akin to where it was before the COVID-19 pandemic and similar to the share seen when inflation was slowing fast last year. "It's moving in the right direction," Bostic said of a metric he has singled out as one of his touchstones for the U.S. central bank's battle against inflation that spiked to a 40-year high in 2022. Inflation remains "elevated," according to the Fed's most recent policy statement, with the personal consumption expenditures price index rising at a 2.7% annual rate in April. The Fed's inflation target is 2%, and there has been little progress in recent months. PCE inflation data for May will be released on Friday. Bostic said that as things stand, "I continue to believe conditions will likely call for a cut in the federal funds rate in the fourth quarter of this year." In later comments to reporters, he said that one reason to be "patient" with that initial cut is so that it comes after inflation is on a clear path back to 2%, and can be seen as the first of a series of reductions. Investors expect the rate cuts will start in September, with two quarter-percentage-point reductions by the end of this year versus the single rate cut that Bostic and many other Fed policymakers now anticipate. "I'm not locked in to any particular policy path," Bostic said. "There are plausible scenarios in which more cuts, no cuts, or even a raise could be appropriate. I will let the data and conditions on the ground be my guide." And recent data on jobs and economic growth, he said, point to "an orderly deceleration in activity that will restore balance between demand and supply in the economy ... It's really Econ 101." Businesses in his southeastern district, he said in a press briefing following release of the essay, still regard inflation as the "chief concern," with most saying that current hiring and employment levels are sustainable. Bostic said his sense is that there is no "cliff" ahead for the job market, and that he believes the Fed can meet its inflation goal "with labor markets ... that are tight by historical standards."
Fed’s Wait-and-See on Rate Cuts Makes Sense amid Whiplash Data: Still Worst 6-Month “Core” PCE Inflation since mid-2023 but Freak Plunge in Durable Goods -- Wolf Richter -- The Fed’s primary yardstick for its 2% inflation target, the “core” PCE price index, which excludes the volatile components of food and energy, rose by 1.0% annualized in May from April (not annualized, +0.08%), thereby below the Fed’s target, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis today. This was driven primarily by a plunge in the index for durable goods (-9.1% annualized, the biggest month-to-month plunge in over 23 years), and secondarily by a relatively small rise in the index for “core services” (+2.1% annualized; housing inflation and healthcare inflation accelerated, but some of the other super-volatile services components fell hard). The six-month annualized core PCE price index, which irons out most of the monthly squiggles, and which Powell cites a lot, rose by 3.2%, same as in April. Both were the worst increases since July last year (red). In summary, year-over-year: Overall PCE price index, which includes food and energy was unchanged in May from April, and rose by 2.6% year-over-year, a deceleration from the prior two months, but higher than in January and February (blue in the chart below). Core PCE price index rose by 2.6% year-over-year, continuing the deceleration (red). The Fed’s target for this metric is 2% (purple). “Core services” PCE price index rose by 3.9% in May, down just a hair from the prior months. It has been in that 4.0% proximity since December (yellow). Durable goods PCE price index fell by 3.2% year-over-year, the biggest drop since 2004 (green): Durable goods deflated, after the huge spike. The PCE price index for durable goods fell by 9.1% annualized in May from April, the biggest drop since September (blue). Durable goods include motor vehicles, recreational goods and vehicles, appliances, electronics, furniture, etc. The six-month index fell by 2.0%, the biggest drop since January (red). It tends to run in the slightly negative range during normal times amid manufacturing efficiencies and globalization. “Core Services” PCE price index, which excludes energy services, rose by 2.1% annualized in May from April, the smallest increase since August 2023 (blue in the chart below). The six-month core services PCE index jumped by 4.4% annualized, right in the middle of the range of the prior four months (4.3% to 4.5%) and above the range in the second half last year. Core services is where inflation has gotten entrenched, and it’s where the majority of consumer spending goes. It includes housing, healthcare, insurance, transportation services, communication services, entertainment, etc., with charts further below. Fed speakers constantly point at the way-too-high core services inflation; and they have been hoping and predicting that housing would cool dramatically, and it did for a while, and then it didn’t. Since August last year, the month-to-month PCE price index for housing inflation has hovered in the 5.0% to 6.0% range. Housing PCE price index accelerated to 5.2% annualized in May from April, and was above where it had already been in December and August last year. The six-month index jumped by 5.4% annualized, a slight deceleration from the prior month. It really hasn’t significantly changed since November and remains high. The housing index is broad-based and includes factors for rent in tenant-occupied dwellings, imputed rent for owner-occupied housing, group housing, and rental value of farm dwellings. The remaining core services components are super-volatile, with massive spikes and drops month-to-month that often shoot through or plunge off the charts. Clearly, with this kind of volatile month-to-month data, one month doesn’t make a trend. In fact, they’re so volatile month-to-month that even the six-month readings have big squiggles.
Q2 GDP Tracking: 1.7% to 2.2% --
- From BofA: Since our last weekly publication, 2Q GDP tracking is down from 1.8% q/q saar to 1.7% q/q saar and 1Q GDP came in at 1.4% in the third print. Here is a rundown of changes to our tracking estimate. [June 28th estimate]
- From Goldman: We left our Q2 GDP tracking estimate unchanged on net at +1.9% (qoq ar) and lowered our Q2 domestic final sales forecast by 0.4pp to +1.6%. [June 28th estimate]
- And from the Altanta Fed: GDPNow: The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the second quarter of 2024 is 2.2 percent on June 28, down from 2.7 percent on June 27. After this morning's personal income and outlays release from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis , the nowcasts of second-quarter real personal consumption expenditures growth and second-quarter real gross private domestic investment growth decreased from 2.5 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively, to 1.8 percent and 8.7 percent. [June 28th estimate]
Solid 5Y Auction Stops Through As Foreign Demand Jumps To 4 Month High --After yesterday's solid 2Y auction stopped through with the best Bid to Cover in one year, moments ago the Treasury sold $70BN in 5Y paper in another very strong auction.The high yield of 4.331% stopped through the When Issued 4.335% by 0.4bps, the third consecutive stop through in a row, and also the lowest high yield since the 4.235% in march.The bid to cover rose to 2.35 from last month's 2.30, but it was still well below the six-auction average of 2.39 and was the second lowest this year.The internals were more remarkable: Indirects took down 68.9% which was the highest portion going to foreign buyers since the 70.5% in march; it was also above the 66.0% recent average. And with Directs taking down 17.7%, up from 15.4% last month and just above the 17.5% average, Dealers were left with just 13.4% of the auction, the second lowest since September with just March below today's print. Overall, this was a solid auction if not stellar, and while yields did drop about 1basis point in the secondary market after the break, the 10Y was still near session highs, rising to 4.30%, up about 7bps from yesterday's close.
US debt warnings grow louder --- In the wake of the latest update by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) showing a marked escalation in how far and fast US debt will rise, there are mounting warnings that it is sowing the seeds of another financial crisis. The Financial Times (FT) carried a lead story last week in which it cited analysts who said the increasing turn by the Treasury to the short end of the bond market—Treasury bills of one-year duration as opposed to 10 years—to finance the debt could cause problems. It cited Jay Barry, co-head of interest rate strategy at JPMorgan, who said the stock of unredeemed short-term debt would rise from $5.7 trillion to $6.2 trillion by the end of this year to hit an all-time high. Torsten Slok, chief economist at the financial firm Apollo, who is regarded as an astute observer of the financial system, warned this could cause a disruption. “It is likely that the share of Treasury bills as a share of total debt increases, which raises the question of who is going to buy them. This absolutely could strain funding markets,” he said. As the FT article noted, the size of the Treasury market (now at more than $26 trillion) has quintupled since the financial crisis of 2008, in an “indication of how much the US has turned to debt financing over the past 15 years.” Longer-dated Treasury auctions have been at record sizes in the recent period and “questions about who will buy all the debt on offer have plagued economists and analysts for months.” The global chair of research at the Barclays bank, Ajay Rajadhyaksha, told the FT: “We are spending money like a drunken sailor on shore for a weekend.” The liquidity problems of the Treasury market are being compounded by the withdrawal of the Federal Reserve as a buyer of bonds due to its efforts to run down its stock of debt holdings built up during the period of quantitative easing—so-called “quantitative tightening.” There is a risk that a lack of liquidity could cause problems in the overnight repurchase (repo) market, in which interest rates, normally a fraction of a percentage point, went to as high as 10 percent in September 2019, causing the Fed to intervene. Rajadhyaksha warned the US could again experience “a September 2019 moment.” And given the acceleration in the debt levels since then, it could well be something even more serious.
House to tackle 3 spending bills this week --The House is diving into the fiscal 2025 government funding process this week, with three spending bills scheduled to hit the floor.The trio of measures — funding the departments of Homeland Security, State, Defense and Foreign Operations — were all opposed by House Democrats in committee, meaning they are all but certain to be rejected in the Democratic-controlled Senate if they clear the lower chamber.But House Republicans, nonetheless, are looking to pass the legislation to give them a leg up in eventual negotiations with the Senate over funding the government. The House thus far haspassed one appropriations bill, funding military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs.Lawmakers are staring down a Sept. 30 funding deadline, though Congress is expected to pass a short-term stopgap bill to kick the shutdown cliff to after the November election. The Senate is out of session this week. The bills are set to go before the House Rules Committee at 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday. More than 230 amendments were filed for the Homeland Security bill, several of which focus on the border; upward of 210 amendments were put forth for the State/Foreign Operations measure, with some focusing on Ukraine; and around 400 amendments were proposed for the Pentagon legislation.The Rules Committee will determine which amendments receive votes on the floor.The trio of bills all advanced out of the appropriations committee despite opposition from Democrats, meaning they are all but certain to languish in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Top House Republicans, however, are still moving forward with the votes, hoping the cleared legislation will put them on stronger footing during negotiations with the Senate down the road.The votes this week also come as Johnson looks to meet the government funding timeline he laid out before he secured the top job in October.Johnson, at the time, said he planned to complete House consideration of fiscal 2025 appropriations bills by July, an ambitious timeline amid the GOP’s intraparty disagreements.If the House does not clear all its appropriations bill by August recess, he said in October, the House should not break for the district work period.The House has passed just one fiscal 2025 spending bill thus far — funding military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs — which the White House said it would veto if the measure made its way to President Biden’s desk.
Hundreds Injured in Crimea, Russia Says Ukraine Used American Missiles - The Russian Health Ministry reports that five people were killed and over 100 injured by a Ukrainian missile barrage in Crimea. Moscow claimed American cluster munitions were used in the attack.On Sunday, Russian civilians in Crimea were hit with debris and cluster munitions from a Ukrainian attack. “According to latest reports, as a result of the shelling attack on Sevastopol by Ukrainian nationalists, 124 people, including 27 children, received wounds or injuries,” Russian health minister Alexey Kuznetsov said. It appears this attack was on people sunning and swimming at the beach.The Russian news agency TASS reported that five American-made ATACMS with cluster munitions were used in the attack. Moscow claimed to down four missiles, and the fifth exploded over Sevastopol.The Russian Defense Ministry said the US was responsible for the attack because of its role in helping Ukraine fire the ATACMS missiles. “All flight missions for the American ATACMS operational-tactical missiles are entered by American specialists based on US satellite reconnaissance data.” The statement continued, “Therefore, responsibility for the deliberate missile attack on civilians in Sevastopol lies primarily with Washington, which supplied these weapons to Ukraine, as well as the Kyiv regime, from whose territory this attack was launched.”The statement added, “Such actions will not go unanswered.” The Kremlin labeled the attack an act of terrorism. Kiev claims the Crimea Peninsula is Ukrainian territory, but Russia has had full control over the region since Moscow annexed it in 2014.The US has green-lit Ukraine to attack limited Russian territory, including Crimea. The US recently expanded to allow Kiev to hit targets inside of Russian territory within 100 kilometers, 62 miles, of Kiev’s Sumy and Kharkiv Oblasts.However, Kiev is still seeking broader authorization from the US on the range and weapons it can use to hit targets inside Russia. “Neither the range nor the category [of weapons] is sufficient,” a Ukrainian defenseofficial told the Washington Post.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.Still, Kiev is asking Washington to further provoke Moscow by sending more advanced weapons systems. “Modern air defense systems for Ukraine — such as Patriots, accelerated training of our pilots for F-16s, and most importantly, sufficient range for our weapons — are truly necessary,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday.
US missiles massacre beachgoers in Crimea, as US says Ukraine can strike “anywhere” in Russia Four people were killed and 144 were injured Sunday when a US-made long-range missile fired from Ukraine released cluster bomblets over a busy beach in Sevastopol, Crimea. Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said 82 people were hospitalized and 27 children were injured. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed the targeting of the beachgoers was “deliberate,” saying: Responsibility for the deliberate missile attack on the civilians of Sevastopol is borne above all by Washington, which supplied these weapons to Ukraine, and by the Kyiv regime, from whose territory this strike was carried out. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that four US Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles were shot down mid-air over Crimea, and that one released its bomblets, killing and wounding the beachgoers. It claimed that the coordinates for the ATACMS missiles were transmitted by US spy satellites. “Fallen cluster munitions hit the beach. There is a high density of people there, hence there are so many victims,” one Russian think tank analyst told Sputnik News. Sputnik reported: “At the moment when ATACMS were launched at Sevastopol, a US RQ-4 Global Hawk long-range surveillance drone was detected over the Black Sea.” Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for Russia to retaliate, saying he hopes the “USA” will “burn in hell ... in earthly fire.” Medvedev declared: “The bastards from the USA supply missiles with cluster charges to [Ukrainian fascist Stepan] Bandera’s supporters and help guide them to the target.” Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill noted that the attack occurred on the Eastern Orthodox holiday of Trinity Sunday, declaring: “There was no justification whatsoever for a missile strike on civilians.” The assault on Sevastopol is the latest in a series of escalatory moves by the US intended to open the entirety of Russia up for strikes by US-provided weapons launched from Ukraine.
Between the Kremlin Cup and the General Staff Lip After Sunday’s Crimea and Dagestan Attacks -- by John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia -The Ukrainian missile attacks on Sevastopol on Sunday afternoon – five US ATACMS missiles with cluster-bomb warheads – have drawn the most explicit reaction yet from Russia’s independent military bloggers, followed in four hours by an official communiqué from the Defense Ministry. The Kremlin communiqué which followed the Defense Ministry an hour later as Sunday evening came on, was not the same. A salvo of five ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles was intercepted over the Uchkuevka beach at Sevastopol just after midday. In celebration of the 30-degree sunshine and the Orthodox Trinity holiday, there were a large number of people in the water and on the sand. The missiles were intercepted in the air, but shrapnel from the detonating warheads struck the beach. At latest count, four people were killed, two of them children; 151 people, including 27 children, were wounded; 82 were hospitalized, 13 of them in serious condition. Boris Rozhin, editor in chief of the Colonel Cassad military blog, was in Sevastopol and he reported from one of the hospitals to which the casualties were taken. His reports started at 12:23 local time and continued for almost twelve hours. Rozhin is one of the independent Russian war correspondents calling on the Kremlin to remove the limit which has been placed on attacking the US Air Force (USAF) drones and other NATO aircraft which operate over the Black Sea, in international waters off the Crimean shore, to provide flight course, evasion of Russian air defence units, and target coordinates to the American and Ukrainian ground crews operating the ATACMS batteries and executing the fire orders. Russian reports indicate the launch point for the Sevastopol beach attack was Nikolaev on the Ukrainian mainland. If so, the range of the missiles was at least 300 kilometres – longer than the US has publicly admitted. This also means that to be effective in defence against the repetition of such attacks against civilians, the proposed Russian demilitarized zone for the Ukraine, or “sanitary zone” as Putin has called it, must stretch from Nikolaev westward to Kiev.Rozhin has blamed the US explicitly in language repeated by other military bloggers. They mean to say, as they have been repeating in recent weeks, that the USAF drones used in the Sevastopol attacks should be destroyed.Just after 1600 Moscow time on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry issued its bulletin. The text, auto- translated into English, reads: [embedded] Note that that the Ministry, and the General Staff behind it, target the US as directly engaged in the operation of the missile attack. However, they start by calling the attack a “terrorist” strike, not an act of war. The wording of the statement also avoids identifying the USAF drones and other airborne electronic warfare systems offshore from Crimea. Instead, it refers to “satellite intelligence”. These are ideological references, not military ones. The distinction between Ukrainian acts of terrorism and war is Kremlin policy. By terming such attacks, including the Crocus City Hall attack in Moscow in March, terrorism but not war, the policy follows that the Special Military Operation is not in fact a war, and that Russian war tactics and strategy should be limited to retaliation, not to the defeat and demilitarization of the US and NATO on the Ukrainian battlefield. At 1715 the Kremlin followed with a communiqué headlined: “The President reached out to the Government’s social bloc and the military following the attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against Sevastopol.” The two-paragraph statement said: “Vladimir Putin has been in touch with senior officials from the Government’s social ministries and agencies and healthcare institutions on an ongoing basis considering the urgency of providing care to the attack victims. The President has also been interacting with the military. The Ukrainian Armed Forces targeted Sevastopol with an intentional missile strike in the afternoon of June 23, using five ATACMS US-made tactical missiles. The attack left at least 124 people wounded or injured, to a varying degree of severity, including 27 children.”
Russia Warns US ‘Retaliatory Measures Will Follow’ Deadly Attack on Crimea - In response to a deadly strike on the Crimean Peninsula that killed four and wounded over 100, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Washington had effectively become a party to the war, and Moscow would “certainly” retaliate. The Kremlin says American missiles were used in the attack.On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the US ambassador to express outrage over Sunday’s attack on Crimea. The Kremlin claims that American ATACMS missiles were used, that Washington provided intelligence to Kiev to coordinate the attack, and that a US drone was operating near Sevastopol when the assault on civilian targets took place.According to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, the US “has effectively become a party” to the war on Ukraine’s side, adding, “Retaliatory measures will certainly follow.”The Kremlin said the deadly assault involved five ATACMS. The defense ministry reported that four were shot down, and a fifth exploded over a civilian area. Russia labeled the missile barrage a “terrorist” attack on“one of the most important Orthodox holidays, the Day of the Holy Trinity.”The Russian Defense Ministry reported that the ATACMS were cluster bombs. Such bombs contain submunitions and are designed as anti-personnel weapons meant to scatter small submunitions over a large area. The US has outlawed the export of most cluster weapons because of how deadly the submunitions are for civilians. President Joe Biden is likely in violation of this law by shipping the weapons to Ukraine.Last year, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry posted a video threatening Russian civilians on vacation in Crimea. The video shows civilians fleeing explosions and tells the Russian audience, “We warned you last summer to stay away from Crimea.”The peninsula was annexed by Moscow in 2014, but Kiev and Washington maintain that the Kremlin must hand control back to Ukraine to end the war. In Russian President Putin’s recent ceasefire offer to Kiev, he said Ukraine would have to recognize Russia’s claim over the territory.Russia suffered a second major attack on Sunday. In Russia’s southern Dagestan Republic, at least 19 people were killed and 25 injured in a coordinated assault at various places of worship. While no group immediately claimed responsibility, law enforcement agencies reported the attack was from “adherents of an international terrorist organization.”
Ukraine Asks Backers To OK Deeper Strikes in Russia - Ukraine’s government has urged its Western sponsors to allow local troops to strike deeper inside Russia with foreign-supplied weapons. The United States once barred such operations, but has since authorized attacks along Russia’s border.Writing on his official Telegram channel on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky boasted that Ukrainian forces had downed a pair of Russian Kalibr missiles along with two-dozen other projectiles over the last 24 hours, but warned “Russian terror is not slowing down.”“Therefore we must increase our pressure – by all methods and together with our partners,” he added. “We have enough determination to destroy terrorists on their territory – it is fair. And we need the same determination from our partners. We can stop Russia.”While Zelensky mentioned no country by name, the message was presumably addressed to leaders in Washington, who still ostensibly maintain restrictions on the use of American weapons on Russian territory. Those rules have been loosened on multiple occasions in recent months, however.In May, the White House signaled that Kiev would be permitted to hit Russian troops stationed across the border near Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast, while more recently similar attacks were authorized along the entirety of the Russo-Ukrainian border.Though Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder insisted there was no change to US policy, claiming the May authorization was not limited to Kharkiv, unnamed officials previously told Reuters the first decision applied “only to targets inside Russia near the border with the Kharkiv region.”Several of Kiev’s supporters have already lifted their own rules on Ukrainian strikes inside Russia, among them Canada, Poland, Sweden, Germany, and Denmark. Earlier this month, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen declared that F-16 fighter jets provided by his country could be used to hit Russian targets (once the first deliveries arrive, that is).“Even if they are inside Russia, they are legitimate military targets because Russia attacked Ukraine. It fully complies with the rules of war,” he told journalists in Brussels.Ukraine appears to be taking advantage of the scaled-back restrictions, reporting its first-ever kill on Russian soil using foreign military hardware earlier this month. According to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, troops neutralized a Russian S-300 air defense system at an unspecified location using an unnamed Western weapon. The Kremlin also cast blame on Washington for a recent Ukrainian air raid on Crimea, which has been under Russian control since 2014. Russia’s military claimed the strikes used US-provided Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), and went on to say the attack was aided by “US satellite reconnaissance data” provided by “American specialists.”
A Terribly Lopsided, Very Cruel War Continues - by Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. As I write this, in the last 15 days, Israel has bombed a tent city and a UN school and has killed 276 Palestinian non-combatants in a mid-day raid to gain the release of four Israelis being held as hostages.Almost 400 people were killed in the three actions, with many hundreds more wounded. In the hostage retrieval, 64 Palestinian children and 57 women were killed.The UN has reported that more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war in Gaza started, with over 38% (about 14,000) being children under the age of 14.Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia professor and one of the most respected foreign policy experts in this country, in a one-minute, 34-second blast on YouTube said the following:“Israel has deliberately starved the people of Gaza. Starved! I am not using an exaggeration. Israel is a criminal, is in war crime status now I believe, in genocidal status, and it is without shame, without remorse…” Sachs is a Jew.Another Jew, Dave Smith, has a very popular podcast called “Part Of The Problem.” He has been very critical of the way Israel has treated the Palestinians, both in this war and in the way Israel evicted hundreds of thousands of them from their homes during Israel’s founding in 1948.I have read that Netanyahu has only a 34% positive rating in Israel, but that 80% approve of his handling of the war in Gaza. If 80% of Jews worldwide approve of Israel’s war, this still would leave more than 3,000,000 Jews who do not approve.After the tent city bombing mentioned above, the Washington Post reported the “horrific scenes” and said, “Parents were burned alive in their tents while children screamed for help. Doctors recounted struggling to treat gruesome shrapnel wounds with dwindling medical supplies.”The Post quoted one man who lost seven relatives in the attack: “We were not able to identify them until this morning because of the charred bodies. The faces were eroded and the features were completely disappeared.” Four were children.The Post interviewed another man who said “he still heard the screams…” He said he took a fire extinguisher and rushed to help. “I didn’t know what to do to help people as they burned… dismembered bodies, charred bodies, children without heads, bodies as if they had melted.”Another man found his brother and three-year-old niece dead, the little girl had been hit in the head and he said “There was blood everywhere.”At an International Medical Corps Clinic, a surgeon said one little girl was asking everyone if they had seen her parents. The parents were dead. He said the clinic had run out of even basic medical supplies and said he had tried to save a six-year-old girl, but she died that night.After these latest episodes, even people and countries that had always supported Israel had seen too much. Canada, France and Germany all condemned the bombings. Spain, Norway and Portugal joined the 145 other countries that had previously called for full UN membership for Palestine.The U.S. finally supported a UN Security Council call for an immediate ceasefire but is still sending military aid to Israel. In fact, on June 7, CNN reported Israel’s latest bombing of a UN school “leaving dozens dead, using U.S. munitions.”Our national media has reported that many Jewish students have felt “uncomfortable” on some college campuses. They should not be treated rudely, but this pales in comparison to thousands of Palestinian children being killed and thousands more being starved or losing arms or legs or parents.I have been a very loyal, very conservative Republican since I was a teenager. But this war is not conservative. I am disappointed that only one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, has had the courage to oppose and criticize Israel’s cruelty in this war. I was pleased that he won 76% in his recent primary even though huge money was poured in against him.The American Israel Public Affairs Committee owns the Congress because of its ability to steer many millions in campaign contributions from all over the U.S. to anywhere in the U.S.Netanyahu funded Hamas for several years in a strategy that horribly backfired last Oct. 7. Since then, he has led a terribly lopsided war that has caused the deaths of many thousands of innocent men, women, and children.He has been invited to speak to Congress and the nation on July 24. He will be treated as a conquering hero. As a man with the blood of thousands on his hands, he should not have even been invited. Reprinted from The Knoxville Focus.
When US Officials Show You Who They Are, Believe Them - “When someone shows you who they are,” Maya Angelou said, “believe them the first time.”That should apply to foreign-policy elites who show you who they are, time after time.Officials running the Pentagon and State Department have been in overdrive for more than 250 days in support of Israel’s ongoing slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Supposedly dedicated to defense and diplomacy, those officials have worked to implement and disguise Washington’s war policies, which have taken more lives than any other government in this century.Among the weapons of war, cluster munitions are especially horrific. That’s why 67 Democrats and an equal number of Republicans in the House of Representatives voted last week to prevent the U.S. government from continuing to send those weapons to armies overseas.But more than twice as many House members voted the other way. They defeated a Pentagon funding amendment that would have prohibited the transfer of cluster munitions to other countries. The lawmakers ensured that the U.S. can keep supplying those weapons to the military forces of Ukraine and Israel.As of now, 124 nations have signed onto a treaty banning cluster munitions, which often wreck the bodies of civilians. The “bomblets” from cluster munitions “are particularly attractive to children because they resemble a bell with a loop of ribbon at the end,” the Just Security organization explains. But when the Ukrainian military forces ran low on ammunition last year, the U.S. administration decided to start shipping cluster munitions to them.“All countries should condemn the use of these weapons under any circumstances,” Human Rights Watch has declared.BBC correspondent John Simpson summed up a quarter-century ago: “Used against human beings, cluster bombs are some of the most savage weapons of modern warfare.” As the Congressional Research Service reported this spring, cluster munitions “disperse large numbers of submunitions imprecisely over an extended area.” They “frequently fail to detonate and are difficult to detect,” and “can remain explosive hazards for decades.”The CRS report added: “Civilian casualties are primarily caused by munitions being fired into areas where soldiers and civilians are intermixed, inaccurate cluster munitions landing in populated areas, or civilians traversing areas where cluster munitions have been employed but failed to explode.”The horrible immediate effects are just the beginning. “It’s been over five decades since the U.S. dropped cluster bombs on Laos, the most bombed country in the world per capita,” Human Rights Watch points out. “The contamination from cluster munitions remnants and other unexploded ordnance is so vast that fewer than 10 percent of affected areas have been cleared. An estimated 80 million submunitions still pose a danger, especially to curious children.”The members of Congress who just greenlighted more cluster munitions are dodging grisly realities. The basic approach is to proceed as though such human realities don’t matter if an ally is using those weapons (or if the United States uses them, as happened in Southeast Asia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen).Overall, with carnage persisting in Gaza, it’s easy enough to say that Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown us who he is. But so has Presidente Biden, and so have the most powerful Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
War on Gaza: Blinken is dragging the US ever deeper into Israel's quagmire | Middle East Eye – It takes a lot to get the diplomats of the Middle East to agree on anything. The behaviour of one man over the last eight months of the war in Gaza has, however, forged a consensus rare among such a group: Antony Blinken cannot be trusted. The US secretary of state’s powers of turning reality on its head have raised the eyebrows of even practised cynics. It is a complaint that resounds from Doha to Amman, Cairo, Tel Aviv and Ankara. Blinken is currently engaged in what one of his predecessors, James Baker, called “dead cat diplomacy”. Baker’s pupil, Aaron David Miller, wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “The objective is not to reach a deal but to ensure if it fails, the dead cat is on other’s doorstep.”The dead, or dying, cat of the moment is a ceasefire deal in Gaza that holds. Indisputably, Hamas is closer to accepting this deal than Israel is. The evidence for this is mounting. Hamas signed a ceasefire deal presented by Egypt and Qatar, under the gaze of CIA Director Bill Burns, which would have ensured a permanent halt to the war. When Israel and the US walked away from it, Hamas welcomed the principles declared in President Joe Biden’s speech, in which he urged Israel to accept a “full and complete ceasefire”. It had the same reaction to the US-sponsored UN resolution. Those principles are clear: that a permanent ceasefire should exist after an initial exchange of hostages; that there should be a full withdrawal of Israeli troops; that the people of Gaza should be free to return to their homes; that there should be no change in the territory or demography of Gaza; and that its people should have full access to humanitarian aid, alongside reconstruction efforts.Israel disagrees with each and every one of these principles. It has said consistently that no ceasefire should prevent the achievement of its war aims, which include the dismantlement of Hamas as a military power and as a government of Gaza. It continues to block aid through its land border crossings and has no intention of lifting the siege, especially after the war ends.More critically, it has made no commitment to sticking to a ceasefire should negotiations between the first and second phases of the prisoner and hostage exchange fail. The talks are stuck on Israel’s refusal to accept an upfront commitment to a permanent ceasefire. It is on Israel that Blinken should be applying all of Washington’s pressure.And yet, Blinken declared: “Israel accepted the proposal as it was” - a comment that flies in the face of repeated public statements from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu casting doubt on the deal, in addition to recent remarks from National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, who said it would take another seven months to destroy the military and governing capabilities of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.“Hamas could have answered with a single word - yes,” Blinken said, surpassing himself in a brazen attempt to turn the truth on its head.
Netanyahu Rejects Any Deal That Leads to Permanent End to War on Gaza - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will only agree to a partial deal with Hamas that allows him to restart the assault after a pause to exchange hostages. The remarks show that Netanyahu is unwilling to sign on to an agreement proposed by President Joe Biden.On Sunday night, speaking with Channel 14, Netanyahu said he was “prepared to make a partial deal — this is no secret — that will return to us some of the people.” He continued, “But we are committed to continuing the war after a pause, in order to complete the goal of eliminating Hamas. I’m not willing to give up on that.”An official who spoke with Channel 12, conveyed the partial deal is the best offer Hamas will get from Tel Aviv. “The mediators are unable to convey the idea to Hamas that there will be no better deal than the one proposed by Israel,” the source explained. “We have reached a situation where there is no movement. Israel has gone as far as it can go. President Biden has adopted the proposal.”However, Netanyahu’s temporary pause is a rejection of the three-phase deal that Biden proposed at the end of May that the president claimed originated in Tel Aviv. That agreement would see a ceasefire for negotiations and a hostage exchange. Phases two and three of the Biden deal call for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a permanent end to the fighting, and the rebuilding of the Strip.Biden’s proposal resembles one put forward by Hamas months ago. The Palestinian group said it viewed the White House’s offer positively but sought to amend the deal to make the Israeli concessions more concrete. Both Tel Aviv and Washington have continued to present Hamas as the barrier to achieving an agreement.Netanyahu’s remarks come amid a rift between Washington and Tel Aviv. The Israeli prime minister has criticized Washington several times over the past week for slowing down weapons shipments to Tel Aviv. US officials explained on Sunday that they had removed the expedited process for shipping weapons to Israel that was put in place after October 7.
US No Longer 'Fast-Tracking' Weapons to Israel - The Joe Biden administration recently ended a policy which expedited arms transfers to Tel Aviv, a US official told the Times of Israel. The comments come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the United States of withholding lethal aid amid the months-long onslaught in Gaza.The unnamed American official revealed the policy shift to TOI on Sunday, explaining that while US weapons are currently being sent at a “normal pace,” Biden had scaled back the fast-tracked shipments that were more common earlier in the Gaza war.“In recent months, the US resumed its normal procedures for weapons transfers, including various congressional authorizations,” the outlet reported, noting that the decision coincided with a slow-down in Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.According to Israel’s Channel 12 News, around 240 separate weapons shipments were delivered to Israel in the first phase of the war. It noted transfers had dropped to about half that figure in recent months.The remarks by the US official follow allegations by PM Netanyahu that Washington has significantly held back arms transfers, first raised in a video posted to the premier’s X account on Tuesday. He later elaborated on the claim during a wide-ranging interview with Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman, arguing deliveries had slowed to a “trickle.”The White House later reacted to those statements with surprise, saying it was not clear what weapons Netanyahu was referring to. Officials maintained that only one transfer of 2,000-pound bombs had been pausedover fears of civilian casualties in the crowded city of Rafah in southern Gaza, but said military aid was continuing at a normal pace.So far, the ongoing row has prompted the Biden administration to cancel a high-level strategic meeting with Tel Aviv last week, which was intended to cover both countries’ policies toward Iran.
Benjamin Netanyahu appears to walk back rejection of Joe Biden's cease-fire deal - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday appeared to walk back comments he made the day before that seemed to reject a cease-fire deal President Biden backed in the Israel-Hamas war.Netanyahu on Monday told the Knesset he was “committed” to the plan, in remarks that drew praise from the White House.“We will not end the war until we return all of our hostages — 120 hostages, the living and the deceased. We are committed to the Israeli proposal, which President Biden has welcomed,” he said. “Our position has not changed.”A day before, Netanyahu said he supported a “partial deal,” in comments that cast doubt about his support for Biden’s three-phased cease-fire proposal announced last month. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller welcomed Netanyahu’s message.“I think all of us that speak publicly, at times, make mistakes and misspeak,” he told Al-Monitor. And when we do so, we have an obligation to come clarify, and we’re glad he did.”Hamas leaders have also shown reluctance over accepting the deal. Hamas has insisted it will not release the remaining hostages unless there’s a permanent cease-fire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which Netanyahu has resisted.Tensions between the Biden administration and Netanyahu have risen throughout the war.Early this month, Biden said there’s “every reason” to think Netanyahu is prolonging the Israel-Hamas war for his political gain, one of his sharpest attacks against the Israeli leader.Netanyahu also said Sunday that the Israeli offensive in Gaza is “winding down,” but warned a war against Hezbollah in Lebanon could be on the horizon as border tensions rise. The Biden administration has strongly pressured Netanyahu and the Israeli government not to invade Lebanon, fearful of a wider regional war.Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown warned Sunday that Iran would likely back Hezbollah if Israel were to launch an offensive, effectively turning fighting into a proxy war and potentially putting American service members at risk.
Report: Israeli Official Says 'No Movement' in Hamas Talks - Negotiations to end Israel’s months-long war on Gaza have all but reached a standstill, an unnamed senior Israeli official told a local media outlet. The comments come days after Hamas’ political leadership expressed a desire to continue dialogue.Speaking to Israel’s Channel 12 on Saturday, the high-ranking officialreportedly voiced pessimism about the ongoing talks, saying negotiators were “unable to convey the idea to Hamas that there will be no better deal than the one proposed by Israel.”“We have reached a situation where there is no movement. Israel has gone as far as it can go. President [Joe] Biden has adopted the proposal. The [United Nations] Security Council voted on a proposal for Israel to stop the war,” they said, adding that there was “no longer any room for additional discussions.”While the official blamed Hamas for the impasse, the Israeli government has made contradictory statements about a multi-stage ceasefire planannounced by President Biden in May, which was alleged to have the support of Tel Aviv.Mere hours after Biden unveiled the proposal, however, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement that appeared at odds with what the US president had just announced. It insisted any deal must allow Israel to “continue the war until all its objectives are achieved, including the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.”Hamas’ eradication was not provided for in the US-backed peace plan, which instead called for an immediate pause to fighting until the warring parties could hammer out a more permanent ceasefire. During that time, Hamas and Israel would also negotiate prisoner swaps, and Israeli forces would later withdraw from Gaza entirely if the talks achieved progress. More recently, the Israeli PM suggested the Gaza mission would soon shift to lower-intensity operations, but nonetheless declared he was “not willing to end the war and leave Hamas as it is.”On Friday, Hamas’ political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh said the group was still willing to reach a deal to end the war, though he went on to stress its main conditions: a lasting ceasefire, prisoner exchanges, as well as the reconstruction of Gaza and additional humanitarian aid.“[Hamas] is open to engaging with any proposal or initiative that secures the foundations of the Palestinian resistance’s position in ceasefire negotiations in the Gaza Strip,” Despite the obstacles, international mediators have also continued to voice hopes for an agreement, with Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani telling reporters on Friday that Doha and Cairo were working to “bridge the gap” between the two sides. He cautioned that no final framework had been accepted, however.
Israeli Defense Chief Heads to US to Discuss Next Phase of Wars in Lebanon, Gaza - The Israeli defense minister Gallant is traveling to the US to discuss the next stage of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Washington is pushing for Tel Aviv to bring the conflicts to an end, while the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu is demanding more weapons from the US. Before leaving for his visit to the US, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant indicated that Tel Aviv may want to reduce operations in Gaza in preparation for a larger war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Since Israel began its onslaught in Gaza, Israeli forces have traded tit-for-tat attacks with the militant group.The fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has displaced hundreds of thousands, killed nearly 500 in Lebanon, and caused over two dozen deaths in Israel.“We are prepared for any action that may be required in Gaza, Lebanon, and in more areas,” the defense chief said. “The transition to Phase C in Gaza is of great importance. I will discuss this transition with US officials, how it may enable additional things and I know that we will achieve close cooperation with the US on this issue as well.”It is unclear when Israel plans to transition to lower-intensity military action in Gaza. Last week, deputy to the US president Amos Hochstein toldLebanese leaders that major Israeli operations in Gaza would take five more weeks.The talks between Gallant and his American counterpart, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, come amid a growing divide in Tel Aviv’s and Washington’s visions for the Middle East.The Biden administration is hoping that a ceasefire in Gaza will end the fighting along Israel’s northern border as well. Meanwhile, some in Tel Aviv believe a transition to a lower-scale operation in the Strip will allow Israeli forces to be relocated to fight Hezbollah.The White House appears to be attempting to deter the Israeli leadership from pursuing this course. On Thursday, CNN reported speaking with three US officials who said that the Biden administration believes that Hezbollah is capable of overwhelming Tel Aviv’s air defense systems.Still, Hochstein told Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati that the US would aid Israel’s war should hostilities significantly escalate. However, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to say he is unhappy with the supply of weapons he is receiving from the US.
Washington rolls out the red carpet for war criminal Gallant, as US imperialism prepares to endorse Israel’s war in Lebanon - The visit of war criminal and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to Washington demonstrates once again American imperialism’s support for Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza as part of a region-wide war targeting Iran. Gallant, who infamously labelled the Palestinians “human animals” as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began its genocidal onslaught on Gaza, held discussions on securing more US weapons and expanding the war to confront Hezbollah in Lebanon. Gallant arrived in Washington almost exactly one month after Karim Khan, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, applied for arrest warrants for him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on war crimes charges. He has overseen the inhuman blockade of all basic necessities into the Gaza Strip, which has led to the spread of hunger, disease and misery on a horrific scale. On the second day of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, he declared, “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.” A recent United Nations report accused the Israeli regime, of which Gallant and Netanyahu are leading representatives, of “extermination,” “war crimes,” and other “crimes against humanity.” Gallant’s Defense Ministry oversees what the report described as “one of the most criminal armies in the world.” This army has officially killed over 37,000 Palestinians in less than nine months, the vast majority of them women and children. By rights, Gallant and his entourage should have been arrested immediately after exiting their aircraft and transferred to the ICC for prosecution. But the defense minister had nothing to fear during his trip to Washington. Far from being held accountable for his barbaric crimes, Gallant was welcomed in the cockpit of world imperialism with open arms by fellow war criminals drenched in the blood of Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans, Ukrainians and Russians. These war criminals never tire of invoking the precepts of international law to denounce the targets of US imperialism’s wars of aggression, but they refuse to be bound by any such restraints as they and their allies pursue the defense of the “rules-based international order.” Gallant held meetings with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Biden administration’s special envoy for the Middle East Amos Hochstein and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Graham remarked following his discussion with Gallant that any attack by Hezbollah on Israel that breaches the Iron Dome defense system would be “considered an Iranian attack against Israel.” He continued: The world must hold Iran accountable for the actions of its proxies, including Hezbollah, at this crucial moment in the life of the State of Israel. It must be made crystal clear to Iran that if they try to use Hezbollah to destroy Israel, we’re all coming after the Iranian regime. Gallant’s consultations in Washington have the character of a war council plotting precisely how best to expand the war throughout the Middle East, a prospect that is viewed by multiple international players as imminent. Following the IDF’s announcement last Tuesday that the operational plans for a war in Lebanon had been “approved,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stated Monday, “The risk of this war affecting the south of Lebanon and spilling over is every day bigger. We are on the eve of the war expanding.” According to Israel’s Channel 12, the Canadian government has already dispatched military personnel to the region to begin planning the evacuation of 45,000 Canadian citizens in Lebanon when the war breaks out. This reality is covered over in official media coverage with talk about the Biden administration’s efforts to secure a “ceasefire” in Gaza. Even the IDF has stated that its large-scale operations in Rafah, where upwards of a million people have been forced to flee since early May, are coming to an end. Gallant’s Defence Ministry spoke in a recent statement of “phase three” in the Gaza conflict, characterised by “low intensity” strikes to eliminate what remains of the Palestinians’ infrastructure after almost nine months of continuous bombardment. But this would only mean a potential shift in focus for Israel’s war from Gaza to what Gallant and former War Cabinet member Benny Gantz refer to regularly as the “northern front,” i.e., Hezbollah and Lebanon. The principal force escalating the region-wide war is American imperialism. As the World Socialist Web Site has explained, Washington fully endorsed Israel’s genocidal “final solution” of the Palestinian question in Gaza as part of its preparations for a war to consolidate US imperialist hegemony in the energy-rich Middle East.
White House brags that it has given Israel $6.5 billion in weapons since October 7 - The United States has provided Israel with more than $6.5 billion in weapons since October 7, the White House said Wednesday, underscoring the scale of the Biden administration’s support for the continuing genocide in Gaza. Doled out over just nine months, this figure is nearly double the US’s typical annual Israel military aid budget of $3.4 billion and will be further supplemented by $14 billion in weapons funding allocated by Congress this year. The White House admitted the scale of its arms shipments to Israel in a closed briefing to reporters, with neither a video nor transcript made available to the public. Washington Post reporter John Hudson described the content of the briefing on X: “The US has flooded Israel with more than $6.5 billion in security assistance since Oct. 7, said a senior administration official, a massive transfer of equipment and firepower despite recurring disagreements between the two nations over civilian casualties and aid access.” The US official declared, “This is a massive, massive undertaking, and nothing is paused other than that one shipment” of 2,000-pound bombs. Amid continuing mass protests against the Biden administration’s complicity in the Gaza bloodbath, the White House has sought to keep the scale of its arms transfers a secret. For this reason, it has broken up its arms shipments into more than 100 chunks in order to bypass congressional reporting requirements. The announcement came the same day that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with senior White House officials. Gallant was welcomed by senior White House officials Wednesday, after the lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applied for charges against him last month, accusing the Israeli defense minister, alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity.” The visit follows last week’s assertion by a UN investigative committee that the Israeli government is responsible for the “extermination” of the Palestinian population, with commission member Chris Sidoti declaring that the “Israeli army is one of the most criminal armies in the world.” In a readout of the meeting between Gallant and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the White House wrote, “Mr. Sullivan reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, including in the face of threats from Iranian-backed terrorist groups such as Lebanese Hezbollah.”
Israeli DM: ‘Significant Progress’ Made in Removing Restrictions on US Arms Shipments -- Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed he made “significant progress” on increasing the flow of weapons from the US to Tel Aviv. The White House has blocked one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs over concerns the heavy munitions would be used in densely populated areas of Gaza. After three days of meetings with top Biden administration officials, Gallant claimed that some roadblocks to weapons transfers were scaled back. “During the meetings we made significant progress, obstacles were removed and bottlenecks were addressed,” he said, adding that officials found common ground on “a variety of issues,” including “the topic of force build-up and munition supply that we must bring to the state of Israel.” During his time in Washington, Gallant met with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who all pledged ironclad support for Israel. After the meeting between Sullivan and Gallant on Wednesday, an American official clarified there was no change in US policy. The trip came after a rift had opened between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over weapons shipments to Israel. Since October 7, the White House has sent nearly 250 shipments of weapons to Israel. One administration official reported the US has sent $6.5 billion in arms since the onslaught in Gaza began, including $3 billion in the month of May. In April, Biden suspended one delivery of 2,000-pound bombs over concerns Tel Aviv would use them in densely populated pockets of Gaza. Additionally, the White House recently decided to end the fast-tracking of weapons to Israel that began after October 7. Biden threatened to suspend more arms shipments to Tel Aviv if its forces invaded Rafah. However, the Israeli military has decimated the city over the past month, sending millions fleeing into tent cities without infrastructure or aid, and the White House has refused to suspend any additional weapons transfers. Still, last week, Netanyahu publicly lashed out at the Biden administration over the minor rollback in support.
Israeli Defense Minister Vows to Return Lebanon to ‘Stone Age’ - Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was prepared to send Lebanon back to the “Stone Age” with a massive bombing campaign. The White House desperately tries to avert a major war in the Middle East but is not making progress.After three days of meetings with top officials in Washington, Gallant told reporters that Israel preferred diplomacy but was also willing to utterly destroy Lebanon. “We do not want war, but we are preparing for every scenario. Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage in Lebanon if a war is launched,” he said. Israel could bomb “Lebanon back to the Stone Age, but we don’t want to do it.”Gallant’s remarks come as daily tit-for-tat exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel risk escalating into a major war that could see the US, Iran, and other militias across the Middle East enter the fray. After announcing it had “operational plans” ready for an attack, Israel has started to move some military assets from near Gaza to its northern border.The White House has invested considerable effort into bringing the conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza to a close. However, rather than applying pressure on Tel Aviv to deescalate, Washington has tried to force Hezbollah and Hamas to accept Israeli demands. Last week, American officials told Beirut that Washington was unable to constrain Tel Aviv, in hopes the warning would convince Hezbollah to back down.President Joe Biden has significant leverage he could use to reign in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but has largely refused to do so. While US officials claim their diplomatic efforts are not stalled, an increasing number of countries worry war will break out and are asking their citizens to leave Lebanon.Last week, Biden’s envoy Amos Hochstein visited Tel Aviv and Beirut, hoping to work on a deal to end the fighting. At the time, Hochstein pushed for a deal to end the war in Gaza, with the belief that it would lead to deeslcation on Israel’s northern border as well.Hezbollah maintains that it will end operations against Israel once the onslaught in Gaza comes to a close. Israel says it will not stop attacks on Lebanon until Hezbollah withdraws several miles from the border. Tel Aviv has decimated southern Lebanon, turning much of the area within three miles of the border into a “dead zone.”Now, the Biden administration’s tactics have flipped, with officials telling reporters that the deal to end the fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border must be separate from any Gaza ceasefire. “The logic of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah…is that it is all tied to Gaza, and until there is a cease-fire in Gaza the firing at Israel won’t stop,” the Wall Street Journalreported, citing a senior Biden official. “We frankly, completely reject this logic.”
US assault ship sent to eastern Mediterranean amid Israel-Hezbollah tensions - The Pentagon has sent the Navy amphibious assault ship USS Wasp with Marines aboard to the eastern Mediterranean amid rising tensions between Hezbollah and Israel along Lebanon’s border, U.S. European Command confirmed Friday. The Wasp and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit — which includes about 2,200 personnel — entered the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday “on a scheduled deployment to the US Naval Forces Europe-Africa area of operations,” the command said in a Thursday statement. The ship is intended to serve as a deterrent in the region and keep the Israel- Hamas war from becoming a broader regional conflict, EUCOM added. Asked Friday about the ship’s movement, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh stressed that the deployment was scheduled and that the US was not preparing any noncombat evacuation of American citizens out of Lebanon. “The purpose is not to conduct a type of … military assisted departure,” she told reporters. “It is there to ensure regional stability and deter aggression. It has many other capabilities — one being, if there was a need for any type of departure, it can be there to assist in that.” The Wasp will be joined in the eastern Mediterranean by the USS Oak Hill, which is already in the waterway, and the USS New York, which is currently operating in the Atlantic Ocean. The three ships make up the Wasp’s Amphibious Ready Group, Singh said. Amphibious Ready Groups and Marines are trained for a wide variety of missions that include the evacuation of U.S. citizens from war zones. After trading fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border for nearly nine months, fears are growing of a full-blown conflict. The animosity stems from Hamas’s attack in Israel on Oct. 7, which set off a brutal Israeli air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip to defeat Hamas. Both Israel and Hezbollah have recently ratcheted up the rhetoric, with an escalation in the clashes and the Israeli government earlier this month announcing it had approved a plan for a military offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Pentagon removing Gaza pier, sets no clear date on reinstallation -The U.S. military is once again removing the Gaza pier due to poor weather, and there is no clear timeline on when it would be reanchored, the Pentagon confirmed Friday. Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said heavy seas and high winds forced the military to temporarily dismantle the pier and send it to the Israeli port city Ashdod. She did not say when it would come back online, amid speculation that it may not at all.“When the commander decides that it’s the right time to reinstall that pier, we’ll keep you updated on that,” she said. “As we always said with the pier, it is meant to be temporary.“It is not the long-term solution or solve for land routes; we know that’s the most effective way in,” Singh added. “But that’s really a decision the commander will make as we continue to evaluate the high seas states.”Since the pier came online May 17, more than 19 million pounds of humanitarian aid has been delivered through the maritime corridor. In the past seven days, the U.S. has delivered around 10 million pounds of humanitarian aid to the marshalling area in Gaza through the pier. The $230 million pier has been removed at least three times since it was first installed. The first time was by accident when poor weather broke apart the causeway and forced the military to conduct a repair.The Pentagon’s watchdog launched a review of the U.S. military’s efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza through the pier.Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to the Pentagon this week expressing his concern about an operation he said was “riddled with setbacks, sidelined more often than operational, and can only be classified as a gross waste of taxpayer dollars.” “I urge the administration to immediately cease this failed operation before further catastrophe occurs and consider alternative means of land and air-based humanitarian aid delivery,” Rogers wrote.The Pentagon has argued the pier is a crucial part of the humanitarian aid efforts into Gaza, where Palestinians are struggling to access food and water as Israel fights a major war against Hamas. “This pier has provided the second amount most volume of aid over all the other crossings in Gaza,” Singh said Friday, noting it has demonstrated its importance.
House passes amendment to halt use of Gaza Health Ministry death toll -The House passed an amendment Thursday barring the State Department from citing the Gaza Health Ministry’s death toll statistics for the Israel-Hamas war, effectively halting discussion of the war’s deaths if it is signed into law. A bipartisan group of lawmakers voted 269-144 to pass the amendment to the State Department’s annual appropriations bill. A group of 62 Democrats joined all but two Republicans in voting for the measure. The amendment was led by Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Carol Miller (R-W.Va.). The Gaza Health Ministry has been cited by the State Department and news agencies for decades amid conflict in Gaza. It’s daily death toll during the current conflict that began in October has served as a primary source for understanding the war’s impact on Palestinians in the territory. It is the only official entity tracking death data in Gaza, with its figures regularly being cited by both U.S. and Israeli officials. Just under 38,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict since Oct. 7, according to its most recent release. The agency also noted that the figure is likely an undercount, due to Gaza’s lack of medical infrastructure and those missing and trapped under rubble.The ministry’s daily death toll does not include underlying data, and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. It does periodically release underlying data for its death toll figure. The most recent release in late April confirmed nearly 23,000 deaths with full names and identifying information. An analysis from The Associated Press earlier this month found that the proportion of women and children who have died in the conflict has decreased as the war has gone on, from nearly two-thirds in October to about half in April.The Israeli government has repeatedly criticized the ministry’s death toll, claiming the agency is inflating the figure for political reasons.Last month, the World Health Organization affirmed that it has full confidence in the agency’s figures.“Nothing wrong with the data, the overall data (more than 35,000) are still the same,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said last month. “The fact we now have 25,000 identified people is a step forward.”Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), herself a Palestinian American, denounced the amendment in a statement from the floor Wednesday, calling the move “genocide denial.”Tlaib read the death toll and other information about the conflict into the congressional record, noting that she intended to include a list of the names of those killed in the conflict. “It is important to note this to everyone here: The list is too long that I can’t even submit it because of the text limit,” she said. “That’s how many have been killed.”
Trump punts on supporting Palestinian state: ‘I’d have to see’ - Former President Trump held back Thursday evening on endorsing an independent Palestinian state when asked during the first general election presidential debate if he would support its creation if it brought peace in the region. “I’d have to see,” Trump said at the CNN event in Atlanta. U.S. policy across Republican and Democratic administrations and Congress have stated support for a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, and that an independent Palestinian state should be established through direct negotiations between the two parties. President Biden has put the creation of a Palestinian state at the end of a three-phase cease-fire proposal aimed at ending the war, and he blamed Hamas as holding back from allowing the first phase of the deal — an immediate six-week cease-fire — to be implemented. Trump pushed back on Biden’s assertion that Israel supports a cease-fire proposal with Hamas, saying that Israel “wants to keep going” in its military operation to eliminate the U.S.-designated terrorist group in the Gaza Strip. “[Biden] said the only one who wants to keep [fighting] is Hamas, actually Israel is the one — and you should let them go and let them finish the job,” Trump said. The former president has previously said that Israel should “finish the job,” while also criticizing Israel as having bad “public relations” for the length of the war, now nearly nine months since Hamas launched its terror attack against Israel on Oct. 7.
US Imposes New Sanctions Against Iran, Claiming ‘Nuclear Escalation’ - The US State Department announced today, as it threatened earlier this month, a new round of sanctions against Iran, claiming it was the result of “nuclear escalations.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Iran announced expansions that had “no credible peaceful purpose.” The IAEA had earlier informed the US and others that Iran was installing additional centrifuge cascades. The cascades have been installed as an Iranian attempt to get the JCPOA parties to remedy the fact that the signatories of the JCPOA, notably, Germany, France, and Britain, have never honored the sanctions relief that is central to the deal.In trying to force the talks, Iran has increased uranium enrichment up to 60%, which still falls far short of the 90-95% generally recognized as weapons-grade. So far, the three European nations have just threatened Iran and accused them of not honoring the spirit of the deal. The US, of course, imposes new sanctions regularly although the US left the deal during the Trump administration years ago.Blinken continues to play up the false allegation of Iran seeking nuclear weapons and presented the sanctions as a US action to preclude that from happening. This, despite reports from the US Director of National Intelligence that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons at all.The JCPOA was meant to offer Iran substantial sanction relief and a path to international normalization in return for implementing measures in its civilian nuclear program that went far beyond those any other nation has been subjected to. The US, however, blocked the sanctions relief from the beginning, and has continuously threatened Iran ever since.Iran’s civilian nuclear program is meant to provide fuel for its nuclear energy program and to produce nuclear isotopes for medical purposes. The nation has sought to be as self-reliant as possible because in the past the West has seized its nuclear assets. The JCPOA was also meant to guarantee Iran access to the international market for nuclear fuel.The new sanctions target three UAE-based companies which are accused of transporting Iranian oil. Since Iran’s economy is heavily reliant on oil exports, blocking such exports is a go-to action for the US when imposing harsh sanctions.
Pentagon Chief Speaks With Russian Counterpart, First Time in Over a Year -The Defense Department announced Secretary Lloyd Austin held a phone call with Andrei Belousov, his Russian counterpart, on Tuesday. Austin has not spoken with a Russian defense minister since his call with Belousov’s predecessor more than a year ago. Both sides acknowledged that the Pentagon chief initiated the contact. This appears to be an effort by Austin to ease tensions over the Ukraine proxy war. Following the firing of an American missile by Kiev’s forces which killed Russians in Crimea, Moscow has vowed a response.Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters about the call during a briefing but would not share details beyond saying “the secretary emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.” He refused to answer questions regarding how long the call lasted, why it took place, and the current state of communication between Washington and Moscow. A Russian Defense Ministry statement, however, reads, “A US-initiated phone call between [Belousov] and [Austin] took place on June 25, 2024. The ministers exchanged views on the situation around Ukraine.” The statement continued, “Belousov highlighted the danger of further escalation due to continued US weapons supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces. The parties also discussed other issues.”Austin has not spoken to a Russian defense minister since March last year, when Austin held a phone call with Sergei Shoigu after escalations occurred over the Black Sea between US and Russian aircraft. This latest call comes in the immediate wake of an attack on the city of Sevastopol over the weekend which, according to Moscow, saw US-provided ATACMS missiles hit civilian infrastructure. Four Russians were killed, including two children, and more than 150 people were wounded. In Moscow, US Ambassador Lynne Tracy was summoned by Russia’s Foreign Ministry where she was met with outrage over the Sunday strike.On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said US and Ukrainian involvement in the “terrorist” attack was beyond doubt. The foreign ministry claimed US intelligence was used to coordinate the bombing, adding a US drone was operating nearby. The ministry also stated Washington “has effectively become a party” to the war and threatened“retaliatory measures.”Earlier last week, the White House authorized Kiev to fire US-supplied long-range missiles into Crimea and the Russian mainland along the border anywhere troops may attempt an attack. More specifically, thisincludes anywhere within 100 kilometers, 62 miles, of Ukraine’s Sumy and Kharkiv Oblasts. Throughout the war, Kiev has attacked Crimea with NATO weaponry.Since this latest Crimea bombing, the Ukrainian government, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, demanded its NATO backers allow deeper strikes into Russian territory with Western arms. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the Washington-led military alliance “should be aware of what they are playing with.” Moscow has repeatedly stated that if their territory is hit with weapons supplied by a NATO member, they have the right to respond in kind to similar facilities belonging to those states both in Ukraine and “beyond.”
House overwhelmingly rejects Greene, Gosar efforts to cut off aid to Ukraine -- The House on Thursday rejected a flurry of amendments offered to an appropriations bill from Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to cut off aid to Ukraine, a signal of bipartisan support for Ukraine. Gosar and Greene proposed a series of amendments to the State Department, foreign operations and related programs appropriations bill that would have cut off funding to Ukraine amid its war with Russia.Gosar’s amendments would have prohibited funds for foreign military sales to Ukraine, the bilateral security agreement between the U.S. and Ukraine and the special representative for Ukraine’s economic recovery. Greene’s amendment would have cut off all funding for Ukraine. Gosar’s amendments failed on a bipartisan basis, with the House voting down the foreign military sales amendment 61-350, the security agreement amendment 76-334 and the economic recovery amendment 109-303. Greene’s amendment faced a similar fate with a 70-342 vote.Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), chair of the House Appropriations State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, rose in opposition to Gosar’s amendments, calling them a “monumental mistake” that would “potentially embolden our enemies, including Russia.”Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the subcommittee, also rose in opposition, saying the amendments would send “a terrible message.” Greene and Gosar are part of a group of Republicans who have opposed funding to Ukraine since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Former President Trump has spoken critically of U.S. aid to Ukraine, and the subject is likely to be raised at Thursday night’s debate. President Biden and Trump differ significantly in their positions on Ukraine.The House months ago approved a new aid package for Ukraine, but it did so without the support of a majority of Republicans in that chamber. It is unclear whether aid would be continued by a GOP-controlled Congress working with Trump. The latest aid package was approved after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) chose to bring the legislation to the floor despite threats from Greene that she would seek to depose him from leadership. Greene later sought to dismiss Johnson as Speaker, but the effort was easily cast aside.
CNN: Biden Will Pay US Military Contractors to Work Inside Ukraine -- President Joe Biden is preparing to sign off on hiring American military contractors to work in Ukraine. If the White House moves forward with the proposal, it will be another significant escalation in the proxy war in Ukraine. Four unnamed US officials told CNN that Biden is shifting his policy and would soon allow private soldiers from American mercenary firms to aid the fight in Ukraine. The change is expected to take effect sometime later this year.Initially, the White House sees the contractors fixing American-made advanced military equipment, such as the F-16 fighter jet. The Kremlin says the warplanes, which are set to arrive in Ukraine later this year, present a nuclear threat to Moscow, and vows to eliminate the bases they are stationed at, inside or outside of Ukrainian borders.Increasing the number of American soldiers, even if retired from official service, on the ground in Ukraine will likely be viewed as another significant provocation by Russian President Vladimir Putin.Tensions between the White House and Kremlin ramped up further over the past month, following Washington and many other NATO countries signing off on Kiev’s use of Western weapons to attack Russia. The pressure hit a high point last week when American-made ATACMS missiles were used in strikes on the Crimean Peninsula that led to the deaths of four Russians, per local officials.According to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, the US “has effectively become a party” to the war on Ukraine’s side, adding, “Retaliatory measures will certainly follow.”That the White House is beginning to offer contracts to mercenary firms is an act of desperation, as Ukraine has been unable to stop the Russian advance. CNN reports that Alexander Vindman, former National Security Council director for European Affairs under President Donald Trump, now director of an organization supporting victory in Ukraine, is one of the lobbyists pushing Biden to allow the Pentagon to pay to send private soldiers to Ukraine. Vindman, who was born in Ukraine, testified against Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial.
Russia Confirms US Drone Strikes Against Eastern Syria - Russian officials have issued a statement confirming that multiple drone strikes overnight in eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border. The strikes killed multiple, and included an attack on a cargo truck traveling through the region, killing a member of Iraq’s Sayyed al-Shuhada Brigades.The reports are that MQ-1C multi-purpose drones were used. The United States has not commented on its apparent involvement in the attacks. The US-led Global Anti-Terrorism Coalition denied that any drone operations took place, despite multiple reports of the attacks.One of the strikes hit a group which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights labeled “pro-Iran fighters,” though two of the slain were identified as Iraqis, and the third has not yet been identified.The attacks took place in and around al-Bukamal, a key city at the border crossing between Syria and Iraq. That main strike was at a military base, causing an explosion that was heard throughout the area.The second strike, which targeted a truck, killed a man that Sayyed al-Shuhada Brigades claimed was on a “reconnaissance patrol.” The brigades said that the United States was behind the attack. The US targets Shi’ite militias operating on the Syrian side of the border fairly regularly.
Map shows Chinese-owned farmland next to 19 US military bases in ‘alarming’ threat to national security: experts --China has been buying up strategically placed farmland next to military installations across the US, raising national security fears over potential espionage or even sabotage.The Post has identified 19 bases across the US from Florida to Hawaii which are in close proximity to land bought up by Chinese entities and could be exploited by spies working for the communist nation.They include some of the military’s most strategically important bases: Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) in Fayetteville, North Carolina; Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood) in Killeen, Texas; Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California, and MacDill air force base in Tampa, Florida.Robert S. Spalding III, a retired United States Air Force brigadier general whose work focuses US-China relations told The Post: “It is concerning due to the proximity to strategic locations.“These locations can be used to set up intelligence collection sites and the owners can be influential in local politics as we have seen in the past,” he added.“It is alarming we do not have laws on the books that would prevent the Chinese from buying property in the US.”Under the guise of farming, the Chinese landowners could set up reconnaissance sights, install tracking technology, use radar and infra-red scanning to view bases or attempt to fly drones over them as ways to surveil military sites, sources told The Post.A report in the Wall Street Journal from September 2023 found Chinese intruders attempted to breach military facilities over 100 times in recent years, including sneaking onto a missile range in New Mexico and scuba divers spotted near a government rocket-launch site in Florida.The threat the Chinese government poses to America is huge, with the FBI labelling it a “grave threat” and director Christopher Wray saying in April hackers have made their way into US critical infrastructure and are waiting “for just the right moment to deal a devastating blow” and “physically wreak havoc.”The Department of Homeland Security has also warned of the threat of Chinese spies slipping over the US Southern border, disguised as among the more than 30,000 who have already been admitted this since October last year. Those spies will likely “employ economic espionage” and “seek to illicitly acquire our technologies and intellectual property” according to DHS’s Homeland Threat Assessment 2024.Morgan Lerette, a former contractor for private military contractor Blackwater is sounding the alarm.“The Chinese are, or will, use this farmland to learn more about US military capabilities, movements, and technology,” Lerette told The Post.“This will allow them to better understand how to transition their military from a defensive strategy to an expeditionary one,” he said, adding they’ll figure out “how to move forces quickly for conflicts such as taking Taiwan and how and when US forces would respond to their incursions based on troop movement at these bases,” he explained. He added China will be watching troop movements into and out of bases in an attempt to form an idea of the patterns of behavior and movements.
There Is No Possibility Of Sovereignty As Long As The US Empire Exists by Caitlin Johnstone -- You can’t separate agendas of sovereignty and self-determination from the massive global power structure which backs those stated agendas for its own interests. You have to be real about this. You can’t separate the agenda of national sovereignty and self-determination for the Jewish people from the US-centralized empire’s agenda to dominate and destabilize the middle east. You have to be real about the fact that those agendas are inseparably intertwined, and about the fact that Israel being a permanent part of the US power structure isn’t actually independence and self-determination. And you have to respond to this reality accordingly. You can’t separate the agenda of national sovereignty and self-determination for the Ukrainians from the US-centralized empire’s agenda to weaken Russia and absorb it into the imperial power structure. You have to be real about the fact that these agendas are intertwined, and that the empire actually wants to dominate Ukraine for itself. You can’t just psychologically compartmentalize away from this reality to make your infantile Good Guys vs Bad Guys view of this conflict make sense. You can’t separate the agenda of national sovereignty and self-determination for Taiwan from the US-centralized empire’s agenda to weaken, balkanize and subjugate China. You have to be real about the fact that the powerful people claiming to want Taiwanese “independence” actually want a vassal state off mainland China’s coast from which Beijing can be undermined and encircled, and that the salami tactics we’re seeing to pull Taiwan into the western power structure are inseparably intertwined with the advocacy for an independent Taiwan. You can’t separate the agenda of national sovereignty and self-determination for the Kurds from the US-centralized empire’s agenda to balkanize, regime change and absorb Syria. You have to be real about the fact that this imperial agenda is inseparably interwoven with the agenda to create the “Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria” aka Rojava, which is being carved away from Syria at immense cost to Damascus with the direct facilitation of the US war machine. You can’t just pretend this isn’t happening and act like there’s some kind of organic anarchist movement there that is somehow separable from these agendas. If you desire the sovereignty and self-determination of any group of people, your first and foremost task is to seek the dismantling of the US-centralized empire, because that’s the power structure that is doing the most around the world to undermine this possibility. As long as a population is in any way intertwined with the agendas of a globe-dominating empire that’s doing everything it can to bring everyone under its control, then there is no possibility of that population gaining any real self-determination. If they remain aligned with those agendas, all they can ever hope to be is subjects of the empire. Anyone who refuses to be real about this fact is acting in service of the empire, either knowingly or unknowingly. They’re either knowingly acting to facilitate the interests of the empire and its managers, or they’re avoiding facing the inconvenient realities of the situation in order to have a simpler, more easy-to-digest worldview. Part of coming into maturity is forming a fact-based relationship with the realities of our world. To whatever extent you are failing to be real about the facts of our situation here, your worldview is based on lies.
Assange Released from Prison After Agreeing To Plead Guilty to Espionage Act Violation - WikiLeaks reports that its founder, Julian Assange, was released from UK prison on bail and is in the process of returning to Australia. Court documents filed by the US Justice Department indicate that he has accepted an agreement with Washington that will see the journalist enter a guilty plea to crimes under the Espionage Act.WikiLeaks published the following statement on X:“Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stanstead airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK. This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organizers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations. This created the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalized. We will provide more information as soon as possible. After more than five years in a 2×3 meter cell, isolated 23 hours a day, he will soon reunite with his wife, Stella Assange, and their children, who have only known their father from behind bars.”Court documents dated Tuesday that were filed in the district of the Northern Mariana Islands show Assange, in exchange for his freedom, will plead guilty to crimes that violated the Espionage Act.NBC News reports that the journalist will first be transferred from the UK’s Belmarsh Prison to the Pacific Island US territory. From there, he will enter a guilty plea and be sentenced to 62 months in prison, which he has already served. After the proceedings, Assange will return to Australia.The plea agreement ends an over-decade-long saga for the journalist that began in 2010 when he published troves of documents provided to him by Pvt. Chelsea Manning. Manning was convicted in 2013 under the Espionage Act and sentenced to 35 years in prison before President Obama reduced the term to seven years.In 2012, Assange entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid imprisonment in a US or UK jail, where he remained for seven years. In 2019, the US charged him with violations of the Espionage Act, and he was expelled from the embassy. From British courtrooms, Assange has spent the past five years battling Washington’s extradition request.The changes were historic as the US had previously only sought to criminally punish individuals who leak information, not the journalists who publish that information. Prior to the plea agreement, Assange was facing 175 years in prison.Civil rights groups have argued that charging publishers for violating the Espionage Act is a violation of the First Amendment. Receiving and publishing classified information is considered a standard journalistic practice.The journalist is 52 years-old and is suffering from multiple health issues. His supporters have warned that he would not survive American prison. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found in 2016 that Assange had been arbitrarily deprived of his freedom since his first arrest on December 7, 2010. In 2019, Nils Melzer, then the UN’s special rapporteur on torture, said Assange had been subjected to “psychological torture.”As the founder of WikiLeaks, Assange published some of the most important and revealing information about the crimes and corruption within the US government. The 2010 Cablegate leakers revealed a multitude of US war crimes committed during the Iraq and Afghan wars.Assange’s family and team are touting the plea agreement as a victory that came in part because of the tireless activism from his supporters.
Sexual assault allegations against U.S. troops in Japan prompt outrage -Two U.S. members of the armed services have been accused of sexual assault in Japan, spurring Japanese officials to speak out against what they have called troubling behavior. One U.S. airman is charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl in December while this month a Marine was accused of assaulting a woman and attempting to sexually assault her. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, who coordinates policy for the executive branch in Tokyo, said the cases are “deplorable.” “This should [be] taken very seriously,” he said at a Friday press briefing. The airman, 25-year-old Brennon Washington, was indicted in March on charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old-girl. Washington allegedly asked her to a park on the island of Okinawa in December and then invited her to his car. Washington then allegedly drove her to his home and sexually assaulted her, according to Japanese media. Okinawa hosts around 70 percent of U.S. bases in Japan. Okinawa Vice Gov. Takekuni Ikeda met on Thursday with Brig. Gen. Nicholas Evans, commander of the 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base, and the local U.S. consul to ensure measures were being taken to prevent further action. In a separate incident also in Okinawa, Marine Lance Cpl. Jamel Clayton, 21, was indicted this month for allegedly choking a woman and attempting to sexually assault her on May 26, Japanese media reported. Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki told local reporters on Friday that he was “outraged” by the alleged crimes. “A vile crime has come to light once again, causing strong concern to the people of Okinawa,” he said, according to remarks carried by several Japanese media outlets.
GOP chair rips new Pentagon chief of staff, urges Austin to ‘reconsider’ --Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) blasted new Pentagon Chief of Staff Derek Chollet as “absolutely unqualified” on Monday, urging Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to “reconsider” his pick for the No. 3 official in the department.Austin named Chollet, currently a senior State Department adviser, as the Pentagon’s new chief of staff earlier Monday, replacing the outgoing Kelly Magsamen. “He is absolutely unqualified for this position,” McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement first shared with Politico.“With the many national security threats this country is facing, we need real leadership at the Defense Department — and Derek Chollet is not that,” he continued. “I strongly urge the secretary to reconsider this move.”The chairman cited his committee’s investigation into the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, for which Chollet testified.“His lack of candor in my committee’s transcribed interview together with his flippant public remarks about his work at the State Department make it clear he is neither a serious person nor is he trustworthy,” McCaul said.Chollet was previously nominated to be the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy last year, though it has been stalled for months due to GOP opposition. Since an initial hearing in September, which featured a grueling questioning by skeptical Republicans, there have been no votes to advance his nomination. Cabinet officials lauded Chollet’s work in announcing his Pentagon move earlier Monday.“He is one of the most distinguished, far-sighted, and skillful national-security practitioners of his generation, and I am grateful to him for taking on this key assignment at such an important moment,” Austin said in a statement.
House Republican proposes barring defense funding for IVF, says it's 'morally wrong' --Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) proposed barring the use of defense funds for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.Rosendale filed an amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, his officeannounced Tuesday. The amendment states that the bill would defund “assisted reproductive technology that includes any infertility treatments or technologies including IVF to ensure human life is protected.”“While I feel for couples that are unable to have children, the practice of IVF is morally wrong, and I refuse to support any legislation that condones its use,” Rosendale said in a statement. “My amendment will strip funding for this practice, which is responsible for the destruction of life to the tune of hundreds of thousands of children a year.”The House is set to tackle a trio of spending bills this week for the fiscal 2025 government funding process. The measures will allocate funding for the departments of Homeland Security, State, Defense and Foreign Operations.All of the spending bills were opposed by Democrats during committee, so they likely face an uphill battle in the Democrat-controlled Senate.IVF has been in the national spotlight for months after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos were children, prompting many IVF providers to shutter their services at the time. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) later signed a bill that protected IVF providersfrom the ruling.Rosenberg’s proposed amendment comes less than two weeks after senators introduced competing bills regarding access to IVF.Democrats blocked an unanimous request from Republicans about IVF access earlier this month, saying the legislation proposed did not go far enough. Senate Republicans thenblocked a Democrat-led effort to codify a national right to IVF, which was sponsored by Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).Later Tuesday, the House Rules Committee approved a rule for the defense appropriations that did not include Rosendale’s amendment.He posted online saying he was “disappointed but not surprised.”
Border encounters down 25 percent after Biden asylum restrictions announced --Border officials are reporting significantly lower numbers of encounters with migrants between ports of entry at the southwest border, weeks after the Biden administration announced an asylum crackdown. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said Thursday that preliminary data since the announcement shows a 25 percent decrease in such encounters, but it warned that “migration flows are dynamic.” “Our enforcement efforts are continuing to reduce southwest border encounters. But the fact remains that our immigration system is not resourced for what we are seeing,” said Troy Miller, the acting commissioner of CBP. “The dedicated men and women of CBP will continue to prioritize national security and disrupt criminal networks, while maximizing consequences for unlawful entry, including detention, prosecution, and removal under recently announced executive actions to further secure the border.” If the decrease holds, it could be a political boost for President Biden — for years, Republicans have relentlessly attacked the president over his management of the border. Official CBP data from before the asylum crackdown shows encounters have plateaued since January at levels similar to or slightly below the average for late winter and spring throughout the Biden administration. Temporary dips in migration are not uncommon after major border policy announcements. For instance, Border Patrol encounters dropped 40 percent from May to June 2023, after the Biden administration terminated the pandemic-inspired summary expulsion policy known as Title 42. Most border experts associate those temporary drops with a wait-and-see approach by migrants and smugglers, who hold back on certain crossings while new U.S. policies are tested. Under Biden’s asylum rule, most migrants encountered between ports of entry are not screened for asylum claims, and they can be subject to quick expulsion to Mexico, accelerated deportation procedures to their home country and criminal and administrative consequences. The asylum rule does not apply to migrants who enter the United States at ports of entry through established programs such as appointments on the CBP One app.
Biden administration awards $1.8 billion for 148 infrastructure projects -- The Biden administration on Wednesday announced it has awarded $1.8 billion in grants for 148 infrastructure projects across the U.S. The grants come from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program, which was expanded due to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The total amount of grants for these types of projects from the Biden administration reached 550 total with the announcement. The infrastructure law, which is one of President Biden’s top legislative accomplishments, added $1.5 billion a year to the already-appropriated funds for RAISE project grants. “After decades of underinvestment, the condition of America’s infrastructure is now finally getting better instead of worse — and today we proudly announce our support for 148 more projects in communities of every size across the country,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. Buttigieg announced in June 2023 that the Biden administration had awarded more than $2.2 billion from the RAISE program to 162 infrastructure projects. The announcement on Wednesday comes just months ahead of the November election, and Biden and surrogates are expected to tout the funding for projects in both red states and blue states on the trail. The Transportation Department received over $13 billion in requests for the funding this year and noted that the demand has outpaced available funds. The $1.8 billion awarded will fund $12 million for a project to restore about 45 miles of the Alaska Highway impacted by thawing permafrost and other climate change-related degradation and over $23.5 million for a project to replace bus fleets in Maine with electric buses. It will also fund $25 million to reconstruct a California rail crossing, nearly $23 million to develop roads in Florida, nearly $25 million to construct a foot bring in Pennsylvania, and over $21.2 million to reconstruct a wharf in Puerto Rico. Additionally, it will fund over $20.7 million for a project in Michigan to connect communities and over $12 million in North Carolina to improve intersections along bus routes, among other projects.
Casar leads congressional effort for Texas grid expansion -- Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) on Monday led 22 members of Congress in requesting that the Department of Energy add Texas to the areas serviced by proposed federal corridors for electrical transmission. In May, the department announced 10 proposed National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETCs) that, if implemented, could make federal funds available to expand grid capability in those areas. However, Texas, which relies on the self-contained Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), was not among the proposed sites. “The United States needs a 21st-century electric grid [and] you can’t have a 21st-centutry electric grid with a giant hole in the middle of it in the shape of Texas,” Casar told The Hill in an interview. “The earlier list of corridors selected continues to exclude Texas, and that needs to change. That’s why we’re asking the Department of Energy in their next list to include adding transmission in and around the state of Texas.” Casar is a longtime advocate of integrating ERCOT into the national grid, and co-sponsored a bill to that effect with Ocasio-Cortez. In the interview, he pointed to recent research from MIT suggesting that such a law could have prevented 80 percent of the blackouts caused in 2021, when extreme winter weather hit Texas. He cited both that weather and the recent extreme heat that has enveloped much of the U.S. as arguments in favor of the grid expansion. “Texas is the energy capital of the country — when there are extreme temperatures around Texas, Texas should be able to export its energy to reduce blackouts, and when there’s extreme heat in Texas we should be able to import power so we don’t have blackouts,” he said. “By helping each other out, we’re all better off instead of having Texas as this island.” TAGS DELIA RAMIREZ
Business fumes as Democrats blast GOP for blocking corporate tax credits - Senate Democrats say Senate Republicans are blocking an expansion of the child tax credit and a package of corporate tax credits, even though business groups are clamoring for its passage, because they want to deny President Biden a legislative victory five months before Election Day.It’s the second time this year presidential politics have created a rift between Senate Republicans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, two of the biggest business trade groups in Washington.Earlier this year, Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly to block a bipartisan border security deal that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed and the Business Roundtable applauded — along with the National Border Patrol Council and The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page — after former President Trump told allies on Capitol Hill he didn’t want to give Biden a win on border security.Democrats say Republicans again are blocking a major bipartisan initiative to help Trump.“The business community still really wants that; we really want it. It’s all presidential politics — they don’t want to give Biden a win. That’s 100 percent what it is,” a senior Senate Democrat said of the Senate Republican opposition to the House-passed Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024.The senator said Senate Democrats are stepping up their efforts to break through the Senate GOP blockade.The package would restore research and development expensing for businesses, which lapsed in 2022.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has urged the Senate to approve the package, which theHouse passed at the end of January, and warned that if research and development expensing were not restored retroactively, it would “result in irreversible harm to U.S. innovation and competitiveness.”The Business Roundtable has also urged the Senate “to approve this essential legislation and send it to the president’s desk.”Joshua Bolten, the CEO of the Business Roundtable, said it would “boost business investment at home, create American jobs and strengthen U.S. competitiveness.”The bill also enhanced the child tax credit to help low-income families cope with inflation and boosted tax relief for the victims of natural and man-made disasters, such as the 2023 toxic rail derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said he agrees with his Democratic colleagues’ view that Senate Republicans have blocked the tax package to help Trump’s chances of victory by denying Biden a legislative win.Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), a senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, told a reporter earlier this year Senate Republicans didn’t want to make Biden “look good” and boost his chances of reelection.And he expressed his concern that Biden’s reelection would wipe out any chance of renewing Trump’s 2017 tax cuts before they expire at the end of next year. “Passing a tax bill that makes the president look good, mailing out checks before the election, means he could be reelected and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax cuts,” Grassley told Semafor the same day the House passed the tax bill.
Democrat probes 18 oil companies after FTC collusion accusations -Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is probing 18 oil and gas companies after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused the former CEO of firm Pioneer Natural Resources of colluding with foreign oil producers last month. Whitehouse, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, asked the companies for copies of any communications with the foreign oil powers, known collectively as OPEC, related to oil production or prices. The senator particularly cited FTC’s accusation that Pioneer’s Scott Sheffield “sought to align oil production across the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico” with that of OPEC and its allies. Pioneer was not among the firms he reached out to, but ExxonMobil, with which Pioneer is slated to merge, was. “In view of the findings against Sheffield, I seek to understand whether other oil producers operating in the United States may also have been coordinating with OPEC and OPEC+ representatives,” Whitehouse wrote. Lawyers for Sheffield say he was “unjustly smeared” by the antitrust agency. Democrats have repeatedly accused fossil fuel companies of price gouging, which the industry has denied. This latest line of inquiry from Whitehouse comes after he recently accused major oil firms and lobby groups of promoting disinformation about climate change.
US pledges to be a climate finance leader but defends gas expansion - The US will “continue to be a leader” in climate finance, the White House’s top climate official has promised, though without specifying how much it would provide to poor countries.John Podesta, senior adviser to Joe Biden on international climate policy, also defended the large-scale US expansion of gas production, saying the world was fortunate America was strengthening its supply, given the demand for non-Russian sources after the invasion of Ukraine.“The US is in a position to be a leader in the effort [to supply climate finance to the poorer world],” he said in an interview on Monday. “We intend to continue the leadership and be very aggressive in the negotiations during the course of this year.”He pointed to the chasm on the issue between Biden and Donald Trump, his challenger for president this November, who is expected to rein back on US climate commitments if elected.“Obviously, there’s a difference of views reflected in the two principal candidates running for president,” said Podesta, who took over as chief adviser on the climate after John Kerry stepped down earlier this year. “President Biden is committed to not only doing what we need to do to cut our own emissions in half, but also support the world as it’s moving towards a more sustainable pathway.”He would not say whether the US would commit greater sums to climate finance, but said it was on track to meet Biden’s commitment to provide $11bn, a target that campaigners and developing countries have said is woefully inadequate given the size of the US economy and its responsibility for past emissions, but is many times greater than the $1.5bn on offer under Trump in his previous term.Podesta defended the huge US expansion of oil and gas production, which has come in spite of its climate targets, and the recent US decision to slap tariffs on many green goods from China, including electric vehicles.“The US is now the number one producer of oil and gas in the world, the number one exporter of natural gas, and that’s a good thing, because following the illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the need that Europe had to rely on different sources rather than Russia fossils, it was important that the US could step up and supply a good deal of that need,” he said. “But over time, the science is clear, we’ve got to transition away and begin to replace those resources with both zero carbon electricity and renewable resources.”
Trump Says Clean Energy Is a Scam. That Could Benefit China, Experts Say. - In the race for the White House, former President Donald J. Trump has attacked President Biden’s policies to expand renewable energy as a “plan to make China rich” because America’s greatest economic rival also controls many of the parts needed for electric-vehicle batteries, solar panels and other green technology.But eliminating Mr. Biden’s climate policies would end up helping China, economists say, by jeopardizing hundreds of billions of dollars in manufacturing investments that have already been made in the United States and sending that work back to other countries, including China.“If America chooses as a matter of political decision to go backward on the green transition, it won’t stop the global process because that’s already underway,” said Stuart P.M. Mackintosh, an economist and author of the book “Climate Crisis Economics.” “From a manufacturing perspective, you’re just ensuring the Chinese edge in these technologies continues to get wider.”Mr. Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax,” has targeted “every one” of Mr. Biden’s policies designed to transition the United States away from fossil fuels. That includes regulations to encourage electric vehicles and solar and wind energy while cracking down on pollution from coal-burning power plants and restricting oil drilling on public lands and in federal waters. The former president has also promised to withdraw the United States from global agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Mr. Biden, who considers global warming an existential threat, helped Democrats in Congress to muscle through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The law invests at least $370 billion in tax incentives for companies that build wind turbines, solar cells, transformers and batteries used in electric vehicles. It also provides tax credits to people who install solar panels or buy electric induction stoves, heat pumps and electric vehicles.Last month, Mr. Trump told a crowd in Wisconsin that he would “terminate” what he referred to as “all new spending grants and giveaways under the Joe Biden mammoth socialist bills like the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.”
Anna Paulina Luna to force vote on sergeant-at-arms detaining Merrick Garland -- Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) will move within days to force a vote on having the House sergeant-at-arms forcibly bring Attorney General Merrick Garland before the House by holding him in “inherent contempt” over his refusal to turn over audio of President Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur. Luna sent a letter to her colleagues Monday saying she will call up her inherent contempt resolution “in the next few days.” When she raises the question of privilege, leaders will have to schedule action on the resolution within two legislative days.Her move follows House Republicans holding Garland in contempt of Congress earlier this month over his refusal to provide audio recordings from Biden’s October interview with Hur about his handling of classified documents, which Republicans had subpoenaed. The Justice Department provided a written transcript of the conversation, and Biden has claimed executive privilege over the tapes.“Under inherent contempt, the individual is brought before the bar of the House by the Sergeant at Arms, tried by the body, and can then be detained either in the Capitol or in D.C.,” Luna wrote in the letter, obtained by The Hill. “This process demonstrates the seriousness with which Congress views non-compliance and the potential consequences for those who refuse to cooperate.”The Justice Department declined to comment on Luna’s plans.Inherent contempt hasn’t been used in nearly 100 years, and doing so would raise a number of questions. There are no guidelines or House rules for next steps for the sergeant-at-arms or the House, nor is there a protocol for an arrest of a Cabinet official protected by an FBI detail. House rules state that “the recalcitrant witness may be arrested and brought to trial before the bar of the House, with the offender facing possible incarceration,” but do not go into additional detail. A 2019 Congressional Research Service report described inherent contempt as a potentially powerful threat, but also a “cumbersome, inefficient” tool. Luna had long forecast her plans to force the vote. She filed her inherent contempt resolution in early May and promised to force a vote on it within 10 days of the other contempt resolution passing out of committee if the Justice Department did not act to produce the Biden-Hur audio.“The only option to ensure compliance with our subpoena is to use our constitutional authority of inherent contempt. In the next few days, I will call up my resolution holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in inherent contempt of Congress, and I look forward to each of you voting in favor of it,” Luna said in her letter. “The urgency of this situation cannot be overstated. Our ability to legislate effectively and fulfill our constitutional duties is at stake. We must act now to protect the integrity and independence of the legislative branch.”All but one Republican voted earlier this month to hold Garland in contempt, a resolution that acts as a referral to the Department of Justice, which then weighs whether any criminal charges are warranted.The department announced just days after the vote that it would not pursue any contempt charges for Garland, noting precedent across administrations of both parties not to bring charges against officials when a president has claimed executive privilege over the materials. Garland earlier this month was critical of the House after it voted to approve the contempt resolution, accusing Republicans of using contempt as a “partisan weapon.”“It is deeply disappointing that this House of Representatives has turned a serious congressional authority into a partisan weapon. Today’s vote disregards the constitutional separation of powers, the Justice Department’s need to protect its investigations, and the substantial amount of information we have provided to the Committees,” Garland said in a statement after the vote.
House Republicans propose contempt for Biden ghostwriter - The House Judiciary Committee is set to weigh a contempt referral for President Biden's ghostwriter, seeking to tee up criminal charges after failing to secure audio of the president’s interviews.The committee subpoenaed Mark Zwonitzer in March after requesting both the ghostwriter’snotes and audio recordings of his conversations with Biden. “Special Counsel Hur’s report unequivocally provides that ‘During many of the interviews with his ghostwriter, Biden read from his notebooks nearly verbatim, sometimes for an hour or more at a time,’ and ‘at least three times Biden read classified notes from national security meetings to [you] nearly verbatim.’ Based on the information in Special Counsel Hur’s report, President Biden’s assertion that he never shared classified information with you appears to be false,” Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote in February when initially requesting the information.It’s not clear however that Zwonitzer would be able to fully comply with the subpoena.Hur’s report notes that Zwonitzer deleted the audio recordings from his computer once the investigation was announced, with law enforcement ultimately recovering the audio files. He did, however, retain the transcripts.“The material sought by the subpoena does not relate to any legislative interest as set out by the committee. The materials, as referenced in Special Counsel’s Report, and cited in the Committee’s letters, are almost all, if not all, personal in nature, and could not possibly assist in formulating future legislation,” Zwonitzer’s attorney wrote in an April response to Jordan reviewed by The Hill.“To the extent that Mr. Zwonitzer provided materials or documents to Special Counsel, as you reference in your letters, we suggest that the production of the materials you now seek from Mr. Zwonitzer, is a matter to be resolved between the Committees and the Department of Justice.”Zwonitzer’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Hur did not recommend criminal charges for Zwonitzer, writing that “the evidence falls short of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Zwonitzer intended to impede an investigation.” The move comes after House Republicans voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for failing to turn over audio tapes of Biden’s conversation with special counsel Robert Hur. If advanced by the committee, the contempt resolution for Zwonitzer would then move to the full House. Even if it is approved on the floor, however, it would simply act as a referral to the Department of Justice, which must then weigh whether to pursue criminal charges.
White House accuses Jim Jordan of effort to 'harass' President Biden ghostwriter - The White House on Tuesday accused House Judiciary Committee Republicans of working “to harass and intimidate a private citizen” after they scheduled a meeting to consider a contempt referral for President Biden’s ghostwriter. The House Judiciary Committee plans to meet Thursday to mark up a resolution to hold Mark Zwonitzer in contempt of Congress after he failed to turn over audio tapes and notes from his interviews with Biden. In a letter to Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Edward Siskel, counsel to the president, argues that Zwonitzer is not in a position to comply with the request as “there are significant Executive Branch interests at stake.” “The Committee’s actions are an obvious example of the very weaponization of government for political purposes that you claim to decry. Putting a private citizen in your political crosshairs and threatening him with criminal prosecution, simply because you refuse to engage with the Executive Branch, is out of bounds,” Siskel wrote in a letter obtained by The Hill. “If you were sincerely interested in examining the handling of classified information, you would engage with the Executive Branch, not a private citizen with no authority related to classified information.” The committee did not respond to a request for comment.
These 1,941 historic Ted Cruz emails show how Washington works -Few public records reveal as much about the work of government officials as their emails.Consider the 1,941 emails Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) wrote and received over six months in 2001 while he was associate deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice. These were recently released to The Washington Post in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.Cruz’s emails offer a real-time, unvarnished view into his professionallife as his political star rose. The correspondence portrays Cruz as a jovial and well-liked colleague, helps explain how Justice Departmentpolicy sausage was made, and shows how Cruz helped — and was helped by — political connections. Because of Cruz’s prominence as a U.S. senator and as a 2016presidential candidate, I requested these emails in April 2022 after I noticed the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA, noted on its website that his emails had been accessioned — or formally transferred — to the archives from the Justice Department. Some of Cruz’s power as a networker stemmed from the clout of his former boss, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. At the Supreme Court, Cruz clerked for Rehnquist during the 1996 term and remained active in an email thread among his former clerk colleagues, who referred to Rehnquist as “El Jefe” in their exchanges.From his Justice Department email account, Cruz also promoted the Federalist Society, a Washington-based conservative legal organization. When a colleague asked about getting involved with the group, Cruzeffused: “Call Leonard Leo … He’s the Director of the Lawyers’ Division, and a very good guy. He’s a friend; tell him I suggested you call.”Leo is now the co-chairman and former executive vice president of the Federalist Society, often credited with helping establish a right-leaning majority on the Supreme Court.The Post contacted Cruz to generally describe the emails and ask for comment. In response, a spokesman said, “Sen. Cruz has often advocated for records of various administration officials to be made public, because this is one of the key ways for the American people to understand what is happening in Washington and to hold bureaucrats accountable.” Government emails can be difficult to obtain through FOIA. Generally, a requester needs to specify the desired emails in a way that enables an agency to search for them, often within a program like Microsoft Outlook. This means the requester usually needs to provide the name of the email account or inbox to be searched, the general dates of the emails, who sent the emails, and some keywords contained within the emails. Even when agencies locate responsive emails, they often claim abroad swath of exemptions that render the emails a Swiss cheese of redactions.
Report: US Government Spies on Thousands of Americans' Mail Every Year - The US Postal Service (USPS) has been spying on thousands of Americans’ mail every year for a decade, including letters and parcels, and provided citizens’ information to police and elements of the national security apparatus, a Washington Post investigation found. Tens of thousands of requests have been submitted to the USPS since 2015.Following such requests from the IRS, FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other agencies, the USPS has shared names, addresses, and other findings from the exteriors of Americans’ packages and envelopes without court orders. The surveillance system is known as the “mail covers program,” ostensibly used to track down suspects or evidence.However, the investigation reads, “a decade’s worth of records, provided exclusively to The Washington Post in response to a congressional probe, show Postal Service officials have received more than 60,000 requests from federal agents and police officers since 2015, and that they rarely say no. Each request can cover days or weeks of mail sent to or from a person or address, and 97 percent of the requests were approved, according to the data. Postal inspectors recorded more than 312,000 letters and packages between 2015 and 2023, the records show.”In the past, the USPS has declined to reveal how often it grants the requests, arguing in a 2015 audit that it would harm the technique’s effectiveness by “altering criminals” to how it works. Although, in that audit, USPS conceded it had green-lit almost 160,000 requests from postal inspectors and officials in law enforcement, with the IRS, FBI, and DHS topping the list.Last May, eight senators, including Rand Paul (R-KY), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), submitted a letter imploring the USPS’ law enforcement arm, the US Inspection Service, to require a federal judge’s approval for the requests as well as to expose more details regarding the program. Officials chose to “provide this surveillance service and to keep postal customers in the dark about the fact that they have been subjected to monitoring,” the senators wrote.This month, Gary Barksdale, the chief postal inspector, refused to change the policy but furnished “nearly a decade’s worth of data showing that postal inspectors, federal agencies, and state and local police forces made an average of about 6,700 requests a year, and that inspectors additionally recorded data from about another 35,000 pieces of mail a year,” the Postreports.Barksdale argues that the practice has been authorized since 1879, the year after a Supreme Court ruling prohibited government officials from opening American citizens’ mail without first obtaining a warrant. He declares “there is no reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to information contained on the outside of mail matter.” Whereas the senators emphasized in their letter last year that the exteriors of mail contain a myriad of personal and sensitive information such as with whom American citizens are corresponding, places of worship they attend, the bills they’re paying, social causes to which they contribute, as well as what political views they hold.In 1978, a circuit court judge determined that mail covers betray deeply personal information “in a manner unobtainable even through surveillance of [citizens’] movements,” thus rendering “the subject’s life an open book.”Subsequent to these fresh disclosures, Sen. Wyden stated “These new statistics show that thousands of Americans are subjected to warrantless surveillance each year, and that the Postal Inspection Service rubber stamps practically all of the requests they receive… [the US Inspection Service is] refusing to raise its standards and require law enforcement agencies monitoring the outside of Americans’ mail to get a court order, which is already required to monitor emails and texts.”
Advocates blast House for holding Kids Online Safety Act ‘hostage’ - Advocates pushing for social media regulations to keep kids safe online blasted the House for cancelling a Thursday markup of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) amid opposition to a separate data privacy bill also slated to be considered. A House Energy and Commerce Committee markup of 11 bills, including KOSA and the American Privacy Rights Act, was cancelled Thursday shortly before it was scheduled to begin after House Republican leaders strongly resisted the privacy bill. Child online safety advocates slammed the decision to cancel the markup and said Congress should take action on KOSA separate from other tech bills, including the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA). “To me this is hostage taking,” said Josh Golin, executive director of the advocacy group Fairplay for Kids. “[The committee] could have marked up KOSA without APRA,” Golin added, noting that Congress has been “trying for decades” to pass a comprehensive data privacy bill. “There’s no reason why families should have to wait for that in order to have a safer internet,” Golin added. KOSA would create regulations for how social media companies operate for minors and has gained momentum after years of hearings featuring tech company CEOs and whistleblowers about the harms social media has on youth mental health. The bill would require companies to limit access or allow minors to opt out of certain features, like automatic video playing and algorithmic recommendations, and also legally obligate the platforms to prevent the promotion of content about certain topics, such as suicide, eating disorders and self-harm. The bill faced opposition from some civil society groups who feared the duty of care standard could be interpreted in a way that could limit teens from accessing information about gender identity, sexuality and reproductive health. The text of the bill has been updated in response to concerns raised, and in February several LGBTQ advocacy groups, including GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign, withdrew their opposition.
Courts block parts of Biden student loan repayment plan - Two federal judges in Missouri and Kansas halted sections of a Biden administration initiative intended to lower student loan payments, raising questions for the millions of Americans impacted by the program.In Kansas, Judge Michael Crabtree ruled that the Department of Education can’t enact the full scope of the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) program. Program participants with undergraduate student loan debt were scheduled to see their payments half next month, from 10 percent to 5 percent of their income 225 percent above the poverty line.Crabtree, an Obama appointee, said the department did not get explicit authority for that portion of the program from Congress.That challenge was led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R) and joined by 11 other Republican states. Crabtree ruled earlier this month that eight of the 12 states did not have standing in the case, leaving only Alaska, Texas and South Carolina.In Missouri, Judge John Ross—also an Obama appointee—ruled that the Department of Education cannot forgive any loans under SAVE, finding that forgiving federal loans illegally deprives state loan operators of revenue.Five other states joined Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s (R) challenge. The argument is the same that the Supreme Court sided with in ruling against President Biden’s initial attempt at mass student loan forgiveness.“Congress never gave Biden the authority to saddle working Americans with half-a-trillion dollars in other people’s debt. A huge win for the Constitution,” Bailey wrote in a social media post on X.Ross also remarked that SAVE may be too broad to fit under its Congressional mandate, leaving the door open to future challenges over the entire program’s legality.SAVE has canceled over $5.5 billion in debt for over 400,000 borrowers since its inception, as Biden attempted to maneuver around the Supreme Court block of his more sizable forgiveness plan. More than 8 million people have enrolled.The program is Biden’s marquis student loan forgiveness policy, though is separate from efforts to cancel debt of public sector workers and for those defrauded by for-profit schools.SAVE will continue to operate as the two lawsuits continue to be litigated, though Monday’s ruling effectively freezes the program’s extent and pauses all future loan forgiveness.
Judges block much of Biden’s limited student loan relief program On Monday parts of US President Joe Biden’s limited student loan relief plan called Save on a Valuable Education (SAVE) were blocked by two separate court injunctions. The preliminary injunctions in Kansas and Missouri were in response to lawsuits filed by two groups of Republican-led states that challenged the legality of the SAVE program launched by the Biden administration in August 2023. In Kansas, US District Judge Daniel Crabtree blocked the implementation of the final segment of the SAVE plan which would have cut monthly payments on undergraduate student loans in half beginning in July. Repayment of loans under this part of the SAVE program is based on income. Undergraduate debt payments were scheduled to be reduced from 10 percent to 5 percent of income above 225 percent of the federal poverty line. This meant, for example, a household of two people earning a combined $60,000 per year would have $44,370 of their income protected and their monthly repayments would have gone down from $130.25 to $65.13 per month on July 1. Graduate students would have their payments capped at 10 percent of the poverty line calculation. Payments on these SAVE plans would continue for 20 or 25 years at which point the balance of the debt would be forgiven. In his ruling, Judge Crabtree said that three of the eleven states which challenged SAVE—Alaska, Texas and South Carolina—had adequately shown that President Biden overstepped his authority in creating the program without authorization by Congress. The coalition of states was led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and their lawsuit claimed the debt relief program could harm tax revenue in the states. In Missouri, US District Judge John Ross blocked Biden’s Department of Education from forgiving any more loans through the SAVE plan. Led by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, six states said that their respective student loan management serving entities would suffer revenue losses when student debts are wiped clean. Judge Ross also said Congress did not authorize the repayment plan as far-reaching as Biden’s SAVE program. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that SAVE will cost the federal government $230 billion over the next ten years. Both judges who ruled in favor of the Republican-led legal effort to shut down Biden’s very limited student loan relief program were appointed by Democrat Barack Obama, Judge Crabtree in 2014 and Judge Ross in 2011. Responding to the preliminary injunctions, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that it was “unfortunate” that Republicans and “their allies have fought tooth and nail” to block the SAVE program and that “courts are now rejecting authority that the Department has applied repeatedly for decades to improve income-driven repayment plans.” So far, there are 8 million people enrolled in the income-based SAVE repayment plan and 414,000 student loan borrowers have had their debts forgiven entirely. The injunctions do not impact any forgiveness that has already been granted. The injunctions have put more than 43 million people who owe on student loans worth more than $1.7 trillion in limbo. As Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, told the Washington Post, “Today two different gangs of right-wing attorneys general got exactly what they were looking for from federal judges in Kansas and Missouri: a recipe for chaos across the student loan system.”
Parts of student debt forgiveness plan halted: What you need to know — In yet another blow to the Biden administration’s attempts to provide student debt relief to Americans, two federal judges have halted parts of an income-driven repayment plan set to take effect next week.Various benefits related to the SAVE Plan were set to take effect on Monday, July 1. That included cutting payments on some loans in half and granting borrowers credit toward forgiveness for certain bouts of deferment and forbearance. Many borrowers on the SAVE Plan were also scheduled to skip a payment in July thanks to a “brief processing forbearance.”Two injunctions handed down by federal judges on Monday appear to be putting those plans in jeopardy. In one ruling, a Kansas judge determined the Education Department cannot enact the full scope of the SAVE Plan because it did not receive authority from Congress to do so, The Hill previously reported. In the other, a Missouri judge ruled the department can’t forgive any loans under the SAVE Plan because it illegally deprives state loan operators of revenue. These orders, each by a judge appointed by former President Barack Obama, stem from two lawsuits in which the suing states sought to invalidate the entire SAVE program. ? The determinations do not impact the roughly 400,000 borrowers who have seen over $5.5 billion in debt forgiveness under the plan already.Other borrowers on the SAVE Plan may not be as lucky. The assistance they are already receiving through the program is unaffected while other benefits seemingly are.As part of the Kansas ruling, the Education Department won’t be allowed to implement parts of the SAVE program meant to help students who had larger loans and could have their monthly payments lowered and their required payment period reduced from 25 years to 20 years. The order from the Missouri judge says the Education Department can’t forgive loan balances going forward but could still lower monthly payments. For now, the Biden administration cannot forgive any more debt for borrowers on the SAVE Plan, and cannot cut payments for borrowers as planned in July. It’s also currently unclear whether the “brief processing forbearance” many borrowers were told they would be placed into for July will still happen. The orders are preliminary, meaning the injunctions imposed by the judges would remain in effect through a trial of the separate lawsuits. However, to issue a temporary order each judge had to conclude that the states were likely to prevail in a trial.That also means it’s too soon to say what longer-term impact the injunctions will have on the SAVE Plan.The White House said it strongly disagrees with the judges’ rulings and would continue to defend the program, and use every available tool to give relief to students and borrowers.In a statement, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration “will never stop fighting for students and borrowers — no matter how many roadblocks Republican elected officials and special interests put in our way.” On Tuesday, she said the Department of Justice will appeal both decisions. The Federal Student Aid office of the Department of Education notes that it is “assessing the rulings.” Officials also explain that these injunctions do not prohibit borrowers from enrolling in the SAVE Plan.“The Biden-Harris Administration’s SAVE Plan is the most affordable repayment plan in history,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement Tuesday. “But Republican elected officials and special interests sued to block their own constituents from being able to benefit from this plan – even though the Department has relied on the authority under the Higher Education Act three times over the last 30 years to implement income-driven repayment plans.”More than 8 million borrowers have enrolled in the SAVE Plan since it launched last summer.
Exclusive: US Treasury, USAID call in development banks for urgent talks on extreme heat (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Agency for International Development are calling leaders of multilateral development banks into an urgent meeting on extreme heat and its devastating impact on developing countries, according to Treasury officials.The private, virtual meeting on Thursday morning - the first of its kind - is aimed at finding ways to shift more resources to help countries build climate resilience and adaptation to reduce extreme heat damage amid a summer of record temperatures globally, the Treasury officials told Reuters.While investments to fight climate change have increased dramatically in recent years, much of that growth has gone towards the transition to clean energy sources and reducing carbon emissions, not in helping countries adapt to the harmful impacts, including more severe droughts, wildfires, violent storms and rising ocean levels.As heat waves grip the world and claim at least hundreds of lives, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will use the meeting to tie the urgent needs of developing countries hardest hit by high temperatures to broader work that multilateral development banks are doing to increase their lending capacity to help fight climate change and other global crises."Extreme weather events, including heat waves, continue to become increasingly severe and frequent, from the East Coast of the United States to India," Yellen said in remarks to the banks seen by Reuters. "Mitigating and responding to these events, and addressing climate change more generally, is a key priority for the Treasury Department."Yellen will tell the World Bank and its sister institutions that they should link temperature increases to their assessments of developing countries' climate resilience and adaptation.USAID Administrator Samantha Power, who in March launched a summit and an "action hub” to focus international donor attention on the issue, said that of 400 projects funded by the climate investment funds, only seven dealt directly with extreme heat."The multilateral development banks are our only hope of securing enough funding to directly address the scale of the extreme heat crisis," she said, adding that rising temperatures were likely killing tens of thousands of people each year and are estimated to cost the global economy $2.4 trillion by 2030.
Democratic senator calls on HHS to investigate PBMs blocking access to generic cancer drug - Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) wants the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to investigate why a low-cost generic cancer drug isn’t widely available to patients. In a letter sent to HHS Tuesday shared first with The Hill, Rosen questioned why Medicare patients pay $3,000 a month for abiraterone, a generic oral drug used as part of prostate cancer treatment, when a version that costs $171 is also on the market. The drug is sold by CivicaScript, a nonprofit that works with manufacturers to develop a drug and then partners with insurers, pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to sell it to patients at a fraction of the price it would cost otherwise. The cost of the drug from Civica is $160, with a suggested final price to the consumer of $171. But the drug is only available to a limited number of patients, according to Rosen and Civica. Rosen asked HHS to investigate and identify the “market barriers” preventing widespread access to abiraterone, as well other low-cost drugs being blocked from patient access. Abiraterone is considered a “specialty drug,” meaning only specialty pharmacies can dispense it. Many PBMs run their own specialty pharmacies and earn money from dispensing expensive drugs, so there’s a financial incentive for them not to participate with Civica. Only one the three largest PBM-owned specialty pharmacies have purchased or dispensed Civica’s version of abiraterone, and only in small quantities, according to Civica. “A cancer diagnosis is already difficult enough for patients to navigate with the best of care, but it is unacceptable for an approved low-cost treatment to be limited to the point that patients cannot easily access the treatment or the benefit from the cost savings,” Rosen wrote.
Donald Trump says he will not block access to mifepristone -Former President Trump said Thursday he would not block access to the abortion pill mifepristone if he returned to the White House. “The Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill, and I agree with their decision to have done that, and I will not block it,” Trump said during the CNN presidential debate in Atlanta when asked if he would block abortion medication. It’s the most explicit the former president has been to date on the issue of mifepristone and access to the abortion pill, as he’s largely avoided the topic. Trump’s remarks also came on the same day that the Supreme Court ruled that emergency abortions could continue in Idaho in hospitals that receive federal funding. The high court ruled earlier this month that it would separately uphold access to the abortion pill. Trump has said he would not support federal restrictions on abortion, and he has argued that the issue should be left up to the states. At the same time, the former president has taken credit for the overturning of Roe v. Wade after he nominated three conservative justices that would form the majority opinion in overturning the 1973 landmark decision. Trump reiterated some of these views while on the debate stage against President Biden. Trump has largely sought to carefully maneuver around the issue given it’s been an energizing issue for Democrats.
DOJ charges 193 people in $2.75 billion health care fraud operation --Almost 200 people have been charged in a nationwide operation probing false health care claims involving approximately $2.75 billion in losses, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.Under its 2024 National Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action, the DOJ filed charges against 193 defendants, including 76 doctors, nurse practitioners and other licensed medical professionals in 32 different federal districts across the country.The DOJ said in a nationwide law enforcement action, the government seized “over $231 million in cash, luxury vehicles, gold, and other assets.”“It does not matter if you are a trafficker in a drug cartel or a corporate executive or medical professional employed by a health care company, if you profit from the unlawful distribution of controlled substances, you will be held accountable,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.According to the DOJ, the charges allege that five individuals and a digital technology company participated in a more than $900-million fraud scheme in Arizona in connection with amniotic wound grafts, the unlawful distribution of Adderall pills and other stimulants.Prosecutors allege two owners of a wound care company accepted more than $330 million as part of a plan to fraudulently bill Medicare for wound grafts. Nurse practitioners were pressured to apply the wound grafts to patients who didn’t need them, including some people in hospice who died the day they received that care, The Associated Press reported.The married owners of the company, Alexandra Gehrke and Jeffrey King, were arrested at the Phoenix airport before boarding a flight to London earlier this month. Officials say they knew the charges were coming because information was found in their home about erasing digital footprints, the AP reported. The DOJ also alleges corporate executives committed a $90 million fraud scheme by distributing adulterated and wrongfully branded HIV medication, more than $146 million in fake addiction treatment schemes, more than $1.1 billion in telemedicine and laboratory fraud, as well as $450 million in other health care fraud and opioid schemes.
Nancy Pelosi asks if John Roberts has 'gone rogue' like Alito, Thomas -- Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) lambasted the Supreme Court amid its ethics controversies, raising the question of whether Chief Justice John Roberts has “gone rogue.” Asked in an interview on CNN whether she has confidence in the high court, Pelosi said, “No.” “I think they’ve gone rogue,” she replied. “It’s most unfortunate.” “But it’s unfortunate further to see what the other justices … what happened to the chief justice? Did he go weak? Or, did he go rogue? I don’t know,” Pelosi added. The Supreme Court has faced increased scrutiny over the past year following a series of reports detailing various undisclosed luxury trips, gifts and questionable extrajudicial activities involving multiple justices. The reports sparked interest in congressional oversight of the justices’ behavior and the gifts they accept. Senate Democrats in particular have repeatedly pushed for legislation to increase oversight of the nation’s high court. The pressure ramped up after reports surfaced about a pair of flags flown over Alito’s homes, including an upside-down American flag over his Alexandria, Va., residence in the days surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and President Biden’s inauguration. “No, I don’t have confidence in the Supreme Court,” Pelosi continued. “See, I respect their point of view. If they have a point of view about a woman’s right to choose, OK. But that’s not what they’re there to do. To advocate for a point of view, run for Congress. They’re there to uphold the Constitution of the United States.” “And many of them said in their hearings for confirmation, they said that they supported the precedents of the court … [and] supported the privacy in the Constitution,” the California Democrat continued. “And what do they do? They vote their opinion on policy rather than the oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the United States.”
Supreme Court Tosses Case Over Biden Coercion Of Social Media · The Supreme Court on Wednesday tossed a case claiming that the Biden administration unlawfully coerced social media companies into removing content and banning users based on political views.In a 6-3 decision, the Court found that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue - as opposed to tossing the case on merit - just like the vast majority of election fraud cases which didn't make it past lower courts. Clearly it was easier to punt this one than focus on the mountain of evidence that the Biden administration and US intelligence agencies were directly pressuring social media platforms to censor free speech disfavorable to the regime. GOP attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, along with five social media users, filed the underlying lawsuit claiming that US government officials exceeded their authority by pressuring social media platforms to moderate content. The individual plaintiffs include Harvard's Martin Kulldorff and Stanford's Jay Bhattacharya, as well as Gateway Pundit owner Jim Hoft. Justice Alito wrote the dissenting opinion and was joined by Thomas and Gorsuch. "For months, high-ranking Government officials placed unrelenting pressure on Facebook to suppress Americans' free speech. Because the Court unjustifiably refuses to address this serious threat to…https://t.co/qhwL5wGuI3 — Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) June 26, 2024 The laws sought to prevent social media companies from banning users based on their political views, even if users violate platform policies. The lawsuit included various claims relating to activities that occurred in 2020 and before, including efforts to deter the spread of false information about Covid and the presidential election. Donald Trump was president at the time, but the district court ruling focused on actions taken by the government after President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. In July last year, Louisiana-based U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty barred officials from “communication of any kind with social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” -NBC News “If the allegations made by plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history,” wrote Doughty. “The plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the government has used its power to silence the opposition.” Dozens of people and agencies were bound by the injunction including President Biden, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control, the Treasury Department, State Department, the US Election Assistance Commission, the FBI and entire Justice Department, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Supreme Court Backs Biden’s Social Media Censorship - The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Joe Biden administration in a legal row over how the government deals with social media platforms. Republican states had objected to a federal drive against “misinformation,” arguing it amounted to unconstitutional censorship. The GOP-backed lawsuit was shot down in a 6-3 vote on Wednesday. In the majority opinion, conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett argued that the court simply lacked the power to intervene in the government’s exchanges with social media sites.“The plaintiffs, without any concrete link between their injuries and the defendants’ conduct, ask us to conduct a review of the yearslong communications between dozens of federal officials, across different agencies, with different social-media platforms, about different topics,” she wrote. “This court’s standing doctrine prevents us from exercising such general legal oversight of the other branches of government.”The ruling tossed out a previous decision by a lower court, which had ruled in favor of Republican state attorneys general and a number of private plaintiffs. The case centered on charges that the Biden administration placed undue pressure on internet platforms to stamp out supposed disinformation linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 presidential race, among other issues.Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who was a plaintiff in the case,called the new ruling “disappointing,” saying the court gave “a free pass to the federal government to threaten tech platforms into censorship and suppression of speech that is indisputably protected by the First Amendment.”In a dissent backed by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, Justice Samuel Alito argued Wednesday’s decision “shirks” the court’s duties and slammed the government for placing “unrelenting pressure on Facebook to suppress Americans’ free speech.”“This case involves what the District Court termed ‘a far-reaching and widespread censorship campaign’ conducted by high-ranking federal officials against Americans who expressed certain disfavored views about Covid-19 on social media,” Alito added. “If the lower courts’ assessment of the voluminous record is correct, this is one of the most important free speech cases to reach this court in years.”The Biden administration’s social media censorship efforts were outlined in a vast trove of documents leaked to journalist Matt Taibbi and other reporters starting in 2022, dubbed the “Twitter Files” The disclosures also covered other social media platforms, and showed a massive federal pushto scrub certain content from the internet. The campaign was joined by national security officials, the FBI, and top administration staffers, who regularly forwarded posts and profiles to social media sites for deletion or bans.
Looming Supreme Court decision could curtail federal agency powers - The Supreme Court will soon issue a decision that could claw back the power of federal agencies and expand the power of judges. The decision, which may come down this week, could limit the agencies’ authority to issue any number of consumer, workplace or environmental protections. During oral arguments, the court’s conservative majority appeared inclined to at least pare down a decades-old precedent that tells judges to defer to agency interpretation when the law is ambiguous. In practice, that Chevron deference, named for the court’s 1984 decision in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, has given both Democratic and Republican administrations a degree of latitude in making decisions. If the court decides to trim it back or fully overrule it, judges will be able to substitute their own interpretation of the law in more cases, and may be more likely to strike down existing agency rules. “I think the court is more likely to limit the doctrine and maybe give a long laundry list of reasons when Chevron deference would not apply,” said Emily Hammond, a law professor at the George Washington University. But, she said, “if the court gets rid of the doctrine, then we have a lot of questions about what kind of litigation will ensue, and I predict that a lot of particularly industry groups may bring challenges against environmental health and safety regulations that have been upheld under Chevron,” Hammond added. In the case of such a ruling, “in the short term, it means that our protections are gone … because that happens to be the makeup of the federal judiciary right now — they’re overwhelmingly conservative,” said James Goodwin, policy director of the Center for Progressive Reform. “If I’m a member of the public and I’m concerned about PFAS in my drinking water, climate change wrecking my kid’s future, is my bank going to rip me off with some new fee … agencies won’t be able to respond to it,” Goodwin said. Chevron deference initially arose in defense of actions taken by the Reagan administration: It was established by a Supreme Court decision that upheld an interpretation of the Clean Air Act issued under then-Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Anne Gorsuch, mother of current Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. Forty years later, however, the younger Gorsuch is likely to be part of a majority that overturns it. In recent years, conservative legal scholars have grown to oppose Chevron, arguing that it gives the federal agencies too much leeway to pass sweeping reforms. “If you’re suing an agency or an agency is suing you, there ought to be a level playing field there,” said Mark Chenoweth, president of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a conservative legal group. “If you have the better argument as to the meaning of the statute, the judge ought to be free to side with you,” said Chenoweth, whose group is representing one of the plaintiffs. If the court does not uphold the current precedent, it’s not clear whether it will simply restrict Chevron or issue a new test entirely. If the court does decide to completely discard Chevron, one possible outright replacement it could make for the long-standing principle is a legal theorem known as Skidmore deference. Under this doctrine, a court would only have to defer to an agency if the agency’s argument is persuasive.
Supreme Court sets stage for transgender rights showdown - The Supreme Court’s decision to hear a challenge to Tennessee’s gender-affirming care ban for minors sets the stage for a potentially blockbuster case implicating transgender protections. It marks the first time the justices will weigh in on the issue, which could impact laws passed by 24 Republican-led states since 2021 that ban medications like puberty blockers and hormones for transgender children and teens. Legal challenges mounted by transgender youths, their families and medical providers have been met with mixed results. A federal judge earlier this month struck down a Florida law barring access to gender-affirming health care for minors and certain adults, and a similar Arkansas law was ruled unconstitutional last year. Federal court orders are blocking the enforcement of bans in Montana and Ohio. Monday’s announcement has left LGBTQ rights advocates grateful they will get their day in the nation’s highest court to object to Tennessee’s ban but also apprehensive about where the conservative-leaning court will land. “The future of countless transgender youth in this and future generations rests on this Court adhering to the facts, the Constitution, and its own modern precedent,” Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice at the American Civil Liberty Union’s LGBTQ & HIV project, said in a statement. The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case comes at the urging of the Biden administration, which appealed to the justices after intervening in the challenge brought by a group of anonymous transgender children and their parents. Tennessee Republicans passed the law, Senate Bill 1, in 2023 amid a wave of gender-affirming care bans enacted in states across the country. The law bars health care providers from administering puberty blockers, hormones or surgery to help a minor transition, though the restrictions don’t apply to adults. Violations can lead to professional discipline and carry a $25,000 civil penalty and private lawsuits. The Supreme Court is not expected to hear arguments until next fall, with a decision likely by June 2025.
Supreme Court decision on Donald Trump's immunity case: What to know -The nation is bracing for a high-stakes Supreme Court decision that could come as soon as this week on former President Trump’s arguments that he is immune from prosecution as a former commander in chief.The case could have significant impact on how former presidents may be held to account for any criminal actions they take while in office, and it is among 14 cases the court must still decide this term. While it’s possible the decision could be delayed until early July, a decision this week would fall as the first presidential debate is scheduled for Thursday and just weeks before the GOP’s convention in Milwaukee. Trump during the April arguments asked the court to embrace a sweeping immunity argument, asserting that a president has absolute immunity for official acts while in office, and that this immunity applies after leaving office. He and his counsel argue the protections cover his efforts to prevent the transfer of power after he lost the 2020 election. Special counsel Jack Smith has argued that only sitting presidents enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution and that the broad scope Trump proposes would give a free pass for criminal conduct. It seems unlikely the court will take the case to the logical extreme that ordering the assassination of a political rival could be covered by presidential immunity — something Trump’s team asserted in court would likely be protected. It’s clear the justices considered the far-reaching implications of the broad immunity pushed by Trump because during oral arguments, they posited hypotheticals about instances in which a president takes a bribe to appoint an ambassador or even sells nuclear secrets. “I’m trying to understand what the disincentive is from turning the Oval Office into, you know, the seat of criminal activity in this country,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said at the time. Trump’s team has argued the only way a president could be prosecuted for crimes is if they are first tried and convicted through impeachment proceedings. It’s a reverse of the stance Trump’s attorneys took when he was facing impeachment over Jan. 6, arguing then that the matter should be left to the justice system. It’s more likely the court may seek to tease out a more nuanced approach — one in which former presidents can be prosecuted for “private conduct” while enjoying immunity on actions considered core to their responsibilities in office. “The question becomes — as we’ve been exploring here today, a little bit — about how to segregate private from official conduct that may or may not enjoy some immunity,” Justice Neil Gorsuch, one of the court’s six conservatives, said in April. Lower courts were dismissive of Trump’s arguments, with the former president losing two challenges related to the matter. “Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass. Former Presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability,” U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, wrote in a December decision.“Defendant’s four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens,” she added in her decision.The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals similarly rejected Trump’s challenge.It seems unlikely the justices would sideline any prosecution of Trump, like the former president has asked.But depending on how the court parses the bounds of official actions, the decision could eat up considerably more court time.It’s possible the Supreme Court could carve out some immunity for former presidents while determining none of Trump’s actions to stay in power could be considered an official act. But the court could also decide to remand the issue back to a lower court, providing guidance to Chutkan and asking her to reconsider whether any of Trump’s behavior fits their test of what constitutes presidential actions deserving of immunity. If the court goes that route, Trump could appeal Chutkan’s decision, which could have the potential to put the issue before the Supreme Court again.
Liberal fears build over Supreme Court Trump immunity decision - Speculation is building about the possibility of the Supreme Court delivering a favorable ruling to former President Trump as he claims immunity from prosecution. Even the current conservative-majority court would balk at finding that all presidents have unconstrained immunity, most experts believe. But some kind of caveat-laden ruling that tosses the arguments about Trump’s legal exposure back to lower courts remains a strong possibility. That scenario is enough to alarm many liberals. Eric Holder, who served as attorney general in the Obama administration, sounded a warning during a recent interview with Nicolle Wallace of MSNBC. Holder alluded to the prospect of the justices ruling that a president can be prosecuted for private acts but not for “official” acts undertaken in the course of his duties. In Trump’s case, this pertains to alleged offenses in his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. A mixed ruling would mean lower courts would be asked to adjudicate which of Trump’s actions fit into either official or nonofficial category. In practical terms, such a process would almost surely extend the case beyond November’s election. If Trump wins the election, he could simply instruct the Justice Department to abandon its prosecution of him — a move that would elicit howls of protest. Holder, during his MSNBC appearance, characterized the possibility of a ruling like this as an argument that “a president can violate the American criminal law, if he or she is doing something in their official capacity.” The former attorney general contended that such a finding would be “an absurd and dangerous conclusion.” But, he added, “I’m worried, given the length of time that it has taken for the Supreme Court to decide this case, that something along those lines might come out of the Supreme Court.”
Supreme Court rules in favor of Jan. 6 rioters in obstruction case --The Supreme Court ruled Friday that an obstruction law used to charge scores of Jan. 6 rioters and former President Trump was improperly applied, spelling trouble for the Justice Department’s far-reaching prosecution of the Capitol attack. The justices sided 6-3, not along ideological lines, for Joseph Fischer, a former police officer accused of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, who challenged 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.It’s been used to prosecute rioters who interrupted Congress’s certification of the 2020 presidential election results, but Fischer — and scores of other rioters — claim the Justice Department retooled a charge that once criminalized document shredding to encompass the conduct of those who stormed the Capitol that day.“It would be peculiar to conclude that in closing the Enron gap, Congress actually hid away in the second part of the third subsection of Section 1512 a catchall provision that reaches far beyond the document shredding and similar scenarios that prompted the legislation in the first place,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.“The better conclusion is that subsection (c)(2) was designed by Congress to capture other forms of evidence and other means of impairing its integrity or availability beyond those Congress specified in (c)(1),” he continued.Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the high court’s conservative majority, while conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined liberals Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in the dissent.Barrett wrote that her fellow justices “failed to respect the prerogatives of the political branches” in their decision and questioned how Fischer’s case did not fit squarely into the parameters of the charge. She accused the court of completing “textual backflips” to find “some way – any way” – to narrow the subsection’s reach. “The case that Fischer can be tried for ‘obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding’ seems open and shut. So why does the Court hold otherwise?” Barrett wrote. “Because it simply cannot believe that Congress meant what it said.”
Supreme Court allows emergency abortions in Idaho for now in a limited ruling --The Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for Idaho hospitals to provide emergency abortions for now in a procedural ruling that left key questions unanswered and could mean the issue ends up before the conservative-majority court again soon.The ruling came after a day an opinion was briefly posted on the court's website accidentally and quickly taken down, but not before it was obtained by Bloomberg.The final opinion appears largely similar to the draft released early. It reverses the court's earlier order that had allowed an Idaho abortion ban to go into effect, even in medical emergencies.It does not resolve the issues at the heart of the case, meaning the same justices who voted to overturn the constitutional right to abortion could soon be again considering when doctors can provide abortion in medical emergencies.The Justice Department brought the case against Idaho over its abortion law, which only allows a woman to get an abortion when her life — not her health — is at risk. The state law has raised questions about when a doctor is able to provide the stabilizing treatment that federal law requires.The federal law, called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA, requires doctors to stabilize or treat any patient who shows up at an emergency room.Doctors in Idaho said that the law wasn't clear on when they could provide abortions in emergencies, forcing them to airlift pregnant women to other states for emergency care on several occasions since the high court had allowed the ban to go into effect in January.The justices found that the court should not have gotten involved in the case so quickly, and a 6-3 majority reinstated a lower court order that had allowed hospitals in the state to perform emergency abortions to protect a pregnant patient’s health.The contours of the issue have changed in the months since the court decided to take up the case, Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in a concurrence joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.“I am now convinced that these cases are no longer appropriate for early resolution,” Barrett wrote, pointing to revisions Idaho made to its abortion ban and the Biden administration making clear that its arguments were aimed at rare cases.
Supreme Court Jeopardizes Purdue Pharma Deal, Rejecting Protections for Sacklers - The New York Times -- The Supreme Court said on Thursday that members of the Sackler family cannot be shielded from liability for civil claims related to the opioid epidemic, jeopardizing a bankruptcy plan that would have offered such protection in exchange for channeling billions of dollars toward addressing the crisis. . In a 5-to-4 decision, the justices found that the deal, carefully negotiated over years with states, tribes, local governments and individuals, had broken a basic tenet of bankruptcy law by shielding members of the Sackler family from lawsuits without the consent of those who might sue. The plan for Purdue Pharma, the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, the drug widely considered to have ignited the crisis, was unusual because it offered broad protections that the Sackler family, who controlled the company, had demanded for years even as the Sacklers avoided declaring bankruptcy themselves. “The Sacklers have not filed for bankruptcy and have not placed virtually all their assets on the table for distribution to creditors, yet they seek what essentially amounts to a discharge,” Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson. While he acknowledged that the decision left the plan in limbo, Justice Gorsuch wrote that the threat of future lawsuits from opioid victims, states, government entities and others might compel the Sacklers “to negotiate consensual releases on terms more favorable to opioid victims.” “If past is prologue,” Justice Gorsuch wrote, citing the U.S. Trustee Office, which challenged the deal, “there may be a better deal on the horizon.” It was not immediately clear what the decision would mean for other settlements involving claims of mass injury, including one involving the Boy Scouts of America and victims of sexual abuse. In a strongly worded dissent, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, warned of the consequences for the tens of thousands of families seeking compensation. The “decision is wrong on the law and devastating for more than 100,000 opioid victims and their families,” he wrote, later adding that rejecting the provision “simply inflicts still more injury on the opioid victims.” Members of the Sackler family expressed hope that they would reach another settlement. Absent one, the Sacklers said in a statement, “costly and chaotic legal proceedings in courtrooms across the country” were all but certain to follow. The majority homed in on the method the Sacklers used to insulate themselves from opioid-related lawsuits, finding that a third party could not use the bankruptcy system to shield themselves from litigation, binding others without their consent. The bankruptcy system, although complex, rests on “a simple bargain,” Justice Gorsuch wrote, allowing a party in debt to release itself from its financial obligations if the debtor “proceeds with honesty and places virtually all its assets on the table for its creditors.” Although Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy protection after a wave of opioid-related lawsuits, the Sacklers did not. Instead, they asked the court overseeing Purdue’s bankruptcy for “an order extinguishing vast numbers of existing and potential claims against them.” This approach, Justice Gorsuch wrote, allowed them to win relief “without securing the consent of those affected or placing anything approaching their total assets on the table for their creditors.” The U.S. Trustee Program, a watchdog office in the Justice Department, had challenged the mechanism used by the Sacklers, a liability shield. The deal, which would have required the Sacklers to pay up to $6 billion over 18 years, underscored the difficult balancing act at play: ensuring that urgently sought money goes toward victims, states and tribes, among others, despite broader concerns over the possibility of releasing the Sacklers from further accountability over the opioid crisis.
Supreme Court halts EPA’s 'Good Neighbor Plan' - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Good Neighbor Plan.” By a 5 to 4 vote, the court ruled that the emissions-reductions standards set by the plan were likely to cause “irreparable harm” to almost half the states unless the court halted the rule pending further review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan aimed to ensure compliance with the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards law. To carry out the law’s mandate, the EPA required “upwind” states to reduce air pollution affecting “downwind” states. Under the Good Neighbor rule, states are first given the chance to create a plan that complies with agency’s ozone guidelines. If a state fails to submit an adequate plan, the EPA then designs a compliance plan for the state. In February 2023, the EPA determined that 23 states had not provided sufficient plans and the agency then decided to implement its own emissions-control program for those states.Ohio, plus several other states, large industrial companies, and trade associations, challenged the EPA plan in court. They contended that the agency’s “dictatorial approach” failed to adequately consider the legal and practical implications of substituting its own plan for the state plans. The opponents also argued that the plan’s implementation would cause significant economic and operational harm, particularly by forcing states to undertake costly modifications to their power plants while judicial review is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.On Thursday, the Supreme Court agreed with the states.The decision was a major loss for environmental groups and downwind states; they warned that halting the Good Neighbor Plan could lead to continued ozone pollution, adversely affecting public health and the environment. For its part, the EPA maintained that the plan was crucial for achieving national air quality standards and protecting downwind states from the harmful effects of upwind pollution.
Supreme Court blocks EPA smog control plan - The Supreme Court dealt another setback to the Biden administration’s environmental agenda with a 5-4 ruling freezing further implementation of EPA’s latest crackdown on smog-forming pollution that crosses state lines. Led by Neil Gorsuch, most justices in the court’s conservative wing agreed with Republican states and a variety of industries that argued the “good neighbor” rule no longer worked after lower courts froze implementation of new industrial pollution control requirements in 12 of the 23 states originally covered. EPA’s response did not address that concern “so much as sidestep it,” Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion. Dissenting was Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by the court’s three liberal members. In her rebuttal, Barrett wrote that “EPA would have promulgated the same plan even if fewer States were covered.” She also questioned the court’s rationale for taking the case under its “emergency docket,” which does not require a full round of briefs. Almost two months into this year’s summertime ozone season, the high court’s decision now blocks EPA from enforcing stricter curbs on power plants and other industries in the 11 other states while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit weighs a separate round of legal challenges. The D.C. Circuit had earlier denied stay requests. In a potentially ominous sign for EPA, however, Gorsuch wrote that the challengers are “likely to succeed on a claim that the Good Neighbor Plan is ‘arbitrary” or “capricious.’” The court’s decision, issued Thursday, arrived more than four months after the justices had held oral arguments on the stay requests from Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia, as well as representatives from the power sector, paper industry and other businesses. In a statement, EPA spokesperson Tim Carroll reiterated the agency’s belief that the plan is “firmly grounded” in its Clean Air Act authority and voiced dismay about the broader ramifications. While the freeze is in effect, Americans will be exposed to higher levels of ground-level ozone, “resulting in costly public health impacts that can be especially harmful to children and older adults and disproportionately affect people of color, families with low incomes, and other vulnerable populations,” the spokesperson said.
Supreme Court strips SEC of enforcement tool in fraud cases — The Supreme Court on Thursday stripped the Securities and Exchange Commission of a major tool in fighting securities fraud in a decision that also could have far-reaching effects on other regulatory agencies.The justices ruled in a 6-3 vote that people accused of fraud by the SEC, which regulates securities markets, have the right to a jury trial in federal court. The in-house proceedings the SEC has used in some civil fraud complaints, including against Houston hedge fund manager George Jarkesy, violate the Constitution, the court said.“A defendant facing a fraud suit has the right to be tried by a jury of his peers before a neutral adjudicator,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court’s conservative majority.Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who read from her dissent in the courtroom, said that “litigants who seek to dismantle the administrative state” would rejoice in the decision.Federal agencies that oversee safety in mines and other workplaces are among many that can only impose civil penalties in in-house, administrative proceedings, Sotomayor wrote, joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan. “For those and countless other agencies, all the majority can say is tough luck; get a new statute from Congress,” she wrote. The case is among several this term in which conservative and business interests are urging the nine-member court to constrict federal regulators. The court’s six conservatives already have done so, including in a decision last year that sharply limited environmental regulators’ ability to police water pollution in wetlands..The SEC was awarded more than $5 billion in civil penalties in the 2023 government spending year that ended Sept. 30, the agency said in a news release. It was unclear how much of that money came through in-house proceedings or lawsuits in federal court.The agency had already reduced the number of cases it brings in administrative proceedings pending the Supreme Court’s resolution of the case.
The Supreme Court’s chaotic SEC v. Jarkesy decision endangers “hundreds of statutes” - On Thursday, the Court handed down a 6-3 decision, on a party-line vote, that could render a simply astonishing array of federal laws unenforceable. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor writes in dissent, “the constitutionality of hundreds of statutes may now be in peril, and dozens of agencies could be stripped of their power to enforce laws enacted by Congress.” The dispute in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy turns on whether a hedge fund manager accused of defrauding investors is entitled to a jury trial to determine whether he violated federal securities law, or whether the government acted properly when it tried him before an official known as an “administrative law judge” (ALJ).The charges against this hedge fund manager, George Jarkesy, are civil and not criminal, which matters because the Constitution treats civil trials very differently from criminal proceedings. While the Sixth Amendment provides that “in all criminal prosecutions” the defendant is entitled to a jury trial, the Seventh Amendment provides a more limited jury trial right, requiring them “in suits at common law” (more on what that means later).If the question of whether Jarkesy is entitled to a jury trial arose in the absence of any precedent, then he’d have a reasonably strong case that he should prevail. But, as Sotomayor lays out in her dissent, nearly 170 years of precedent cut against Jarkesy’s position.Congress, moreover, has enacted a wide range of laws on the presumption that many enforcement proceedings may be brought before administrative law judges and not juries. According to one somewhat dated review of federal law cited by Sotomayor, “by 1986, there were over 200” federal statutes calling for trials before ALJs.Some of these laws, including the one allowing the SEC to bring enforcement actions against people like Jarkesy, give the government a choice. That is, they allow federal agencies to bring a proceeding either before an ALJ or before a federal district court that may conduct a jury trial. So the SEC, at least, has the option of retrying Jarkesy in a district court.But, as Sotomayor warns, many federal agencies — including the “Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, the Department of Agriculture, and many others” — may only seek civil penalties in administrative proceedings. That means that a wide array of laws guaranteeing workplace safety and advancing other important federal goals could cease to function after Jarkesy.The Jarkesy case, in other words, is an example of the Roberts Court at its most arrogant. Were the Court tasked with resolving the dispute on a blank slate, then there are entirely plausible arguments that Mr. Jarkesy should be entitled to a jury trial. But that ship sailed many years ago, and the federal government has operated for an exceedingly long time on the assumption that many disputes can be adjudicated by ALJs. By upending this longstanding assumption, the Court may have just thrown huge swaths of the federal government — particularly enforcement by those agencies Sotomayor listed — into chaos. The Seventh Amendment provides that civil litigants generally have a right to a jury trial “in suits at common law,” but what does that mean? Broadly speaking, the common law refers to the body of judge-made law developed by English courts, much of which was imported into American law and which still governs many American lawsuits involving matters such as contracts and torts. Common law courts typically had the power to award money damages to a victorious plaintiff, which distinguishes them from courts of “equity” that had the power to issue injunctions and other non-monetary relief. Chief Justice John Roberts’s majority opinion in Jarkesy leans heavily into the kind of remedy available to the SEC if it prevails in a suit before an ALJ. Like a suit before a common law court, the SEC sought monetary damages from Jarkesy, and thus this case resembles a suit at common law in that way. As Roberts writes, “money damages are the prototypical common law remedy.” Additionally, Roberts notes that common law courts also historically had the power to hear suits alleging fraud. Thus, the suit against Jarkesy resembles a common law suit in that way as well. Most of this part of Roberts’s opinion is uncontroversial. His disagreement with Sotomayor turns on a longstanding exception to the jury trial right known as the “public rights” doctrine. The term “common law” refers to judge-created law developed over the course of many centuries, as distinct from law created by acts of a state legislature or Congress. The somewhat unhelpfully named public rights doctrine provides that many lawsuits that arise under federal statutes are not subject to the Seventh Amendment, and thus the government is free to try these cases in an administrative proceeding without a jury.
Wall Street’s Supreme Court win could slow energy enforcement - Federal energy regulators may face enforcement delays and see more cases wrested from their control in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling Thursday that limits the role of in-house judges. The 6-3 decision led by Chief Justice John Roberts in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesyfound that a hedge fund manager facing fraud charges from the SEC was entitled to a jury trial. The case is expected to broadly reshape the role of administrative law judges, who levy fines and resolve disputes at other agencies such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.FERC Chair Willie Phillips said Thursday that attorneys at the agency are “taking a careful look” at the decision, but he did not comment in detail on the effects of the ruling.Legal observers say that companies facing civil penalties at FERC and other agencies are likely to invoke Jarkesy to argue for trials in federal court, rather than before in-house judges, said Joel Eisen, a law professor at the University of Richmond.“This will undoubtedly hamper the ability of agencies to conduct enforcement that depends on civil penalties,” said Eisen.Agencies may opt to take fewer enforcement actions against companies because it takes longer and is more expensive to take a case to federal court, said Harold Krent, a professor at the Chicago-Kent School of Law.Jarkesy could affect about 25 federal agencies that can collect civil fines, ranging from the Office of Safety and Health Administration to the Department of Homeland Security, some of which do not have congressional authority to seek penalties in court, Krent said.“President Trump came in and said, ‘drain the swamp,'” said Krent. “The Supreme Court took a step in that direction today, because it’s just slowing down enforcement.”The ruling comes as the Supreme Court is targeting other facets of federal agencies’ power. The justices could decide as soon as Friday whether to weaken the Chevron doctrine, which helps regulators defend their rules against legal attack.In Jarkesy, the majority failed to appreciate how its decisions threaten the separation of powers between the branches of government, said Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a scathing dissent joined by the court’s other liberal members.She warned that the decision will cause “chaos.”“The majority today upends long standing precedent and the established practice of its coequal partners in our tripartite system of Government,” she said. “Because the Court fails to act as a neutral umpire when it rewrites established rules in the manner it does today, I respectfully dissent.”Legal observers said the SEC ruling could affect FERC’s natural gas cases because the two agencies have similar enforcement processes.Carolyn Elefant, a former FERC attorney who now represents landowners, said Jarkesy is more likely to affect market manipulation cases, which can involve fraud claims, than pipeline matters, which generally involve violations of a FERC permit, known as a certificate.She said the ruling could make it harder for the federal government to go after large energy companies.“These agencies are underfunded. They’re going up against these billion-dollar companies,” Elefant said. “It really puts them at a disadvantage.”Former FERC Chair Richard Glick said Jarkesy shouldn’t affect FERC’s electricity disputes on issues like tariffs or utility rates.“This will be a problem for natural gas enforcement cases which currently go before an” administrative law judge, said Glick, who pushed for stricter enforcement when he was chair, “but won’t mean much for electric enforcement cases because the alleged manipulating entity can choose to go straight to district court.”Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School, noted that initial findings from administrative law judges still have to be reviewed by FERC, and once the agency makes a decision, it can be appealed to a federal court. “The majority opinion here takes a pretty sweeping view of what requires a jury trial,” he said.The effect of Jarkesy could have been worse for agencies, said Eisen of the University of Richmond.The Supreme Court declined to rule on the legitimacy of the appointment of administrative law judges. The justices also did not rule on a finding by a lower court that the SEC violated the nondelegation doctrine by bringing the case internally. The doctrine holds that Congress cannot hand off its legislative power to agencies.
SCOTUS axes use of in-house judges, a win for banks accused of bad acts - The U.S. Supreme Court placed new restrictions Thursday on the use of in-house judges in regulatory enforcement cases — a watershed decision that's expected to benefit both banks and individual bankers in situations where their regulators have accused them of wrongdoing. Following the 6-3 decision, many enforcement cases that federal agencies would otherwise bring in administrative law courts — where, defendants frequently argue, the regulators have a homefield advantage — will likely have to be filed in federal court. The Seventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to a jury trial in certain situations.The ruling by the high court's conservative majority grew out of a fraud case that the Securities and Exchange Commission filed against the founder of a hedge fund. But it has large implications for a wide range of federal agencies.In the banking sphere, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau all use administrative law judges.Some of the clearest consequences of the ruling in the banking realm, experts said, will involve cases where regulators are seeking civil monetary penalties from either banks or individuals. Those cases will now have to be brought in federal court.David Zaring, a professor of legal studies and business ethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, noted that many enforcement cases are settled rather than go to trial. He said that the prospect of a costly fight in federal court could give additional leverage to defendants who are engaged in settlement talks with regulators."Federal court litigation is expensive, and that could weigh into the leverage defendants have when thinking about whether to settle cases involving civil monetary penalties," Zaring said.He cited three examples of the kinds of cases where the defendants likely would have had a stronger hand to play in settlement talks if the Supreme Court's ruling Thursday had already been in effect.Under that scenario, securities fraud cases that were brought against big banks after the 2008 financial crisis, anti-money-laundering cases that resulted in large banks paying penalties and cases involving bank employees' use of unauthorized messaging apps, might have been resolved on more favorable terms for the banks, Zaring said.The penalties in those settlements have often stretched into the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more than $1 billion.The implications of Thursday's ruling are less clear for enforcement cases that do not involve civil money penalties, according to experts.Banking agencies may bring cases, for example, seeking restitution or the disgorgement of ill-gotten gains. They may try to bar individuals from working in the banking industry. They may also seek an order that a specific bank needs to cease and desist from certain conduct. An enforcement case involving disgorgement could still go before an administrative law judge, Zaring said Thursday, based on his reading of the Supreme Court's decision.David P. Weber, a former enforcement official at the OCC, the FDIC and the SEC, agreed with that interpretation of the court's decision. But he added that provisions of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act giving bank regulators the ability to bring cases not involving civil money penalties before an administrative law judge will also likely be challenged in court."I'm sure that intrepid litigants are now going to challenge all of the provisions," said Weber, who is now a professor at Salisbury University's Perdue School of Business.Weber also pointed to another difficulty the ruling causes for bank regulators. He said that existing federal laws do not enable the banking agencies to bring certain types of enforcement cases — for example, those alleging that a bank engaged in unsafe and unsound practices — in federal court.If the courts now take the position that such cases have to be brought in federal court, rather than before an administrative law judge, Weber said: "Until Congress provides a fix, it may be very difficult for federal banking agencies to bring enforcement actions."Weber was critical of the Supreme Court's decision, arguing that administrative law judges have expertise about banking that federal judges lack.
Supreme Court overturns 1984 Chevron precedent, curbing power of federal government -The Supreme Court on Friday significantly weakened the power of federal agencies to approve regulations in a major decision that could have sweeping implications for the environment, public health and the workplace. The 6-3 ruling, overturning a precedent from 1984, will shift the balance of power between the executive and judicial branches and hands an important victory to conservatives who have sought for years to rein in the regulatory authority of the “administrative state.”The lawsuits were filed by two groups of herring fishermen challenging a Commerce Department regulation requiring them to pay the salaries of government observers who board their vessels to monitor the catch. But the decision will net a far wider swath of federal regulations affecting many facets of American life.The decision overturns the Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council precedent that required courts to give deference to federal agencies when creating regulations based on an ambiguous law. Congress routinely enacts open-ended laws that give latitude to agencies to work out — and adjust — the details to new circumstances. “Chevron is overruled,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion. “Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.”Justice Neil Gorsuch, the son of a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, wrote separately to call Chevron Deference “a grave anomaly when viewed against the sweep of historic judicial practice.”The 1984 decision, he said, “undermines core rule-of-law values ranging from the promise of fair notice to the promise of a fair hearing,” adding that it “operated to undermine rather than advance reliance interests, often to the detriment of ordinary Americans.”Justice Elena Kagan, writing a dissent joined by the court’s two other liberals said that, with the overturning of Chevron, “a rule of judicial humility gives way to a rule of judicial hubris.”“In one fell swoop, the majority today gives itself exclusive power over every open issue — no matter how expertise-driven or policy-laden — involving the meaning of regulatory law. As if it did not have enough on its plate, the majority turns itself into the country’s administrative czar,” Kagan wrote.The majority, she added, “disdains restraint, and grasps for power.”White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the outcome as “yet another deeply troubling decision that takes our country backwards.”Jean-Pierre said that “Republican-backed special interests have repeatedly turned to the Supreme Court” and that “once again, the Supreme Court has decided in the favor of special interests.”Conservatives have long sought to rein in regulatory authority, arguing that Washington has too much control over American industry and individual lives. The justices have been incrementally diminishing federal power for years, but the new case gave the court an opportunity to take a much broader stride.In the case of the fishermen who brought the case, the law allowed the government to mandate the observers but was silent on the question of who had to pay their salaries, which the fisherman argue added roughly $700 a day to their costs. They encouraged the court to rule that agencies couldn’t enact such a requirement without explicit approval from Congress.The Supreme Court had been trending in that direction for years, knocking back attempts by federal agencies in other contexts to approve regulations on their own. In 2021, for instance, the court’s conservatives struck down a Biden administration effort to extend an eviction moratorium first approved during the Trump administration. Last year, the court’s conservatives similarly invalidated a Biden plan to wipe out student loans of millions of Americans.
Supreme Court ends Chevron deference in landmark decision | American Banker - The Supreme Court on Friday overturned a major legal precedent requiring judges to defer to federal regulatory agencies' interpretation of ambiguous statutes. The 6-3 ruling reduces the power of a wide range of executive branch agencies, including bank regulators, to interpret laws. The 40-year-old legal doctrine — known as Chevron deference, named for the 1984 Supreme Court decision in Natural Resources Defense Council v. Chevron establishing the precedent — had long frustrated companies in regulated industries because it limited their ability to sue agencies over their interpretations of broad or vague legal authorities. The doctrine often meant that regulators could write broader, more costly rules than regulated companies believed were warranted. Its demise is expected to open the floodgates to a wave of litigation challenging such rules. But the end of Chevron deference could be a double-edged sword for banks, according to industry lawyers, because the Supreme Court's decision will also make it easier for advocacy groups and state attorneys general to challenge rules they oppose, which would introduce more uncertainty for banks. The ruling by the high court's conservative majority, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, held that the Administrative Procedure Act requires courts to exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority. Courts have the option to defer to an agency's interpretation of an ambiguous law, but the court said the firm requirement that it must is incorrect. "The deference that Chevron requires of courts reviewing agency action cannot be squared with the APA," Roberts wrote. "Perhaps most fundamentally, Chevron's presumption is misguided because agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do. "Chevron has proved to be fundamentally misguided," he continued in an opinion joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. "And its flaws were apparent from the start, prompting the Court to revise its foundations and continually limit its application. Experience has also shown that Chevron is unworkable." The court's decision encompassed two cases: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce. The cases involved fishermen in New Jersey and Rhode Island who claimed the National Marine Fisheries Service could not impose a fee requiring federal observers on herring boats, based on the applicable law. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that for 40 years, Chevron deference has served "as a cornerstone of administrative law, allocating responsibility for statutory construction between courts and agencies." "This Court has long understood Chevron deference to reflect what Congress would want, and so to be rooted in a presumption of legislative intent," wrote Kagan, who was joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. "Congress knows that it does not — in fact cannot — write perfectly complete regulatory statutes." Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the dissent in one of the two cases but was recused from the other because she took part in it as a federal appeals court judge. Banking trade groups reacted favorably to the court's ruling. "This is an important win for accountability and predictability at a time when agencies are unleashing a tsunami of regulation — in many cases clearly exceeding their statutory authority while making it harder for banks to serve their customers. We will continue to fight to ensure that bank regulators follow the law every time they exercise their powers," the American Bankers Association said in a written statement. Going forward, lawyers said, federal agencies will be under greater scrutiny, giving industry actors more opportunities to challenge agency rules and interpretations of the law. "The decision could be viewed as putting regulated communities on a more equal footing with the agencies,"
Supreme Court Chevron ruling hamstrings the executive branch - The Supreme Court on Friday upended one of the most frequently cited cases in regulatory law, hampering the ability of agencies like EPA to defend their rules against legal challenge and handing more decisionmaking power to the courts.In a 6-3 ideologically divided ruling, the judges tossed out the Chevron doctrine, which says judges should yield to agencies’ reasonable readings of ambiguous laws when crafting rules to do things like constrain artificial intelligence, improve the health care system and protect against climate change. Chief Justice John Roberts, who led the majority opinion, called Chevron “a judicial invention” that the Supreme Court has not used since 2016. “At this point,” Roberts wrote, “all that remains of Chevron is a decaying husk with bold pretensions.”Although Chevron had in the last eight years fallen out of favor with the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, lower courts were still using the doctrine to uphold agency rules, as they did in the two cases — Loper Bright v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Commerce — related to a NOAA Fisheries rule that the justices overturned Friday.Doing away with Chevron removes a framework that required judges to defer to agency experts when there is disagreement on the meaning of a federal statute. The doctrine originated in the 1984 caseChevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which upheld Reagan-era EPA air rules.“What this case does is it massively deregulates courts,” James Goodwin, policy director at the Center for Progressive Reform, said of Friday’s decision. “So now that the Supreme Court has given the lower courts all this extra leash to second-guess agency decisions, the question is what do they do with it?”He noted that former President Donald Trump prioritized stocking the federal courts with conservative judges — including three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Chevron.David Doniger, senior attorney at the NRDC and the lawyer who made the losing argument in the 1984Chevron case, said Loper Bright will make it harder for the federal government to function.“Whether they’re making food safer, air cleaner or safeguarding prescription drugs, agencies need to be able to respond to complex problems the modern world throws at us,” he said. “This decision is profoundly destabilizing and leaves policy — and public health — up to the individual preferences and political biases of unaccountable judges.”Lawyers who had argued for the court to overrule Chevron celebrated.“Going forward, judges will be charged with interpreting the law faithfully, impartially and independently, without deference to the government,” said Roman Martinez, a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins who argued for challengers in Relentless. “This is a win for individual liberty and the Constitution.”Roberts wrote that the majority opinion in Loper Bright leaves intact prior cases over the last 40 years that were decided on Chevron grounds. The fate of settled cases was a big point of contention during oral arguments in January in Loper Bright and Relentless.“The holdings of those cases that specific agency actions are lawful — including the Clean Air Act holding of Chevron itself — are still subject to statutory stare decisis despite our change in interpretive methodology,” the chief justice said.The court’s liberal minority chastised its conservative colleagues for their decision.Justice Elena Kagan kicked off the final section of her dissent with a quote from the 1984 Chevron ruling: “Judges are not experts in the field, and are not part of their political branch of the Government.” She continued: “Those were the days, when we knew what we are not.”
Supreme Court takes sledgehammer to federal agency power in Chevron case - The Supreme Court took a sledgehammer to executive agencies’ power Friday by overruling a prominent precedent that bolstered their ability to implement regulations in wide areas of American life, including consumer and environmental protections. In an 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority upended a 40-year administrative law precedent that gave agencies across the federal government leeway to interpret ambiguous laws through rulemaking. Known as Chevron deference, the now-overturned legal doctrine instructed judges to defer to agencies in cases where the law is ambiguous. Now, judges will substitute their own best interpretation of the law, instead of deferring to the agencies — effectively making it easier to overturn regulations that govern wide-ranging aspects of American life.This includes rules governing toxic chemicals, drugs and medicine, climate change, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and more.“Chevron is overruled,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by his five conservative colleagues.“Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.” However, Roberts sought to prevent the decision from impacting prior cases that were decided based on Chevron deference.“We do not call into question prior cases that relied on the Chevron framework,” he wrote. “The holdings of those cases that specific agency actions are lawful—including the Clean Air Act holding of Chevron itself—are still subject to statutory stare decisis despite our change in interpretive methodology.”The Supreme Court’s three liberals dissented, saying courts will now play a “commanding role” that Congress has not given them. Justice Elena Kagan, who authored the dissent, read it aloud from the bench, a rarity that underscores the justices’ sharp disagreements in the case.“At its core, Chevron is about respecting that allocation of responsibility—the conferral of primary authority over regulatory matters to agencies, not courts,” Kagan wrote.“Today, the majority does not respect that judgment. It gives courts the power to make all manner of scientific and technical judgments. It gives courts the power to make all manner of policy calls,” she added.The move hands a major victory to conservative and anti-regulatory interests that have looked to eliminate the precedent as part of a broader attack on the growing size of the “administrative state.” The Biden administration defended the precedent before the high court. It also effectively represents Justice Neil Gorsuch overturning a precedent that upheld rules issued under his own mother, who was the head of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Reagan administration. Gorsuch wrote a separate opinion calling Chevron a “judge-made fiction.”“Today, the Court places a tombstone on Chevron no one can miss. In doing so, the Court returns judges to interpretive rules that have guided federal courts since the Nation’s founding,” Gorsuch wrote. Friday’s opinion follows a series of Supreme Court decisions rolling back the powers of executive agencies.
What SCOTUS just did to broadband, the right to repair, the environment, and more - The Verge By overturning Chevron, the Supreme Court has declared war on an administrative state that touches everything from net neutrality to climate change. - Since the New Deal era,the bulk of the functioning US government is the administrative state — think the acronym soup of agencies like the EPA, FCC, FTC, FDA, and so on. Even when Capitol Hill is not mired in deep dysfunction,the speed at which Congress and the courts operate no longer seems suitable for modern life. Both industry and ordinary people look to the administrative state, rather than legislators, for an immediate answer to their problems. And since 1984,the administrative state largely ran on one Supreme Court precedent: Chevron USA,Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). That decision has now been overturned.Admin law is not always interesting, but the simple fact is when it comes to the day-to-day, agencies are the most impactful part of the federal government. No single policy writer at The Verge can fully articulate the impact of Friday’s Supreme Court decision and how profound its eLJects will be. The administrative state touches everything around us: net neutrality, climate change, clean air and water, and what scant consumer protections we have. The true scope of this ruling will not be immediately felt, and what replaces Chevron deference is still unclear. The regulatory state has been under steady aǑack from an increasingly conservative judiciary for a long time. Some of the agencies we follow most closely were kneecapped even before this decision —one expert we talked to said that Chevron had been a “dead leǑer for quite some time.” Still,this is a formal turning point. The biggest policy stories at The Verge have centered around federal agencies.And for a long time,the kind of regulation that actually kept up with the pace of technology was mostly coming out of agencies.It is in the years to come that we will wonder, “Why isn’t anyone doing anything?”or “How can a court just unilaterally do that?” about issues that range from trivial to life-threatening. We’ll look back on this moment as a pivotal part of how we gotthere. What is Chevron deference? It is a longstanding doctrine in which courts defer to federal agencies when there are disputes over how to interpret ambiguous language in legislation passed by Congress. The underlying reasoning is that subject maǑer experts within the agency are probably able to make more informed decisions than a judge recently assigned to the case.Chevron deference is strong deference —and the low bar for deferring to agencies means that regulations tend notto gettied up in court. “The key point of Chevron was that laws like these are policy decisions, and those policy decisions should be made by the political branches responsive to the voters,Congress and the president, not by unaccountable judges with no constituents,”David Doniger, an aǑorney and senior advisor to the NRDC Action Fund, said in a press briefing earlier this month. Doniger happened to litigate and lose the case that gave Chevron deference its name. While the practice had been in place for decades before, it came to be known as Chevron deference after a 1984 case: Chevron v. NRDC. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Chevron, allowing the Ronald Reagan administration’s industry-friendly Environmental Protection Agency to stick with a lax interpretation of the Clean Air Act. Over the years,Chevron deference has enabled federal agencies to tackle all sorts of issues that legislators have yetto cover —from addressing greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change to regulating broadband access.As the conservative legal movement to disempower the administrative state grew,Chevron deference became — in certain circles — shorthand for government overreach. Before its decision to overturn Chevron,the Supreme Court had already dealt a blow to federal agencies’ regulatory authority by strengthening the “major questions”doctrine in its 2022 decision in West Virginia v.EPA.According to the major questions doctrine, a federal agency shouldn’t have the leeway to craft regulation on an issue of major national significance if Congress hasn’t explicitly allowed itto do so in legislation. The same bloc of six conservative justices that formed the majority in West Virginia v.EPA also When two cases calling for an end to Chevron deference worked their way up to SCOTUS, the writing was on the wall overturned the longstanding precedent of Roe v.Wade — an even older case than Chevron — in the same month.When two cases calling for an end to Chevron deference worked their way up to the Supreme Courtthis year,the writing was on the wall —and once again,those same six justices overturned Chevron. Loper Bright Enterprises v.Raimondo and Relentless,Inc. v. Department of Commerce were factually about an agency rule on fishing boats, but everyone more or less knew that Chevron was on the line. The cases garnered support from a broad swath of industry interests, including Gun Owners of America and e-cigareǑe companies. Legal commentator MaǑ Ford wrote earlier this year thatthis interplay between the judiciary and industry was hardly an open secret, quoting Don McGahn —who would eventually become Trump’s White House counsel — at CPAC 2018 saying outrightthat “the judicial selection and the deregulatory eLJort are really the flip side of the same coin.” It’s not yet certain what has replaced Chevron,though some of the wording in the decision suggests we may fall back on a doctrine known as Skidmore deference —a weaker deference, meaning that judges have more power to block agency rules. “The idea that Skidmore is going to be a backup once you get rid of Chevron,that Skidmore means anything other than nothing, Skidmore has always meant nothing,” Justice Elena Kagan said during oral arguments inJanuary. The new threat to net neutrality The Federal Communications Commission has famously interpreted Title II of the Communications Act to regulate internet service providers as common carriers in a policy known as net neutrality. Reclassifying ISPs as telecommunications services, rather than information services, would letthe FCC impose more regulations on the industry, including mandating thatthey can’t unfairly block or throǑle internettraLjc. The idea is to keep ISPs from controlling what information users do or don’t see on the internet. In its latest move to restore the rules,the FCC said reclassifying ISPs as common carriers would also give the agency more oversight over internet outages and help it beǑer secure internet infrastructure. That interpretation could come under threat, even as the FCC just recently voted to reinstate net neutrality after it was repealed during the Trump administration. “Overruling Chevron has the potential to change the tenor of the impending judicial challenge to the new net neutrality rules dramatically,” University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Christopher Yoo wrote in an article published prior to the Supreme Court ruling. That’s in part because prior judicial review relevantto net neutrality has taken Chevron deference into consideration.
Supreme Court Chevron decision: What it means for federal regulations — Executive branch agencies will likely have more difficulty regulating the environment, public health, workplace safety and other issues under a far-reaching decision by the Supreme Court.The court’s 6-3 ruling on Friday overturned a 1984 decision colloquially known as Chevron that has instructed lower courts to defer to federal agencies when laws passed by Congress are not crystal clear.The 40-year-old decision has been the basis for upholding thousands of regulations by dozens of federal agencies, but has long been a target of conservatives and business groups who argue that it grants too much power to the executive branch, or what some critics call the administrative state. The Biden administration has defended the law, warning that overturning so-called Chevron deference would be destabilizing and could bring a “convulsive shock” to the nation’s legal system. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the court, said federal judges “must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.” The ruling does not call into question prior cases that relied on the Chevron doctrine, Roberts wrote. Atlantic herring fishermen sued over federal rules requiring them to pay for independent observers to monitor their catch. The fishermen argued that the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act did not authorize officials to create industry-funded monitoring requirements and that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to follow proper rulemaking procedure. In two related cases, the fishermen asked the court to overturn the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine, which stems from a unanimous Supreme Court case involving the energy giant in a dispute over the Clean Air Act. That ruling said judges should defer to the executive branch when laws passed by Congress are ambiguous.In that case, the court upheld an action by the Environmental Protection Agency under then-President Ronald Reagan.In the decades following the ruling, Chevron has been a bedrock of modern administrative law, requiring judges to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of congressional statutes. But the current high court, with a 6-3 conservative majority has been increasingly skeptical of the powers of federal agencies. Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch have questioned the Chevron decision. Ironically, it was Gorsuch’s mother, former EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch, who made the decision that the Supreme Court upheld in 1984.With a closely divided Congress, presidential administrations have increasingly turned to federal regulation to implement policy changes. Federal rules impact virtually every aspect of everyday life, from the food we eat and the cars we drive to the air we breathe and homes we live in. President Joe Biden’s administration, for example, has issued a host of new regulations on the environment and other priorities, including restrictions on emissions from power plants and vehicle tailpipes, and rules on student loan forgiveness, overtime pay and affordable housing.Those actions and others could be opened up to legal challenges if judges are allowed to discount or disregard the expertise of the executive-branch agencies that put them into place. With billions of dollars potentially at stake, groups representing the gun industry and other businesses such as tobacco, agriculture, timber and homebuilding, were among those pressing the justices to overturn the Chevron doctrine and weaken government regulation. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed an amicus brief last year on behalf of business groups arguing that modern application of Chevron has “fostered aggrandizement’’ of the executive branch at the expense of Congress and the courts.David Doniger, a lawyer and longtime Natural Resources Defense Council official who argued the original Chevron case in 1984, said he feared that a ruling to overturn the doctrine could “free judges to be radical activists” who could “effectively rewrite our laws and block the protections they are supposed to provide.” “The net effect will be to weaken our government’s ability to meet the real problems the world is throwing at us — big things like COVID and climate change,″ Doniger said.
How the Supreme Court Chevron decision could gut environmental protections - The Washington Post - The Supreme Court on Friday curtailed the power of federal agencies to regulate the environment, public health and other fundamental aspects of American life.The 6-3 ruling, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., could make it easier for courts to block regulations aimed at addressing air pollution, combating climate change and protecting endangered species, lawyers say.The pair of cases — Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo andRelentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce — challenged a federal rule that requires the herring industry to cover the costs of observers on fishing boats.In the decision released Friday, the Supreme Court struck down the rule, issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service, finding it to be overly burdensome. Lower courts had previously upheld the rule, finding it to be a reasonable interpretation of federal law. The decision effectively overturns a long-standing precedent known as the Chevron doctrine. The doctrine says that courts should defer to an agency’s interpretation of a law, as long as that interpretation is reasonable. It was established by the Supreme Court’s landmark 1984 ruling in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council.The 1984 decision represented a victory for the Reagan administration and a loss for environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council. Under President Ronald Reagan (R), the Environmental Protection Agency had issued a rule that allowed manufacturing plants to install or modify one piece of equipment without obtaining a federal permit.Environmental groups had challenged the rule, saying it violated the Clean Air Act and would cause more air pollution. But in the unanimous 6-0 decision, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the court should defer to the EPA’s reading of the Clean Air Act, and to other agencies’ interpretations of other statutes. At the time, Chevron was not seen as a historic ruling. But it became a major precedent once it filtered through the lower courts, and it eventually gave future administrations more power to issue stronger environmental rules than those of the Reagan era. A wide array of conservative advocacy groups have urged the court to overturn Chevron. But petrochemicals billionaire Charles Koch has played a particularly influential role.Both cases were backed by conservative legal organizations — the Cause of Action Institute and New Civil Liberties Alliance — that have received millions of dollars from the Koch network, founded by Charles Koch and his late brother, David Koch. Charles Koch is the CEO of Koch Industries and a fierce critic of federal regulations. Asked about this funding, Ryan Mulvey, counsel at the Cause of Action Institute, said the focus should be on the fishermen. “Like any public interest law firm, Cause of Action Institute took this case to defend the rights of individuals who do not have the resources to challenge unconstitutional actions on their own,” Mulvey said in an emailed statement. “This case has always been about vindicating their interests.”
Jamaal Bowman Loses Primary After AIPAC Poured Record $14.5M Into Race | Truthout - Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-New York) lost his primary on Tuesday after Israel’s largest U.S. lobbying group made his race the most expensive House primary in history, pouring nearly $15 million to oust one of the few progressive critics of Israel in Congress as the country carries out a horrific genocidal assault in Gaza. As of Wednesday morning, Bowman had garnered42 percent of the vote, compared to 58 percent for his opponent, businessman and local politician George Latimer, a vocal supporter of Israel. APcalled the race on Tuesday night. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) super PAC, United Democracy Project, had poured a record $14.5 million into defeating Bowman — the most a single group has ever spenton a House race. This amounted to over half a million dollars every day, or about $17,000 every hour, to oust a single lawmaker in a chamber that already has a near-consensus majority of Israel supporters. Together, three super PACS — United Democracy Project, the Democratic Majority for Israel and pro-cryptocurrency group FairShake — spent $18 million to defeat Bowman. “We should not be well adjusted to a sick society,” Bowman said in his concession speech. “We should be outraged. We should be outraged when a Super PAC of dark money can spend $20 million to brainwash people into believing something that isn’t true. We should be outraged about that.” Report: AIPAC Is Funneling GOP Donor Money Into Democratic Primaries “This will be a battle about our humanity and justice for the rest of our lives,” he said. Fellow progressive “squad” members like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), who handily won her primary election on Tuesday, had backed Bowman and criticized corruption of AIPAC and its historic ability to buy primary winsto defeat progressive candidates. AIPAC had previously tried to offer multiple people in Michigan $20 million to oust Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D), the only Palestinian American in Congress.As progressives and Bowman himself have noted, the race wasn’t just about Bowman versus Latimer — the latter of whom made a number of brazenly racist comments in recent weeks — but rather, Bowman and progressive, pro-Palestine lawmakers versus AIPAC and the power of the dark money-allied political establishment.Further, it was not just a race about pro- or anti-Zionist ideologies, but also about moneyed interests hacking away at the small progressive coalition in Congress, commentators noted. Indeed, a number of Latimer’s donors were Republicans who had also spent money to support other pro-Israel candidates in recent races. Bowman’s loss is thus a bad sign for progressives, anda good sign for AIPAC and other groups seeking to oust progressive lawmakers, who now have a strong test case for the strategy of pouring a huge cache of money into a race in order to secure a win.
Jim Banks pushes Speaker Johnson to support Steve Bannon Supreme Court appeal = Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) is encouraging Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to lead a legal effort to support former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s emergency appeal to the Supreme Court. Bannon is aiming to stay out of prison while appealing his conviction for evading a subpoena from the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.Banks, whom former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blocked from being a ranking member of the Jan. 6 panel back in 2021, reiterated a longtime — and thus far, unsuccessful — argument from Republicans that the panel was illegitimately conceived, and therefore the subpoenas were illegitimate. “Given the Committee’s unprecedented, norm-shattering behavior, and partisan motives and structure, if you were to direct the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to file an amicus brief in support of Mr. Bannon’s June 21, 2024, Emergency Application for Continued Release Pending Appeal to the Supreme Court, it would have my full support,” Banks said in a letter to Johnson on Tuesday. Bannon was found guilty of two contempt of Congress counts in 2022 stemming from his failure to cooperate with the Jan. 6 panel’s subpoenas. He was ordered to report for a four-month sentence on July 1. On Friday, Bannon filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court to stay out of prison while he appeals his conviction.
Hunter Biden seeks new trial over gun charges --Hunter Biden, the son of President Biden, requested a new trial on federal gun charges Monday over a procedural matter. The president’s son was convicted earlier this month for lying about using illicit drugs when applying to purchase a gun six years ago and unlawfully possessing it thereafter. In court filings Monday, Hunter Biden attorney Abbe Lowell claimed his client’s convictions “should be vacated” because the judge overseeing the case did not have the jurisdiction to impanel a jury and hold a trial prior to a higher court giving a formal go-ahead. Lowell wrote that Hunter Biden filed two appeals with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, both of which were ultimately dismissed. However, the appeals court still has not issued a formal mandate denying one of those appeals, Lowell said, claiming that procedural issue should render the verdict void. “Naturally, any district court action taken after it has been divested of jurisdiction by an appeal must be vacated,” Lowell wrote. Hunter Biden’s three felony convictions stemmed from his 2018 purchase of a Colt Cobra 38 SPL revolver. On a federal gun purchase form, he checked “no” when asked if he used or was addicted to illegal drugs. Then, he unlawfully possessed the firearm for 11 days. The trial put a spotlight on Hunter Biden’s well-documented addiction to cocaine, which he and his father, the president, have openly addressed. Three women from his past, including his ex-wife, and his brother Beau’s widow — with whom he had a brief relationship — testified in the government’s case. Hunter Biden faces a maximum of 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines, though first-time offenders are rarely given the maximum penalty. His sentence will be at the judge’s discretion. Federal sentencing guidelines recommend 15-21 months in prison for defendants like Hunter Biden. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
Trump posts climate talking points online before CNN presidential debate with Biden -- Former President Trump seemingly posted talking points regarding his and President Biden’s respective records on climate change from his former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler on his Truth Social platform Thursday, ahead of his CNN debate with Biden. The post advises Trump to say that carbon dioxide emissions dropped under his administration and to blame Biden for energy cost increases and rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, which the talking points state “send[s] American dollars overseas to benefit other countries like China.” Those arguments are a marked departure from Trump’s historical rhetoric on climate change simply by virtue of acknowledging the relationship between it and greenhouse gas emissions. The former president has repeatedly falsely claimed climate change is a “hoax” and has vowed to wind back regulations on the fossil fuel industry. Trump’s first term did see a drop in carbon emissions, albeit at a slower rate than under former President Obama. In the first three years of the Trump presidency, emissions fell 0.5 percent before dropping steeply in 2020 due to restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump administration lifted a number of restrictions on oil and gas pipelines and exited the Paris agreement, while Biden reentered and denied permits to the Keystone XL Pipeline shortly after taking office. Despite these differences, however, domestic oil production has reached an all-time high under the Biden administration, with U.S. crude output breaking a record in 2023. U.S. production has outpaced that of Saudi Arabia and Russia over the last six years, a period including both presidents. After the end of the Trump administration, Wheeler was unsuccessfully nominated by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) to serve as the state’s secretary of natural resources. Youngkin instead named him director of the state Office of Regulatory Management, which Wheeler left in March. The Hill has reached out to both Wheeler and the Trump campaign to clarify whether he has any current formal advisory role with the campaign.
Trump jabs Biden: 'I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence' -- Former President Trump took aim at President Biden after he appeared to stumble over his words while answering a question during Thursday’s debate. “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either,” Trump said when he began his response to Biden’s comments. CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Biden why should voters “trust” him to resolve the crisis at the border, noting that a record number of migrants have crossed into the U.S. during his administration. Biden pointed to the bipartisan border security deal that Republicans blocked and his recent executive order that limits the number of migrants coming across the border once the number hits a certain threshold. He then appeared to misspeak before concluding his response. “I’m going to continue to move until we get to total ban — on the total initiative relative to what we’re going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers,” Biden said before Trump took aim at him. Earlier in the debate, Biden appeared to lose his train of thought on an answer about Medicare. Biden and Trump are going head-to-head in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle Thursday night. The stakes are high for both candidates as they make their appeal to voters in what will likely be another close election. Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, are the two oldest major party candidates to run against each other. While Trump is only a few years younger, polls have shown that voters are more concerned about Biden’s age and mental fitness for office.
Joe Biden snaps at Donald Trump over immigration lies -- President Biden lost his patience with former President Trump’s falsehoods on immigration in Thursday’s debate, after trying to direct the topic toward the failed bipartisan Senate border deal. “Everything he says is a lie,” Biden said during the event held by CNN in Atlanta. “Every single one.” Biden’s pivot came as Trump repeated a litany of falsehoods on immigration, based on the idea that the Biden administration purposefully opened the border. “He decided to open up our border, open up our country to people that are from prisons, people that are from mental institutions, insane asylum, terrorists,” Trump said. Trump also leaned into making a link between crime and immigration — a key claim for Republicans ahead of November’s election — making a generalized assessment of immigration based on isolated crimes. Most research has shown the presence of immigrants tends to lower crime rates because immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born citizens. A Cato Institute paper published Wednesday confirmed prior research that immigrants on average commit fewer murders than natural-born citizens. The paper analyzed Texas Department of Public Safety data and found the conviction rate for immigrants lacking documentation in the state was lower than the rate for natural-born citizens every year from 2013 to 2022. Trump said the United States had become a “rat’s nest” and added that “we have the largest number of terrorists coming into our country right now, all terrorists, all over the world, not just in South America, all over the world,” Trump said. He disparaged Biden’s claim that Congress should act to give the executive greater powers and resources to control the border, arguing that “he didn’t need legislation, because I didn’t have legislation, I said close the border.” Trump also compared migrant living conditions — which he falsely labeled as “luxury hotels” — to conditions for unhoused veterans. “He has killed so many people at our border by allowing all of these people to come in, and it’s a very sad day in America,” Trump said. That’s when Biden lost his patience, delivering one of his strongest lines in a debate that started shaky for the president. “Everything he says is a lie. Every single one,” Biden said. But Biden segued to respond to Trump’s quip about veterans, dropping the immigration topic. Trump, however, did not let the topic go. He raised immigration or the border in response to most other questions.
Joe Biden just had a 90-minute senior moment. The debate really was that bad. --- It was a first — a debate between a president and a former president. And it was likely watched as much out of morbid curiosity as interest in the election, which is also a first. The questions going in were whether Donald Trump could control himself, and whether Joe Biden could hold it together for 90 minutes. The answer to the first question was “yes.” To the second? “Not so much.” President Biden’s performance was shockingly bad. All that can be said is he got through the debate alive. Confused, lost, stumbling, mumbling and very angry, but he was still there and breathing when it ended. It was shocking. Inflation was the first topic, and Biden seemed to speed-talk through his nonsense answer, which was full of random attacks against Trump on everything from COVID to prescription drugs. It was disjointed, to say the least. He was confused and seemed to be scrambling for information that he hadn’t memorized quite well enough. Trump, in contrast, was refreshingly un-Trumpian. If you were a Democrat hoping to see him lose his mind or at least his cool, this was not your night. This was the strategy Team Trump had telegraphed — to avoid getting frazzled by Biden’s jabs and obvious attempted provocations. It worked brilliantly. By remaining presidential, if I even dare say that, Trump did what most viewers of CNN and MSNBC had been told he couldn’t: He controlled himself. This may not seem like a big deal — an adult controlling himself in a professional setting — but the narrative constructed about Trump is one of an unstable madman ready to destroy the country for his own glory and revenge. Anything short of a frothing-mouthed lunatic swearing to burn down Heaven and Earth to smite his enemies is a win for him in terms of personal comportment. When not talking, Biden looked confused, even lost. When speaking, he got lost several times. He said there were a thousand trillionaires, then corrected to billionaires. He downplayed the rape and murder of young American women by illegal immigrants by saying women are raped and murdered by Americans too. It was bizarre and, honestly, sad. The lack of audience made the debate odd. It was like watching a band play a concert in an empty room, it did not affect the energy of the event as much as I expected it to. The mutual hatred between the two men more than made up for it.
Biden debate performance is ‘nightmare’ for Democrats -- If there was one thing Democrats wanted to see on display from President Biden at Thursday night’s debate, it was strength. They wanted to see Biden pummel former President Trump on the Jan. 6 insurrection, on overturning Roe v. Wade. They wanted him to knock Trump down with the “convicted felon” moniker. Instead, most Democrats acknowledged Thursday, it was Biden who was knocked down. Hard. His voice was hoarse. His lips quivered. After the debate began, the White House said he had a cold. He tripped over his words. At times he veered off topic and in the wrong direction. During one moment, Biden declared, “We finally beat Medicare,” and went off course about earned benefits. “This is an honest-to-God nightmare,” said one Biden ally. “I can’t believe what I’m watching. I am watching us lose this election in slow motion.” Another Democratic strategist put it this way: “Political suicide.” One Democrat resorted to gallows humor in a dark moment: “I wish Jamaal Bowman was around to pull the fire alarm,” this source said about the congressman from New York. Not only did Biden not hold Trump accountable, Democrats acknowledged, but Biden stood by and watched as Trump spouted untruths on abortion and the COVID-19 pandemic. And when Trump continued to slam Biden as “the worst president in the history of our country,” Biden looked back “almost bewildered,” as one Democrat put it. “There are no two ways about it. That was not a good debate for Joe Biden,” Kate Bedingfield, who served as Biden’s longtime communications aide, said on CNN following the debate. “It’s the one night that confirmed people’s fears,” David Axelrod, who served as a senior adviser, said on the same CNN panel. As the debate wore on Democrats grew increasingly anxious — some wondering if it was too late for Biden to drop out. They had thoughts about other candidates, too. “There’s been a lot of chatter in our circles about Newsom,” one Democratic strategist said about California Gov. Gavin Newsom. One House Democratic member from a swing state put it this way: “This was a disaster. Biden’s team needs to convince him to withdraw and have an open convention.”
RFK Jr. sees Biden-Trump debate as potential boon for his third-party bid -Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sees the first presidential debate of the cycle — an event for which he didn’t qualify — as momentum-building for his third-party campaign. Amid the fallout from the CNN showdown between President Biden and former President Trump, Kennedy sounded a hopeful note about what Biden’s lambasted performance could mean for his own longshot candidacy.“They are tired of choosing the lesser of two evils,” Kennedy told NewsNation host Elizabeth Vargas in a post-debate recap about voters who see Biden and Trump as imperfect options.“Hopefully some of them are going to start looking at me,” he said. Kennedy held a counterprogramming event, which his campaign promoted as “The Real Debate,” on Rumble and X, which ended after the main Biden-Trump matchup.The independent candidate had pushed to make CNN’s debate threshold of 15 percent in four qualifying polls and enough state ballots to reach 270 electoral votes, but fell short. Instead, he held his own forum in which he heavily criticized CNN and his Democratic and Republican opponents for what he alleges is excluding him from the event.Showing up would not have helped his opponents, the 70-year-old Kennedy told NewsNation, but instead would have presented voters with an option younger than 81-year-old Biden and 78-year-old Trump.In particular, the debate sparked new questions about Biden’s age, stamina and mental acuity, and Trump’s willingness to share false information on the national stage. “I don’t think it would have helped President Trump or President Biden, I think it would have helped me a lot,” Kennedy told the network.
Jon Stewart says Biden had 'resting 25th Amendment face' at CNN debate against Trump --“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, broadcasting live after Thursday night’s first general election debate between President Biden and former President Trump, joined the chorus of those pillorying the incumbent over his performance. “Need to call a real estate agent in New Zealand,” Stewart, who recently typically only hosts the Comedy Central show on Mondays, said after playing a clip of Biden trailing off mid-thought before asserting that “we finally beat Medicare.” Democrats went into a panic over how Biden handled the debate, often mumbling and veering to other subjects while failing to make his points, and a flash poll from CNN showed two-thirds of viewers believe Trump won the Atlanta event.Stewart made clear he thought the president did no better when it was his predecessor’s turn to speak, saying Biden had “resting 25th Amendment face” while listening to the Republican.“So Biden perhaps not on top of his game. So maybe I will check out this young upstart Donald Trump,” Stewart said before playing short montage of the former president, who he said “does not appear to have passed the a–hole test.”“Just so we’re all clear: Everything Donald Trump said in that clip is a lie, blatant and full,” he said. Looking at both candidates, the veteran comedian appeared to despair: “This cannot be real life. It just can’t.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin: 'I feel duped' by Biden's team after CNN debate against Trump -“The View” host Alyssa Farah Griffin says after watching President Biden’s shaky debate againstformer President Trump, she feels deceived by the White House about his fitness for office. “I feel duped,” she said Friday on the ABC daytime talk show during a discussion about the CNN debate the night before in Atlanta.“I feel like I’ve been told this guy’s doing gymnastics,” Farah Griffin, a former Trump administration official-turned-fierce critic of the 45th president, said of Biden.White House officials and the president’s allies had pushed back on a Wall Street Journal report published earlier this month headlined “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping,” which raised questions about his fitness for office. Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in response to the reporting at the time, “As someone who has spent and continues to spend a lot of time with the president and continues to, I think ensure that I am living up to sort of his … strategic approach at every turn, I will say that he is, you know, just one of the strongest leaders that I’ve been able to engage and to be able to work with and to advise.”“This is historically bad, and I think we need to be awake to the stakes of it, because the time is really critical,” Farah Griffin said as she reacted to Thursday’s debate.“I was genuinely in shock last night watching this,” Farah Griffin told her fellow “The View” co-hosts. “Even though I had concerns for a couple of years about Biden’s age, it was stunningly worse than I expected,” she said.
Democrats suggests 'chatter' on Biden stepping aside amid 'panic' over debate - Democratic operatives and political pundits suggested on Thursday that there are conversations happening about President Biden stepping aside before November’s electionafter a debate performance some called “dismal,” panicking some of his closest allies.That revelation came in the moments after Biden wrapped up a CNN debate with former President Trump, a performance that was panned for his voice appearing hoarse, which the White House attributed to a cold, and garbling answers on questions relating to key issues for Democrats.CNN’s John King kicked off the network’s political analysis of the event with this stark assessment: “This was a game changing debate in the sense that right now as we speak, there is a deep, a wide and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party.”David Axelrod, a senior adviser to former President Obama who joined King on a roundtable, said the party was experiencing “shock.”“I think there was a sense of shock, actually, at how he came out at the beginning of this debate. How his voice sounded. He seemed a bit disoriented. He did get stronger as the debate went on,” Axelrod said. “I think you’re going to hear discussions that I don’t know will lead to anything but there are going to be discussions about whether he should continue.”Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged later in a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper than Biden was off to a “slow start” but fought through a testy exchange to defend Biden on substance and policy.A Biden adviser defended the president when asked about conversations about him stepping aside.“President Biden is the only person who has ever beaten Donald Trump. He will do it again. Donald Trump did not give voters any reason to vote for him tonight. On the issues, the American people are with Joe Biden,” the adviser said.But the debate left the political world shook, with some pundits on left-leaning MSNBC taking the time to describe what procedures would be required to replace Biden at the Democratic National Convention.
McCarthy says Biden won’t step aside: ‘You can’t negotiate with him’ --Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he thinks President Biden won’t step aside and let the Democratic Party find a new nominee because “you can’t negotiate with him.”Biden’s shaky debate performance Thursday sparked widespread fear among liberals, leaving pundits to indicate during post-debate analysis that discussions would be had about whether Biden would step down and allow someone else to take on former President Trump in the election.Biden’s campaign and the White House, however, have said he’s not going anywhere.McCarthy joined Fox Business on Friday to weigh in, noting that it would be nearly impossible for Democrats to replace Biden unless he bows out himself.Democratic rules mandate that the delegates Biden has already won in the presidential primary remain obligated to support him at the party’s convention.“They created this problem and the only way … Joe Biden can come off the ballot is he decides it,” McCarthy said.“Joe Biden is going to be the nominee. Joe Biden is not going to give it up,” he continued. “Why? Because Jill does not want to give it up either.”McCarthy noted that during tenure as Speaker, before he was ousted by his own party, he negotiated with Biden on various issues.“I learned when I was negotiating with him, you can’t negotiate with him. He just talks about cars. You have to negotiate with staff,” he said.McCarthy said the “real time” for Biden to remove himself from the running would have been a year ago. “His problem is age. It’s not even what he said. It’s just the look of [what] he did, his actions, which everybody knows, he’s not the same person he used to be,” he said.
Chip Roy says he'll call on Kamala Harris to remove Biden under 25th Amendment -- Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced a resolution Friday urging Vice President Harris to convene the Cabinet and declare President Biden unable to carry out the duties of the Oval Office after the commander in chief’s poor debate performance the night before.The announcement marks the latest fallout from the CNN debate between Biden and former President Trump, during which the incumbent tripped over his words and appeared to lose his train of thought, prompting widespread concern among Democrats. “I intend to put forth a resolution calling upon the @VP to immediately use her powers under section 4 of the 25th Amendment to convene & mobilize the principal officers of the Cabinet to declare the @POTUS is unable to successfully discharge the duties and powers of his office,” Roy wrote in a post on the social platform X. The brief resolution introduced later in the day said that Biden “has repeatedly and publicly demonstrated his inability to discharge the powers and duties of the Presidency, including, among others, the powers and duties of the Commander-in-Chief.” The resolution would simply express the sense of the House, and not force action from the Vice President or cabinet. Roy told reporters Friday morning that,”I think anybody with eyes and anybody observing objectively last night saw an individual that is not capable of carrying out the duties the commander-in-chief in a world in which we’re, you know, facing increasing dangers.” He added, “for those of us who follow this stuff internally, it has been very clear the declining status of the of the capacity of the president, but last night put it all out for all to see. Our colleagues on their side of the aisle can’t hide from it. And frankly, I don’t do this through a political lens, right. I mean, I don’t view it through the lens of well, is the timing good and bad for what happens in November or anything else? It’s just the simple fact of the matter is the president of the United States is not capable of doing the job.” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) later on Friday said he thinks Biden’s cabinet should consider removing the president in light of the debate. But asked about Roy’s resolution, he noted that Congress cannot force the first step. “Unfortunately, it’s not the House that gets to determine that, it’s the Cabinet under the Constitution, of course, it’s the Cabinet that makes that decision,” Johnson said. Section 4 of the 25th Amendment — which has never been used — says that if the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet or Congress deem the president as “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” the vice president should “immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
Mike Johnson says Cabinet should consider removing Biden through 25th Amendment - Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Friday that members of President Biden’s Cabinet should consider using the 25th Amendment to remove him from office in light of his weak debate performance Thursday night. "There’s a lot of people asking about the 25th Amendment, invoking the 25th Amendment right now because this is an alarming situation,” Johnson said. “Our adversaries see the weakness in this White House as we all do. I take no pleasure in saying that. I think this is a very dangerous situation.” “I would ask the Cabinet members to search their hearts,” Johnson continued, mentioning reports that Democrats are “panicking” after Biden’s debate performance. “I would be panicking too if I were a Democrat today and that was my nominee. I think they know they have a serious problem.”“But it’s not just political. It’s not just the Democratic Party. It’s the entire country. We have a serious problem here, because we have a president who, by all appearances, is not up to the task,” Johnson said. “And these are very dangerous times. This is a very serious moment in American history. And it needs to be regarded and handled as such. And we hope that they will do their duty, as we all seek to do our duty to do best for the American people.” Thursday night saw Biden give a halting and hesitant performance and struggle to answer some questions. It prompted alarm among Democrats and even calls for Biden to remove himselffrom the presidential ticket. The 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which governs presidential succession, says that the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet may vote to declare a president “unable to discharge the powers and the duties of his office” and give the vice president the duties of acting president.A dispute from the president about his capacity to perform the job would send the question to Congress, which could then decide to give the vice president the powers of acting president by a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate. Never before have the vice president and the Cabinet declared a president incapable of serving in office.
New York Times editorial board: Joe Biden should drop out -The New York Times editorial board called on President Biden to suspend his campaign after his shaky debate performance against former President Trump on Thursday.“Mr. Biden has said that he is the candidate with the best chance of taking on this threat of tyranny and defeating it. His argument rests largely on the fact that he beat Mr. Trump in 2020,” the board wrote. “That is no longer a sufficient rationale for why Mr. Biden should be the Democratic nominee this year.”The 81-year-old Biden appeared on the Atlanta, Ga., debate stage with a hoarse voice and a slight cough. The issue of his age and mental competency has been a sore point for his campaign and the debate was seen as an opportunity to show the country he is still fit to serve. His performance sparked widespread fear among Democrats, and reignited the conversation about whether Biden should step down and allow someone else to take on Trump.Biden’s campaign and the White House have said he’s not going anywhere. The Times said it was obvious Biden is not the man he was four years ago, calling him “the shadow of a great public servant.”“He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans,” the Times said. “More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.”“There is no reason for the party to risk the stability and security of the country by forcing voters to choose between Mr. Trump’s deficiencies and those of Mr. Biden,” the board said. Still, if Biden does not drop out, the board said it would endorse him over Trump.
David Axelrod says if Joe Biden is replaced, GOP is 'in trouble' -- Democratic strategist David Axelrod told GOP strategists during a postdebate panel discussion that they and former President Trump would face “trouble” if President Biden is replaced at the top of the Democratic ticket.“If, for whatever reason, there’s a change at the top of the ticket, you guys are in trouble with Donald Trump. Because the guy who was up there tonight is not a guy who’s going to inspire people,” Axelrod said on CNN following Thursday’s debate, in a clip highlighted by Mediaite.“He did not show in any way that he has changed from the guy who people have a very positive opinion of, for a lot of good reason.”Biden’s debate performance sparked fears among his own party, as his voice was raspy and he struggled with his words. Operatives and pundits indicated following the debate that discussions were happening about Biden bowing out before the upcoming election.“I think there was a sense of shock, actually, at how he came out at the beginning of this debate. How his voice sounded. He seemed a bit disoriented. He did get stronger as the debate went on,” Axelrod said on CNN. “I think you’re going to hear discussions that I don’t know will lead to anything, but there are going to be discussions about whether he should continue.”Biden had a cold during the debate, according to a White House official, and his camp defended him as questions swirled around his position at the top of the Democratic ticket.“President Biden is the only person who has ever beaten Donald Trump. He will do it again.Donald Trump did not give voters any reason to vote for him tonight. On the issues, the American people are with Joe Biden,” a Biden adviser said.
Really Think About What It Means That The US President Has Dementia by Caitlin Johnstone - It’s very revealing how everybody’s focusing on what Biden’s dementia-addled debate performance says about his ability to win re-election instead of on the fact that the current, sitting president of the United States has dementia. If you were lucky enough to have missed the debate, Biden was so confused and zoned out that not only did CNN’s audience overwhelmingly say Trump won while the word “dementia” was sent trending on Twitter, but it was also uniformly acknowledged to have been a horrifying catastrophe by Democratic Party operatives and liberal media pundits, who are now widely suggesting that the president should withdraw from the race. But the conversation has almost entirely revolved around Joe Biden as a presidential candidate, with relatively little attention going to the fact that this person is the president right now. Everyone’s talking about whether Biden can assure American voters that he has what it takes to be president, and nobody seems all that concerned about the fact that he is already president and will remain so for half a year. What this suggests is that people already kind of know on some level that the president of the United States doesn’t really run the United States, but are still mentally compartmentalized away from this reality enough to care who wins the presidential election. If people really believed the president runs the country, they’d be freaking out that Biden in his demented haze might order an attack on the Soviet Union or nuke Libya to kill Muammar Gaddafi or something. They’re not worried that this will happen because they know their government is actually being run by unelected empire managers from behind the scenes, and that Biden is just the official face on the operation. So in order to hold their mainstream worldview together, liberals are simultaneously straddling the two completely contradictory concepts that (A) it doesn’t matter who the president is because the country is actually run by unelected empire managers, and (B) that Biden’s debate performance was very concerning because it means Trump will become president. If they let go of (A) then they’re no longer in the mainstream worldview where their country works how they were taught it works in school, and if they let go of (B) then they’re no longer in the mainstream worldview where presidential elections are super duper important and all their country’s problems are the result of Americans voting incorrectly. So they straddle them both and try not to think too hard about the obvious contradictions between them, in order to avoid the crushing cognitive dissonance they’d experience if they looked at them too closely.In reality the US empire has marched along in all its usual depravity despite its official leader having Swiss cheese for a brain this entire time. They got their genocide in Gaza and their world-threatening proxy war against Russia, as well as China policy that is vastly more hawkish than that of Biden’s predecessors. The imperial murder machine hasn’t skipped a beat in its nonstop campaign of steadily increasing global tyranny.This has happened because US presidential elections are fake and the results don’t matter. It wouldn’t matter if Americans elected a labrador retriever or a bottle of Tabasco sauce; the empire would roll forward without the slightest interruption. The wars would continue. The economic injustice would continue. The surging authoritarianism would continue. The oligarchy and corruption would continue. The ecocidal capitalism would continue. The imperialist extraction would continue. US elections are just a diversion to keep Americans from pushing for real change in ways that pose a meaningful challenge to power, and Americans already kind of know this. The sooner they stop compartmentalizing away from this fact that they’re already dimly aware of and face reality, the sooner they can start bringing health to both their nation and the world.
Donald Trump's hush money gag order partially lifted by judge --A New York judge on Tuesday partially lifted a gag order imposed on former President Trump’sspeech in his hush money criminal case. The updated terms allow Trump to resume speaking about trial witnesses including Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, whom he has attacked incessantly. The partial lifting of the order comes just days before the first 2024 presidential debate Thursday, where Trump is expected to address his conviction in the case.The gag order remains in place when it comes to prosecutors overseeing the case, with the exception of District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) as well as Judge Juan Merchan, though Merchan said he’d lift those restrictions after the July 11 sentencing. The partial lift will allow Trump to address the jury that convicted him last month on 34 criminal charges, though the former president remains under a separate protective order that prohibits him from publicly disclosing their identities. Merchan reluctantly lifted those restrictions, saying it would be his “strong preference” to extend the jurors’ protection, as Bragg’s office had urged.“However, circumstances have now changed. The trial portion of these proceedings ended when the verdict was rendered, and the jury discharged,” Merchan wrote in his ruling. Though the ruling comes just two days before Trump is expected to face off against President Biden in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle Thursday, the event is not mentioned in the judge’s order. Trump was convicted of falsifying business records last month in connection with a hush money payment his ex-fixer, Cohen, made to Daniels, a porn actor, ahead of the 2016 election to keep her story of an alleged affair with Trump a secret. Trump has denied the affair and vowed to appeal the guilty verdict. He has long railed against the gag order as violation of his First Amendment rights, stressing his status as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. After the trial ended, Trump’s lawyers after the trial demanded the judge lift the restrictions. In Tuesday’s order, Merchan defended his original decision to impose the order, noting appeals courts had upheld it. “Both Orders were narrowly tailored to address the significant concerns regarding the Defendant’s extrajudicial speech,” Merchan wrote. “The Orders were overwhelmingly supported by the record.” Merchan found that Trump violated the gag order on 10 occasions in the lead-up to and during his trial, fining him $1,000 for each and warning that additional violations could lead to jail time.
Trump rips Fani Willis in Georgia disqualification appeal -- Attorneys for former President Trump argued in a court filing Monday that a Georgia appeals court should overturn a lower court decision and disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) from her prosecution of Trump, alleging misconduct. Revelations that Willis was in a romantic relationship with one of Trump’s top prosecutors caused a multimonth delay in his Georgia election interference case, including a series of hearings that culminated in the district attorney being allowed to remain. The lower court ruled in April that Willis could stay on the case, as long as prosecutor Nathan Wade stepped down. Trump’s attorneys argue that the court should instead order both Wade and Willis off the case, citing their relationship and other allegations of misconduct. “Once the trial court found that a ‘significant appearance of impropriety infect[ed] the current structure of the prosecution team,’ the remedy was to disqualify each affected prosecutor and the entire DA’s office,” the attorneys wrote. Trump attorney Steven Sadow said in a statement that he’s “optimistic” that the Georgia Court of Appeals will disqualify Willis. “The brief persuasively argues that the trial court should have dismissed the case and disqualified DA Willis for her forensic misconduct and the appearance of impropriety between her and former Special Assistant DA Wade, who was her lover and taxpayer-funded financial benefactor,” Sadow wrote. “We are optimistic that the Court will favorably decide the appeal in our favor.” The filing also alleges that Willis made politically charged comments in interviews, on social media and during public speaking appearances, and that she initially lied to cover up her relationship with Wade. Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing Trump’s election interference case in the Superior Court of Fulton County, has not yet set a trial date, and the higher court’s decision to hear the appeal is likely to cause further delays. McAfee has signaled he plans to continue addressing various pending motions in the meantime, though the defendants could attempt to pause the trial. Any trial in the case would likely not take place until after the November election. Willis said last year, before the disqualification-related delays, that the case could drag into 2025. The disqualification effort was first mounted by 2020 Trump campaign operative Michael Roman, a defendant in the case. Others, including Trump, rapidly joined his efforts, causing the case to take a weeks-long detour. Willis charged Trump and more than a dozen of his allies last summer with attempting to subvert the state’s 2020 presidential election results, accusing them of entering an unlawful conspiracy to overturn President Biden’s victory in the state. Trump pleaded not guilty.
Monica Lewinsky calls for Judge Cannon's impeachment --Author and activist Monica Lewinsky said Tuesday the judge overseeing former President Trump’s classified documents case should be impeached.“i awakened angry about the documents case in florida,” Lewinsky wrote in a post on the social platform X. “it is INSANE that it hasn’t moved forward to trial, and i hope judge [Aileen Cannon] is impeached. IF the documents had been declassified (which they weren’t) then all trump had to do was xerox them and return originals that were being asked for and explain they were declassified (again, for those in back, which they weren’t).”Cannon has indefinitely postponed the classified documents case and has declined to set a trial date until she can get through pretrial motions.Cannon has faced mounting criticism over how she is handling the case, with some saying she is giving too much deference to the former president. Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele claimed this week that she is “putting the prosecution on trial.”According to recent reporting by The New York Times, two judges attempted to get Cannon to hand off the documents case when it was assigned to her a year ago. The requests occurred following Cannon’s initial handling of the former president’s challenge of a warrant to search his home, as her appointment of a special master was later halted by a higher court.
CREW files bribery complaint against Trump over oil industry donations --The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed a criminal bribery complaint urging the Justice Department to investigate former President Trump’s solicitation of campaign donations from fossil fuel executives.The former president met with oil industry executives in April and asked for $1 billion in campaign contributions, The Hill reported last month.The Washington Post, which first reported the request, also reported that the former president described the donations as a “deal” and said that in a second term, Trump would unwind Biden administration regulations on industry. A person with knowledge of the meeting who confirmed the request to The Hill denied it involved a quid pro quo agreement.The chairs of the Senate Budget and Finance committees have also announced a joint investigation into the meeting, with Budget Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) calling it the “definition of corruption.”The former president reportedly promised industry executives he would end a Biden administration pause on new natural gas export approvals and asked attendees to “be generous” at a fundraising event in late May, although he reportedly did not request a dollar amount, according to The Washington Post.“We cannot have government officials making important policy as a result of corrupt exchanges that benefit them, rather than what is in the interest of the American people. That’s why the law is clear that a request for a benefit, including campaign contributions, in exchange for an official act is a bribe,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said in a statement.“Donald Trump’s actions here follow a pattern of Trump opening himself up to corrupt influence, courting conflicts of interest, and using official positions to enrich himself–and in this case may run afoul of the criminal law.”The letter is addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Corey Amundson, chief of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. CREW previously filed a complaint against then-President Trump alleging that he violated constitutional prohibitions against federal officials accepting foreign governments’ gifts or payments. The Supreme Court ordered the case dismissed in the lower court in January 2021 after Trump left office.In a statement to The Hill, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the Post report “false,” adding, “Joe Biden is controlled by environmental extremists who are trying to implement the most radical energy agenda in history and force Americans to purchase electric vehicles they can’t afford. President Trump is supported by people who share his vision of American energy dominance to protect our national security and bring down the cost of living for all Americans.”
Crypto Scammers Are Targeting Trump’s MAGA Supporters | WIRED -- Last month, former president Donald Trump announced that his campaign would accept donations in cryptocurrency. In the weeks that followed, the cybercrime detection firm Netcraft found dozens of scam websites seeking to target Trump supporters and swindle them out of their crypto, according to a report shared exclusively with WIRED. Netcraft found that in the days leading up to the announcement, scammers registered domains with common misspellings, hoping to capture supporters intending to access donaldjtrump.com. One domain registered to donalbjtrump.com was a near perfect replica of the actual Trump campaign website. And while the Trump campaign accepts donations via Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, some of the scam websites instead appear to be using portals meant to look like Coingate, a blockchain and crypto payment processor.“As a victim, the fact that the real campaign is using Coinbase payments rather than direct cryptocurrencies” wouldn’t be very obvious, says Rob Duncan, head of research at Netcraft. “The way it's been advertised is ‘Donald Trump's taking cryptocurrency donations,’ when actually that's quite it's a bit more subtle.”A second surge of fake websites appeared immediately after Trump’s May 30 felony conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to pay off the porn star Stormy Daniels. In the hours after his conviction, the campaign raised more than $34 million in donations. Cybercriminals seemed to anticipate this interest, and were ready to capitalize on the donations pouring into the Trump campaign in the wake of the verdict. “Criminals like to use events like this, to base their scams on topical events, things that people are interested in, where people are more likely to click on links,” says Duncan. In the wake of the October 7 attacks and subsequent conflict in Palestine, Duncan says Netcraft identified several donation scams, targeting people on both sides of the conflict.“They're interested in getting cryptocurrency from anybody. And they're not bothered about which political persuasion they might have,” says Duncan.Duncan adds that through checking the blockchain, none of the scams seem to be successful yet, but he suspects that may be because they are relatively new and may not yet be active.The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.Cryptocurrencies can be particularly useful for criminals because they are largely unregulated and don’t have the same constraints that traditional financial institutions do. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2023 Internet Crime Report, crypto investment scams cost people some $3.94 billion. “Crypto is obviously a very good mechanism for criminals to use,” says Duncan. “There's no way to reverse payments; once the money's in the criminal's wallet, it's gone.”Trump’s recent support of crypto is an about-face from his presidency. In 2019, Trump said he was“not a fan” of cryptocurrencies in a series of posts on X, then Twitter. “We have only one real currency in the USA … It is called the United States Dollar!” he posted at the time.But now, the former president is courting the crypto space. Before his campaign’s announcement in May, Politico reported that Trump held a meeting at Mar-a-Lago with crypto traders where he apparently told them a Trump administration would not oversee the same regulatory scrutiny on crypto that the Democratic Party has sought. As the crypto industry has begun amassing money to attack candidates who favor more regulation of the space, however, some Democrats have backedaway from a more hard-line stance.In December, several leaders in the crypto space launched three political action committees (PACs) aimed at backing candidates with policies friendly to the digital asset industry. David Bailey, CEO of BTC Inc., told CNBC that the crypto industry was committed to raising “$100 million and turning out more than 5 million voters for the Trump reelection effort.”
Deepfakes of Elon Musk are pushing crypto giveaway scams on YouTube Live --A YouTube Live broadcast that ran for five hours today used a deepfake of Elon Musk to push a cryptocurrency scam, in the latest of a series of similar bogus streams. The video, which has has since been taken down, showed a clip of Musk that was meant to look like a livestream from a Tesla event, with an AI-generated version of his voice instructing viewers to visit a website and deposit their bitcoin, Ethereum or Dogecoin in order to participate in a giveaway. The message, playing on a loop, promised the system would then “automatically send back double the amount of the cryptocurrency you deposited.”Over 30,000 viewers were tuned into the stream at one point (though we can’t discount the possibility these numbers were inflated by bots), pushing it to the top of YouTube’s Live Now recommendations. The account masquerading as Tesla, @elon.teslastream, had the Official Artist Channel verification badge, so we may be looking at an account hack. Both the video and the channel were removed after Engadget reached out to Google. We’ll update this article if we hear back with any more information.These Elon Musk deepfake scams seem to have surged over the past couple of months, in each instance using an account posing as one of Musk’s companies. This one was titled “Tesla's [sic] unveils a masterpiece: The Tesla that will change the car industry forever.” Earlier in June,Cointelegraph reported on similar scams run by 35 accounts pretending to be SpaceX around the time of the Starship launch. Scammers in April attempted to get in on the eclipse hype using the same tactic, as Mashable reported at the time. And there have been numerous reports of fake Musk livestreams posted on Reddit recently.Crypto scams targeting Musk’s followers on social media have been a problem for years, as have those involving celebrities in general. Just this Friday, 50 Cent was hit by a hack that used his accounts to carry out a pump-and-dump scheme.
Ohio Democrat introduces bill to protect against AI-generated election misinformation -Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) has introduced legislation to protect voters against artificial intelligence-created election misinformation. The Securing Elections from AI Deception Act seeks to ban the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to deprive or defraud individuals of their right to vote and require disclaimers on AI-generated content. “Deceptive AI-generated content is a threat to elections, voters, and our democracy. AI-generated content is a powerful new tool requiring oversight and regulation to ensure our elections are secure, and the rights of voters are protected. This threat is no longer theoretical. It is quickly making its malevolent presence known and will likely get much worse,” Brown said in a statement.“I am especially concerned that deepfake images, audio, and video will be used to target Black and minority voters whose voting rights have historically and consistently been under threat,” she continued. “Combining 21st century technology with old-fashioned voter suppression and misinformation is a dangerous combination.”The legislation prohibits AI-generated images sending out deceptive messages on the time, place, or method of voting; eligibility requirements to vote or register to vote; endorsements; and requirements for voting. It also prohibits using deception, threats or intimidation or fraud to try to interfere with an individual’s right to vote. Those caught using AI for such actions could face penalties or fines under the legislation.AI, including fake audio and images, has already been used to promote narratives around the 2024 election. Many of these efforts have targeted Black voters, a critical base for Democrats.In more than one instance, supporters of former President Trump created images of him surrounded by Black supporters. Trump, who faces off against President Biden in a 2020 rematch, has been hoping to court Black voters.Then, the night before the New Hampshire primary in January this year, a host of AI-generated robocalls targeting Black voters by impersonating Biden urged voters to “save your vote” for the general election. A bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee also found that Russia’s use of social media interference during the 2016 election “targeted African-Americans more than any other group or demographic.” “A lie that deprives a person from voting is an insult to our democracy — no matter the source,” Alex Ault, policy counsel for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement supporting Brown’s legislation. “Black and Brown voters deserve better than to be attacked and misled by bad actors using AI tools.”In March, Brown sent a letter on AI election interference to the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and the Election Assistance Commission. The bipartisan letter requested information regarding the use of artificial intelligence to intimidate, threaten or misinform voters during the 2024 election cycle. “The technology is new, but often the aims are as old as this country — to impede the rights of Black voters and other minority groups,” she said at the time. Her new legislation has 46 co-sponsors, all Democrats, and has been endorsed by the NAACP.
Rapper 50 Cent Targeted In Crypto Scam: Hacker Made $3 Million Using His Account -In a shocking turn of events, renowned rapper Curtis James Jackson III, better known as 50 Cent, reported that his social media account on X (formerly known as Twitter) and website were compromised by hackers. The attackers allegedly exploited his massive online following, estimated at 12.9 million fans, to perpetrate a cryptocurrency scam. "My Twitter and Thisis50.com were hacked. I have no association with this crypto. Twitter worked quickly to lock my account back down. Whoever did this made $3,000,000 in 30 minutes," the rapper, 48, wrote on his Instagram late Friday. It was a 'rug pull,' a scam where developers abandon their project and abscond with investors' funds, leaving the investors with worthless assets and significant financial losses.The Instagram post included screenshots of the "$GUNIT" memecoin, which started at under $1 million in market value and quickly shot up. 50 Cent has since regained control of his accounts and has publicly denounced any association with the GUNIT token.
Actors Johansson and Tatum call out lack of AI protection in Hollywood - Actors Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum are calling out the lack of safeguards surrounding artificial intelligence (AI).The two movies stars, who are promoting their new film “Fly me to the Moon,” both expressed support for Washington to take action on the emerging technology, which has created worried in Hollywood ranging from actors having their images misused to scripts being written by software programs.“Obviously, we’re all waiting and supporting like this, like the passing of legislation to protect everybody’s individual rights,” Johansson said in an interview with The Associated Press.The “Avengers” star said hew own dispute with OpenAI shows “how vulnerable everybody is to it,” while noting that she is still waiting on legislation to address the issue.OpenAI released a voiced AI assistant last month that Johansson said sounds “eerily similar” to her voice.She also said it shows “how little protection people do have, if any, of their work and their likeness.”
OpenAI, Microsoft face new copyright infringement lawsuit -- The Center for Investigative Reporting has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft alleging copyright infringement in a new fight against unauthorized use of news content in building artificial intelligence (AI).The news nonprofit, which produces Mother Jones and Reveal, alleges in the lawsuit that OpenAI, the creator of the popular ChatGPT tool, used its content without permission or offering compensation.OpenAI’s platforms are trained using human works and in particular, human-made journalism, to “attempt to mimic how humans write and speak,” the lawsuit said.Filed in the Southern District of New York, the suit argues that the company attempts to compete for the attention of consumers to earn profit. It said Open AI has used “hundreds of thousands, if not millions” of journalistic articles, undermining the Center for Investigative Reporting’s standing with the public.Monika Bauerlein, the nonprofit’s CEO, told The Associated Press that “it’s immensely dangerous.”“Our existence relies on users finding our work valuable and deciding to support it,” she said, voicing concerns that users will now create a relationship with the AI tool instead.The AI companies are battling other copyright lawsuits from various news organizations that also argue their work has been used without permission to “fuel the commercialization” of AI.The AP noted that instead of battling the new AI wave, some news organizations are partnering with them. For example, Time magazine announced Thursday that OpenAI will be receiving access to its archives over the last 100 years.
Largest Auto Dealers Begin to Warn about Impact of Ransomware Attack Crippling Dealer Software Provider CDK by Wolf Richter- When the $8.3 billion acquisition of auto-dealer software provider CDK by a PE firm under Brookfield Asset Management was completed in July 2022, the mergers & acquisitions firm, Paul Weiss, which had advised CDK on the deal, said in a now ironic press release: “The deal will allow CDK to continue to elevate the dealer and consumer experience when selling, buying or owning a vehicle.”Less than two years later, last Wednesday, CDK’s customers, including the biggest auto-dealer chains in the US, watched helplessly as a ransomware attack shut down CDK’s cloud-based software system, depriving all of its customers – 15,000 dealerships in total – of the most basic daily tools to run their new and used-vehicle sales operations, their parts and service operations, their inventories, their back-office operations, customer contact systems, loan applications, etc.Dealers have resorted to writing up sales orders and service orders by hand, then hand-typing all this into spreadsheets or whatever, to track it somehow, hopefully not making the situation even worse by adding typos into VINs, repair order numbers, names, and other key data. Then, someday, when the system is up and running again, they hope to re-type – or maybe copy and paste? – all this from spreadsheets into the CDK software system, praying all along the way to not make the situation even worse by introducing more typos into key data. The publicly held auto dealers – there are not many, but they’re huge, with lots of big dealerships around the country – have started to warn about the still unquantifiable consequences. And this could ripple across the economic data for Q2.
- AutoNation [AN], the largest dealer chain in the US, said in an SEC filing today that it had been notified on June 19 that CDK, “was experiencing a cyber incident impacting its systems, including the systems necessary to support our dealer management system (“DMS”), which supports our dealership operations, including our sales, service, inventory, customer relationship management, and accounting functions.” It said its stores remain open, “and we are continuing to sell, service, and buy vehicles, and otherwise serve our customers, through manual and alternative means and processes, albeit with lower productivity.” “As the incident is ongoing, the full scope, nature and impact of the incident is not yet known,” it said.
- Group 1 Automotive [GPI] said in an SEC filing today that “all Group 1 U.S. dealerships continue to conduct business using alternative processes until CDK’s dealers’ systems are available.” “CDK has advised that it anticipates the restoration of the dealer management system will require several days and not weeks. The timing of the restoration of other impacted CDK applications remains unclear at this time,” it said. “Group 1’s ability to determine the material impact, if any, of the CDK incident and the resulting service outage, will ultimately depend on a number of factors, including when, and to what extent, the Company resumes its access to the CDK’s dealers’ systems,” it said.
- Lithia Motors [LAD] said in an SEC filing today, “The Company, whose dealerships continue to operate, has implemented mitigation plans to minimize disruptions and continue serving its customers. While this incident has had, and is likely to continue to have, a negative impact on the Company’s business operations until the relevant systems are fully restored, the Company has not yet determined whether the incident is reasonably likely to materially impact the Company’s financial condition or results of operations.”
- Sonic Automotive [SAH] said in an SEC filing on Friday, “All of the Company’s dealerships are open and operating utilizing workaround solutions to minimize the disruption caused by this CDK outage.” “As the incident is ongoing, the full scope, nature and impact of the incident, including the extent to which the threat actor accessed any customer data, are not yet known,” it said. “While this incident has had, and is likely to continue to have, a negative impact on the Company’s business operations until the relevant systems are fully restored, the Company has not yet determined whether the incident is reasonably likely to have a material impact on the Company’s financial condition or results of operations,” it said.
- Penske Automotive Group [PAG] said in an SEC filing on Friday that its consumer-brands of dealerships were not using CDK’s software, and were not impacted, but its 48 heavy-truck dealerships were. The commercial truck dealership business – selling primarily Freightliner and Western Star trucks – “has lower unit volumes than the automotive dealership business and principally serves business customers,” it said.
- CarMax [KMX], the largest used-vehicle dealer in the US, said during its earnings call on Friday that it does not use CDK and wasn’t directly impacted by the hack, but that it works “with a lot of other dealers” to get parts to repair vehicles, and if their systems are down, there would be a “minor” impact on CarMax, and “there is a little impact on title work as well. But I would say it’s just minor in the scheme of things as far as the impact on us,” CEO Bill Nash said.
Impact on economic data for Q2: The industry is now heading into the last few days of the second quarter for purposes of the closely-watched reporting of deliveries of new vehicles to customers. Deals that got hung up could prevent the vehicle from being delivered by the quarter’s cut-off date, which may ripple across all kinds of Q2 economic data. Vehicle retail sales are an important factor in consumer spending. CDK shrouded itself in opacity about the nature of the hack. Emails to dealers have called this event a cyber incident and cyberattack. On Friday, Bloomberg reported that this was a ransom attack. On Saturday, CDK admitted that it was recovering from a “cyber ransom event.” Today, Bloomberg reported, citing the security firm Recorded Future, that the attack had been undertaken by hacking group BlackSuit. “The cybercrime group has demanded an extortion fee in the tens of millions of dollars from CDK, which plans to make the payment,” Bloomberg said.
Gaetz unveils bill allowing bitcoin tax payments --Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced a bill Tuesday that would allow Americans to pay their federal income tax in bitcoin.Gaetz said the radical move would “promote innovation, increase efficiency, and offer more flexibility to American citizens.” “This is a bold step toward a future where digital currencies play a vital role in our financial system, ensuring that the U.S. remains at the forefront of technological advancement,” he said in a statement.The congressman cited his recent visit to El Salvador — which in 2021 became the first country to allow bitcoin as a legal currency — as the inspiration for the bill.Colorado was the first government to approve cryptocurrency payments for taxes in 2022. Utah, New Jersey and Kentucky have also made moves toward approving the payment.The bill comes as Congress grapples with how to regulate cryptocurrency, a rapidly growing industry that has been marred by fraud and instability. The House passed a regulation framework bill last month which would allow the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to fully oversee cryptocurrency trading. SEC Chair Gary Gensler opposed the House bill, claiming it would undermine his agency’s regulatory power.“The crypto industry’s record of failures, frauds, and bankruptcies is not because we don’t have rules or because the rules are unclear,” he said last month. “It’s because many players in the crypto industry don’t play by the rules.” “We should make the policy choice to protect the investing public over facilitating business models of noncompliant firms,” he added.Though bitcoin was initially founded to be used as a currency, cryptocurrencies have generally been treated as speculative assets due to their extreme instability and limited use cases. The price of bitcoin has fluctuated wildly this year, rising from about $40,000 in January to more than $70,000 in March. The price briefly fell below $60,000 on Monday.
Hackers claim they stole Federal Reserve data, offer no evidence - In a post on its victim-shaming site, ransomware group LockBit claimed Sunday evening that it had stolen 33 terabytes of data belonging to the Federal Reserve, and the group threatened a Tuesday evening release time. The Fed has not commented on the matter. Brett Callow, a threat analyst at Emsisoft, said it was "highly likely, in my opinion" that the group is lying. "I believe it's far more likely that any data they do have relating to the [Fed] would have come from a third party," he said.Breaches of third-party IT services have become a common method for ransomware actors to steal data. In a prominent recent example, threat actor UNC5537 stole data from multiple organizations by breaching databases stored by cloud storage provider Snowflake. According to Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant, it and Snowflake have notified "approximately 165 potentially exposed organizations" about the breaches. Among those companies are Santander Bank, QuoteWizard and Ticketmaster.LockBit has no known involvement in the Snowflake data breaches.Callow was not alone in his analysis that the group is likely lying. The anonymous owner of the social media account for vx-underground, an online collection of malware samples, said simply about LockBit's claim, "Doubt." It is possible that the group "ransomed something small in the Federal Reserve," vx-underground said on X, "like maybe LockBit took down their coffee machine."Despite law enforcement actions against LockBit earlier this year, including hijacking the victim-shaming site where the group posts about the data it has stolen, the threat actor has launched new sites and continued claiming new victims.
Crypto losses due to hacks and scams rise to $573 million in Q2: Immunefi --The crypto industry clocked up $572.7 million in losses due to hacks and scams during the second quarter of this year across 72 incidents so far, according to the latestreport from web3 bug bounty and security services platform Immunefi.The losses represent a 70.3% increase on the $336.3 million worth of exploits in Q1, and a 112% increase compared to Q2 2023, when hackers and fraudsters stole $265.5 million. More than $900 million has been stolen via hacks and fraud year-to-date, up by 24% compared with the same period last year, per Immunefi data.With nearly $100 billion of total value locked in web3 protocols, according to DeFiLlama data, decentralized finance remains a primary target for hackers, accounting for 100% of the exploits identified by Immunefi in Q1. However, in Q2, centralized finance became the main target, accounting for 70% ($401.4 million) of losses in the quarter compared to 30% ($171.3 million) for DeFi.The majority of the losses came from two exploits alone, accounting for a combined $360 million, or 62.8%, of the total. A $305 million exploit of Japanese cryptocurrency trading platform DMM Bitcoin, represented the largest attack, with a further $55 million stolen from Turkish crypto exchange BtcTurk on June 23.May witnessed the highest monthly losses in Q2 overall at $358.5 million. In total, $28.7 million (5%) of the stolen funds in Q2 were recovered from four of the exploits: Bloom, ALEX Lab, Gala Games and YOLO Games.“This quarter highlights how infrastructure compromises can be the most devastating hacks in crypto, as a single compromise can lead to millions in damages,” Immunefi founder and CEO Mitchell Amador said. “This was evident during this quarter, where losses surged primarily due to hacks targeting CeFi infrastructure, surpassing DeFi, despite a smaller number of hacks in that sector. Robust measures to safeguard the entirety of the ecosystem are crucial.”Hacks dominated the losses in Q2, accounting for 98.5% ($564.2 million) of the total across 53 incidents, compared to cases of fraud, scams and rug pulls at only 1.5% ($8.5 million) over 19 specific incidents.Ethereum and BNB Chain were again the most targeted networks, as they were in Q1. Ethereum suffered the most individual attacks with 34 incidents, representing 46.6% of the losses on chains, followed by BNB Chain with 18 incidents, representing 24.7%. Arbitrum, Blast, Optimism, Solana, Polygon, Fantom, Linea, Mantle and TON made up the remainder of the incidents.Earlier this month, Immunefi surpassed $100 million in ethical hacker and researcher payouts. The payouts span three years and result from over 3,000 bug bounty reports.Immunefi claims to operate the largest blockchain security community with over 45,000 researchers, saving more than $25 billion in user funds across protocols like Polygon, Optimism, Chainlink, The Graph, Synthetix and MakerDAO from being stolen.The highest white hat hacker bounty facilitated by Immunefi was a $10 million award for a vulnerabilitydiscovered in Wormhole’s cross-chain protocol.
Metallica Falls Victim to Crypto Scam -- American heavy metal band Metallica, which boasts 121 million album sales across 11 records, has fallen victim to cryptocurrency scammers. The official X account of the legendary band was recently compromised by bad actors in order to promote a fake Solana-based meme coin with the METAL ticker. The fraudulent cryptocurrency was being promoted as a "dynamic new token" that was supposedly launched in collaboration with American ticket sales and distribution company Ticketmaster. The compromise account went on to announce that the token would be used for purchasing merchandise and gifts at Metallica events and online. Moreover, it also introduced a staking feature for the token that was supposed to allow Metallica fans to earn rewards. This is not the first time that the legendary band has fallen victim to crypto fraudsters. As reported by U.Today, Metallica was compelled to issue a statement to deny that it was involved in fraudulent giveaways of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The band became the target of crypto fraudsters following the release of their much-anticipated album called “72 Seasons,” which was the band's first full-length release in six years. A fake livestream promoting the bogus giveaway popped up on YouTube back then. Following the launch of several celebrity meme coins, scammers are now trying to capitalize on the latest cryptocurrency trend. The social media account of American rapper 50 Cent was also recently hacked to promote a fake Solana token.
Reward for fugitive ‘Cryptoqueen’ raised to $5m -- A reward for information leading to the arrest of Ruja Ignatova, known as the Missing Cryptoqueen, has been increased by US authorities to $5m (£4m). The Bulgarian-born German woman, 44, is wanted by the FBI for orchestrating a $4.5bn cryptocurrency scam called OneCoin. She has been missing since 2017 when US officials signed an arrest warrant and investigators began closing in on her. Three weeks ago, a BBC podcast and documentary revealed her links to the Bulgarian underworld and the suspected mafia boss involved in her disappearance and, allegedly, her possible murder. However authorities continue to pursue Ms Ignatova. In 2022, the FBI added her to its top 10 most wanted list, offering a $100,000 reward, later upped to $250,000. On Wednesday, that amount increased again twenty-fold, under the US State Department’s Transnational Organised Crime Reward Program. "We are offering a reward up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of German national Ruja Ignatova, known as 'Cryptoqueen,' for her role in one of the largest global fraud schemes in history," said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. She is currently the only woman targeted under the US programme. An equivalent $5m reward is on offer for information about Daniel Kinahan, named as the head of one of Europe’s biggest drug cartels. The same amount is on offer for information about Semion Mogilevich, alleged to be a Russia-based crime boss, and Yulan Adonay Archaga Carías, known as Porky, the highest-ranking member of the MS-13 criminal gang in Honduras.German authorities have already charged Ruja Ignatova.In Bulgaria, where OneCoin operated from its capital, Sofia, an official on Wednesday said that she would be charged in absentia.Jamie Bartlett, whose BBC podcast brought global attention to her story, believes the reward increase is aimed at people possibly still protecting her."The FBI are now refocusing their efforts on the people around Dr Ruja, trying to tempt her close associates to get in touch."$100,000 wouldn’t persuade a junior member of a crime syndicate or a personal bodyguard to call the FBI’s hotline - it’s far too risky. But $5m just might."We will probably know within a few weeks if it’s worked."
BankThink: Don't let the crypto industry buy its way to new regulatory policy | American Banker - The cryptocurrency industry has a big problem: Federal regulators believe many leading crypto companies, not just the notorious Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX, are operating outside the bounds of the law.But the industry that is literally in the business of manufacturing money has a solution: Spend gobs of money — not cryptocurrency, but real dollars — on our elections, in order to change the laws.Cryptocurrency industry super PACs have already raised more than $160 million to spend on the 2024 congressional elections, according to a May Public Citizen report and recentdisclosures. No other super PACs have raised more money so far this cycle.All this money is not to advance civics. The industry is openly boasting about its plan to leverage its political spending to purchase new rules and regulatory legitimacy. And they're already making big inroads.The House of Representatives on May 22 passed a bill 279-139 that would give the U.S. government's official blessing to an industry with no demonstrable public benefit. The bill would make the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — widely seen as a lax financial regulator — the primary overseer of digital assets."We'll have the resources to affect races and the makeup of institutions at every level," saidJosh Vlasto, a spokesperson for the industry-leading super PAC, called Fairshake. "And we'll leverage those assets strategically to maximize their impact in order to build a sustainable, bipartisan crypto and blockchain coalition." Not so incidentally, Vlasto is a former chief of stafffor New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.Over half of the money funding Fairshake, and its affiliates, Protect Progress PAC and Defend American Jobs PAC, comes directly from crypto corporations. Coinbase and Ripple Labs, each of which contributed about $48 million, are the biggest contributors. Four of the eight corporate crypto super PAC donors have settled or are facing charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged violations of securities laws. Ripple Labs alone is reportedly facing nearly $2 billion in penalties. With their political spending, the crypto companies hope to defang the SEC and provide a government seal of approval to a reckless, speculative investment industry. "We need to make sure the [SEC] does not get weaponized with a political agenda," Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said. "To do that, the crypto industry is going to have to get a bit more sophisticated and powerful in terms of our lobbying efforts and our political power that we can bring to bear for the 2024 election." Armstrong himself contributed $1 million to Fairshake.
IRS Apologizes To Hedge Fund Magnate Over Leaked Tax Returns --The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued an apology as a part of a settlement agreement with hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin, who had sued after a government contractor leaked his confidential tax information. The Citadel LLC owner filed the complaint against the IRS after a government contractor disclosed his confidential tax information to the nonprofit investigative journalism platform ProPublica in 2019. According to the complaint, the contractor the IRS identified as CharlesLittlejohn “exploited the IRS’s willful failure” to set up “adequate, administrative, technical, and physical safeguards” to protect its data.The IRS apologized to Mr. Griffin and “the thousands of other Americans whose personal information was leaked to the press,” in a June 25 statement. Both Mr. Griffin and the IRS filed a motion to dismiss the case on June 24.“The IRS takes its responsibilities seriously and acknowledges that it failed to prevent Mr. Littlejohn’s criminal conduct and unlawful disclosure of Mr. Griffin’s confidential data,” the IRS said.“Accordingly, the IRS assures Mr. Griffin and the other victims of Mr. Littlejohn’s actions that it has made substantial investments in its data security to strengthen its safeguarding of taxpayer information.”In January, the Department of Justice announced that Mr. Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison for disclosing private tax returns, a charge to which he pleaded guilty in October 2023.“He violated his responsibility to safeguard the sensitive information that was entrusted to his care, and now he is a convicted felon,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.The lawsuit said ProPublica later published confidential tax information, acknowledging that the information was from “people who, in good faith, sent their tax and personal and private information to the Internal Revenue Service with no expectation that it would ever be made public,” the lawsuit said.“ProPublica boasted that the information it obtained was ‘not just tax returns,’ but also included ‘information that is sent to the IRS about financial activities’ such as ‘income and taxes,’ ‘investments, stock trades, gambling winnings and even the results of audits,’” the complaint said. “Significantly, ProPublica identified the IRS as the source of the confidential information it published, including Mr. Griffin’s return information.”
Coinbase sues FDIC over efforts to debank crypto companies --Digital asset company Coinbase has sued the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in the federal district court of the District of Columbia over the agency's efforts to block banks from working with crypto companies. The company is simply asking that the agency disclose the "pause letters" it has sent over the past few years to banks, and related documents. The FDIC has denied Coinbase's Freedom of Information Act requests, according to the company. But the case could bring about a change to the freeze banks are under with regard to most crypto activities, either in the direction of formally restricting banks from working with digital asset companies or by allowing some crypto-related activities."Financial regulators have used multiple tools at their disposal to try to cripple the digital-asset industry," Paul Grewal, chief legal officer at Coinbase, said in a tweet Thursday. "The FDIC pressured financial institutions to cut off the industry from the banking system. Today we filed lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act for requests we made over a year ago seeking important information to which we, and the public, are entitled." An FDIC spokesman said the agency does not speak openly about pending litigation. Coinbase also declined a request for an interview. Bank regulators have been keeping banks from engaging with digital assets, an effort some call "Operation Chokepoint 2.0," for years. The FDIC issued pause letters between March 2022 and May 2023 to several banks telling them to pause any planned or ongoing crypto-related activities and provide information about these projects, according to an October 2023 report from the agency's Office of Inspector General. The FDIC did not give an expected time frame for reviewing the information or for when the pause may be over, the report said.
'I'm left with nothing': Life inside the Synapse collapse — Imene Haddad, at this point, feels like she has tried everything. Her account with the fintech app Juno — holding roughly $26,000, her entire life savings — froze last month. She, along with tens of thousands of others affected by the bankruptcy of the fintech middleware firm Synapse have found themselves unwillingly forced to navigate a gauntlet of unfamiliar Washington agencies as they try to recover money that, in many cases, they thought was safe. Haddad, the 39-year-old single mother from West Palm Beach, Florida, had a mortgage payment due, and the bank that she understood held her funds — Evolve — couldn't allow her to access them. She contacted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, thinking that, surely, a consumer protection agency would be able to help her regain access. The CFPB referred her to the Federal Reserve (which regulates Evolve). The Fed sent her back to the court handling the Synapse bankruptcy case.She's tried her lawmakers — Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in particular. Haddad said she hasn't heard back from his office. (Rubio's office did not respond to American Banker's request for comment.)"I'm running out of ideas on who to reach out to," she said. "I'm terrified, because that's all I worked for all my life."Haddad's savings are caught up in the increasingly messy bankruptcy case of Synapse, which served as an intermediary between customer-facing fintech apps and FDIC-insured banks. Patty Newman, who asked to use her maiden name, created an account via Yotta in 2022, attracted by the interest rate offered on her savings versus what she could get with a traditional savings account. "My funds that are frozen are my emergency fund — the money for me to utilize when things break or something goes wrong in life," she said. "It took about two years of saving to put together that small emergency fund. It is not much, certainly not what an emergency fund should be, yet it is a good start and important to have."Newman liked that Yotta encouraged her to save. She also liked that Yotta told her that her money was FDIC insured. "I feel I did my due diligence — researched Yotta, made sure it was FDIC insured, which they advertised, and read reviews and articles about it," she said. But, as Newman, a retired teacher, and many others would learn, FDIC insurance only kicks in when a bank fails — not a third-party fintech. "I made the best decision with the information I had at the time," she said
BankThink: Synapse's failure is nobody's responsibility and everybody's problem | American Banker -When I read Claire Williams' story about fintech customers unable to access their savings because of the bankruptcy of fintech middleware firm Synapse, I was transported back to that time when I was struggling to save just a little bit here and there and how precious that nest egg — and what it represented — was to me. And so it wasn't hard to feel the frustration that those customers must feel about having done something difficult only to be let down by some bureaucratic snafu that no one seems able to explain or solve.American Banker readers know perhaps better than most what deposit insurance is and how it works, so indulge me while I recap: Deposits at a bank — located in either checking or savings accounts — are federally insured up to $250,000 per account. That policy came about during the Great Depression, but was nonetheless hard-won — the government decided that people shouldn't have to worry about whether or not their banks were solvent, because they had discovered recently that fears about a bank's solvency was a proximate cause for actual bank insolvency. Fintechs, meanwhile, are not banks and do not take deposits and thus are not insured. But they often do serve as a customer-facing business that can help people reach their financial goals by helping them boost their credit, manage their money and get into the habit of saving. But the back-end deposit-taking capacities are handled by banks, which offer that service for a fee — what has come to be known as banking as a service, or BaaS. Regulators have gotten more pointed in their critiques of bank-fintech partnerships of late, including issuing a cease and desist order against Evolve Bank — one of Synapse's partner banks — requiring them to improve their third-party risk controls and prohibiting the bank from entering into new fintech partnerships without regulatory approval.That may seem like too little, too late — and for customers whose money is in limbo, it probably is. But it's also a reflection of the limited actions that banking regulators can take against nonbanks, at least in the short term. One might unfavorably compare the extraordinary actions that regulators took after last year's bank failures with the tepid response to Synapse's collapse, but regulators simply don't have the same tools to intervene in the latter case — and even if they did, would likely not want to set a precedent whereby failed fintechs get bailouts or special treatment. So for fintech customers caught in the Synapse collapse, the ball is unfortunately in the bankruptcy court, meaning resolution is likely to be maddeningly slow.But there are things that regulators can still do to close the gaps that led to this fiasco on the one hand and let those customers know that regulators feel their pain on the other.To the former point, regulators have been doing small things to address this problem for some time. Aside from the aforementioned enforcement actions taken against banks for supervisory shortcomings in their fintech partnerships, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has been increasingly diligent about enforcing its rules on representation of deposit insurance andsignaling the rules of the road for such representation by fintechs in recent years. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — which has a wider remit than other banking regulators — may also have a role to play if fintechs' deposit insurance representations amount to an unfair, deceptive and abusive practice. But to the latter point, what has been missing — at least so far — is some kind of an acknowledgement from people in power that Synapse's bankruptcy exposes a shortcoming and they're on the case. Ordinary people — as opposed to the extraordinary readers of American Banker — decided in many cases to do business with fintechs with the understanding that their money would be as safe with them as it would be with a bank, and that has proven not to be necessarily true. People trust the financial system more than they understand it, and that is by design — the whole reason we have deposit insurance in the first place is so that people could go about their lives assuming that their money won't just disappear. Synapse's bankruptcy breaks that trust, and that's a problem that needs to get sorted out quickly — particularly for those already on the periphery of the financial system and to whom fintechs often market themselves.Whatever comes next from a rulemaking or enforcement standpoint — or a legislative one, for that matter — will take time. But there are thousands of people out there right now whose money effectively disappeared and who feel like no one sees them or cares. That is an experience that could shape the future of their financial and banking relationships for the worse — unless they get the message that help is on the way.The case, needless to say, has been difficult. There's an estimated $85 million shortfall between what Synapse's former partner banks are holding and what consumers are owed, according to documents filed with the court by Jelena McWilliams, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee and former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Just last week, Evolve filed a letter with the bankruptcy court that $109 million in deposits for another fintech app called Yotta have vanished in the Synapse collapse. Evolve and Synapse can't agree on who is responsible for the missing funds from Yotta or the frozen accounts.McWilliams on Thursday took the unusual step of pleading with U.S. banking regulators to provide resources and help communicate between banks and consumers. The bankruptcy, for everyday consumers, she said, has been "devastating." Until these discrepancies are ironed out, people like Haddad are stuck waiting. "I did not expect this to happen in this country because I thought that we are protected from something like this," Haddad said. "It has shaken my faith. I'm left with nothing."
Fed hits fast-growing community bank with enforcement action -- The Federal Reserve Board of Governors issued a cease and desist order against a fast-growing community bank in Indiana.The Fed announced its enforcement action against United Fidelity Bank — a $6.4 billion bank based in Evansville, Indiana — on Tuesday morning, citing bank management and other concerns. The order comes after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — the bank's primary regulator — issued a similar citation last October. Following that action, a vice president with the bank told a local newspaper that the issue stemmed from the bank growing faster than regulators were comfortable with. "The bank was highly successful in its affordable housing finance activities and as a result, the bank grew very quickly," Angie Peters, United Fidelity vice president of marketing, told Current Publishing. "Over the past two years, the bank has generated approximately $200 million in profits — well in excess of our peer banks. Despite the financial performance, our regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, was concerned about the pace of that growth."The failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in 2023 — and more recent upheaval at New York Community Bank, which acquired Signature, earlier this year — have increased regulatory scrutiny of banks that are growing quickly. In those cases, the pace of the bank's growth often exceeded their ability to keep up with regulatory requirements that are expected of larger banks.Pedcor, a real estate construction and finance firm affiliated with United Fidelity's parent company, Pedcor Financial, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. United Fidelity's rapid growth in recent years is not due to its affordable housing business alone: The bank has also acquired eight banks during the past decade, including Community Banks of Shelby County in Cowden, Illinois, in 2022; City Bank Federal Savings Bank in Long Beach, California, in 2021; and First City Bank of Florida in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in 2020.Five of its acquisitions have been government-assisted mergers of banks failed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., accounting for more than $278 million of deposits. Pedcor Financial, a savings and loan holding company, is the upper tier holding company for United Fidelity. It owns Pedcor Financial Bancorp, a registered savings and loan, which owns Fidelity Federal Bancorp, which owns United Fidelity.
Thread Bank regulatory action calls out its BaaS business --A cease-and-desist order against Thread Bancorp from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. calls out its banking-as-a-service business by name.This is unusual because the terms "banking-as-a-service" and "BaaS" are largely absent from consent orders issued by the FDIC, including those against banks predicated on these types of fintech relationships. The consent order issued against Lineage Bank in February, which brought up "BaaS" nine times, is one exception.Typically, the language is a generic "third party" or "partners," said Jason Henrichs, founder and CEO of community bank consortium Alloy Labs Alliance, via email.The filing, which was made public on Friday, requires the Rogersville, Tennessee-based Thread to formalize certain financial goals in its profit plan, improve oversight and due diligence of its fintech partners, bulk up its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing program, and review liquidity funds management. Folded into the oversight piece is a stipulation that beneficial ownership information be documented and maintained — a complication at the heart of a complex legal situation involvingbankrupt middleware provider Synapse and its partner financial institutions, notably Evolve Bank & Trust, in which $85 million of customer deposits are unaccounted.
Banking groups balk at proposed cyber incident reporting rule --On Friday, four banking trade groups published a shared letter complaining that a proposed rule, which is meant to implement a 2022 law governing banks' cybersecurity incident reporting requirements, would create "overly burdensome obligations" for banks as they respond to cyber incidents.The trade groups that signed the letter include the Bank Policy Institute, which had backed the bipartisan Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 (CIRCIA) in the hopes that it would help harmonize the many federal regulations banks face in the wake of a cybersecurity attack.Now, the banking trade groups say the proposed rule, if implemented as written, would "cause a flood of reports on low-risk incidents that will provide limited value to the government but will be a great cost" to the banks reporting them. The bulk of the 26-page letter is dedicated to suggested edits to the rule the groups said would help the government meet the legislative goals of the 2022 law.Joining the Bank Policy Institute as signatories on the letter were the American Bankers Association, whose members are small, regional, and large banks that together hold $19 trillion in deposits and extend $12.4 trillion in loans; the Institute of International Bankers, which represents internationally headquartered financial institutions; and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which is a major trade association for investment banks, broker-dealers, and similar institutions.The groups addressed the letter to Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The 2022 cybersecurity reporting law tasked the agency with implementing rules that will require companies and agencies across the 16 sectors(including finance) designated by the government as critical infrastructure to report "substantial cyber incidents" to specific agencies. Although the law will eventually require banks and credit unions to report "substantial cyber incidents" to the Department of the Treasury, the law does not define the term. Rather, it leaves it up to CISA to define what is and is not substantial, so the agency proposed a rule on April 4 that does just that — and addresses the many other open questions the law tasked the agency with answering.
Fincen proposes tougher anti-money-laundering standards in new rule — The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network Friday proposed reforms to the U.S. anti-money-laundering regime, requiring financial institutions to step up their existing AML controls and sharpening anti-terrorism programs to ensure they are effective, risk-based and reasonably designed."More than ever, financial institutions are partnering with government to address a range of serious law enforcement and national security issues with illicit financing implications, from fentanyl trafficking to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine," said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo. "It has been an important priority for Treasury to issue this proposed rule that promotes a more effective and risk-based regulatory and supervisory regime that directs financial institutions to focus their … programs on the highest priority threats."The rule proposes amendments pursuant to the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020. Under the rule, financial institutions will be required to establish, implement and maintain anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism finance programs — known as AML/CFT — with certain minimum components, including a mandatory risk assessment process. Financial institutions must identify and understand their exposure to money laundering, terrorist financing and other illicit finance activity risks and develop policies and controls commensurate with those risks. The rule also mandates periodic reviews and updates to the risk assessment process, especially when there are significant changes in the institution's risk profile.The rule requires institutions to integrate government-wide AML/CFT priorities — including high risk priorities like combating fentanyl trafficking and Russian money laundering — into their programs. The rule also establishes new technical amendments to ensure consistency across different types of financial institutions.
Consumer groups to CFPB: Make banks fairness-test AI lending software --The Consumer Federation of America and Consumer Reports sent a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday, urging it to set ground rules for the use of artificial intelligence in lending. The groups' top recommendation was that banks should be required to search for less discriminatory alternatives. Later the same day, the CFPB issued a fair lending report that it is forcing lenders to make an effort to ensure their lending algorithms (AI based or not) meet fair lending laws. The issue of discrimination in AI-based lending has percolated for the dozen-plus years banks and fintechs have been using it. Consumer advocates and regulators worry that consumers could get harmed by AI-generated decisions, though some lenders using this software have reported increasing their lending to people in protected classes. In an interview, Adam Rust, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America, said his organization is not reacting to complaints or problems that exist today, but trying to forestall the consumer harm that could come from the widespread use of AI-based lending if regulators do not put guardrails in place. What drove the CFA to write the letter, he said, was a sense that a lot could be done to avoid the fairness through unawareness problem. "I am sure there are lenders out there who would contend that just because they can't determine the demographic makeup of an applicant, that it's not possible for their system to be discriminatory," Rust said. "I also think that there are champions inside banks that want to do the right thing, and something like guidance would really help them to make that argument." AI-based lending may not be widespread now, but it will be more so in the future, Rust believes. "There will be a point in time when AI is so complicated that we may not be able to understand the basis of decisions," he said. "If we can tell the models what they need to be doing before they get too smart, we should, and maybe that time is not as far away as we think." While the CFPB has said that fair lending laws apply to algorithmic lending and has done some enforcement actions, "it has not laid out rules of the road for how it could be done correctly," Rust said. The consumer groups "are asking all the right questions," said Kareem Saleh, founder of FairPlay, a provider of fairness testing software. This requirement to find a less discriminatory model is something the industry has been asking for, he said. "I think the bureau's posture has been, we're reluctant to articulate measures and thresholds because we're afraid people are going to game them," he said. "And that's not unreasonable." In its report, the CFPB said it has been directing lenders to ensure compliance with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B, including by having them develop "a process for the consideration of a range of less discriminatory models." Industry reaction to the consumer advocates' letter and the CFPB's report was generally positive. "It is encouraging to see the increased focus on less discriminatory alternative searches in the CFPB's Annual Fair Lending report and the CFA's letter," said Nat Hoopes, vice president and head of public policy and regulatory affairs at Upstart. Responsible AI can make lending more inclusive and transparent, he said, and all lending companies should be regularly evaluating whether they are using the fairest possible approach to achieve their objectives.
GM pulled its ILC application. The election may decide what happens next. - General Motors has decided to shelve its effort to get a controversial bank charter. But the Detroit automaker is vowing to reapply, and observers say it could have a better shot at approval following a leadership change at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.GM's financial arm has been trying to obtain an industrial loan company charter since December 2020. It announced Monday that it is withdrawing its application for deposit insurance.The latest development comes less than two weeks after the Utah Department of Financial Institutions approved GM Financial's application to establish an ILC. And it comes just days after the FDIC approved a separate deposit insurance application by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, which plans to establish a newly chartered industrial bank in Salt Lake City.The withdrawal of GM Financial's application is not likely to be the end of its multiyear effort to establish an ILC. Dan Berce, president and CEO of GM Financial, said the company plans to refile with both the FDIC and the state regulator in Utah, which has more industrial banks than any other state. "GM Financial remains confident in the viability of our bank application, which is anchored by a proven, well-capitalized business model led by an experienced management team and supported by the company's decades of financial services expertise," Berce said in a press release. "Utah's approval validates the strength of the bank's proposed business plan and management team, and we look forward to refiling with the FDIC and UDFI."GM declined Tuesday to comment further on its decision. Some industry observers expect the auto giant to wait until after this year's presidential election to determine how to move forward.GM's voluntary withdrawal of its application — which means it cannot sue the FDIC over the matter — may signal that it is waiting for a more favorable regulatory environment, said Michele Alt, a partner at the Klaros Group who specializes in bank licensing applications.Under the Biden administration, bank regulators have upped the scrutiny they apply to those applications.The fact that GM withdrew its application "suggests that GM decided to wait, given that this is an election year and it's too close to call," said Alt, who has not been involved with GM's ILC application. "GM may have just decided to say, 'We'll wait a few months and then resubmit.'"
Federal Reserve floats weaker version of planned bank capital overhaul — The Federal Reserve has shown other U.S. regulators a three-page document of possible changes to their bank-capital overhaul that would significantly lighten the load on Wall Street lenders, according to people familiar with the matter. The revisions would walk back key parts of the landmark proposal — including one that might have had a large effect on big banks with sizable trading businesses, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing details that aren't public.The Fed document doesn't include an updated estimate on how much additional capital that large banks would have to hold as a cushion against financial shocks. But the people said early calculations suggest the proposed changes could lead to an increase as low as 5%. The original version called for an overall 16% hike.Such a retreat would be a victory for Wall Street banks, which unleashed one of their fiercest lobbying campaigns after the proposal was unveiled last July. Substantial revisions to the plan are more likely to meet Fed Chair Jerome Powell's goal of attracting broad support from the central bank's board.Two Republican-appointed Fed governors have said the initial version could raise the costs of lending, affect the economy and put U.S. banks on weaker footing against international rivals.Powell signaled earlier this year that the proposal was in for "broad and material changes." Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr, seen as the architect of the original plan, later said the same. U.S. officials haven't yet reached an agreement, and it's unclear whether they can get a revised package across the finish line before the U.S. presidential election in November. Barr already has met with the heads of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to discuss lowering the capital hike, according to people familiar with the matter.Key OCC and FDIC officials were open to walking back an important part of the proposal — known as market risk — but have indicated privately that they would resist any capital increase that they consider too low, some of the people said.The Federal Reserve hasn't made any decisions on timing, process or substance, a spokesman for the central bank said. The Fed isn't targeting a specific range and is instead focused on the substance of possible revisions, he said. The FDIC and OCC declined to comment. The capital overhaul is tied to Basel III, an international accord that followed the 2008 financial crisis and is intended to prevent future bank failures and another crunch. Supporters of the U.S. proposal have also billed it as a fix for some of the issues exposed by the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March 2023. Regulators are weighing changes to how the proposal assesses the level of risk tied to trading, wealth management and investment-banking activities — collectively known as market risk, according to some of the people familiar with the matter. Although Powell voted to propose the plan last July, he raised concerns about the "very large increase" in a measure used to determine capital requirements related to market risk.
Banks pass Fed stress test, but see bigger losses than last year The nation's biggest banks have enough capital to withstand a substantial economic downturn, according to the Federal Reserve's latest stress test findings, but they are on shakier footing than a year ago.All 31 banks examined this year were able to withstand the test's adverse scenario — which included a severe global recession, a 40% decline in commercial real estate values, a 36% drop in home prices and an unemployment rate of 10% — without dipping below their minimum capital levels, according to results released Wednesday afternoon. The banks with the biggest declines in common equity tier 1, or CET1, capital were Deutsche Bank USA at 13.3% — coming down from a pre-stress ratio of 27.8% — and UBS Americas, which fell by 9.3% but still maintained a post-stress minimum of 10%. The banks that posted the lowest overall post-stress minimum CET1 capital ratios were BMO at 5%, Citizens at 6.5% and HSBC at 6.7%. All other banks maintained CET1 ratios of 7% or better, well above the required minimum of 4.5% Even so, the results represent the biggest capital declines in six years, with the banks' aggregate CET1 ratio dropping by 2.8% versus 2.5% last year. The banks were projected to experience total losses of nearly $685 billion in this year's stress test compared to roughly $541 billion in 2023's test. Balance sheet blitz Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr attributed the greater projected losses to changes in the riskiness of banks' balance sheets and higher expenses. Writing in a statement issued alongside the results, Barr noted that the scenario in this year's test was little changed from last year's. "While banks are well-positioned to withstand the specific hypothetical recession we tested them against, the stress test also confirmed that there are some areas to watch," Barr said. "The financial system and its risks are always evolving, and we learned in the Great Recession the cost of failing to acknowledge shifting risks." The Fed attributed the uptick in projected losses to three primary risks: Credit cards, corporate lending and net incomes. The report noted that banks have increased their credit card balances by roughly $100 billion during the past year, pushing the total volume to roughly $1 trillion. This trend comes as credit card delinquencies have been rising steadily since 2021, roughly doubling over that period to 3.5%. Under the stress scenario, those delinquencies increased substantially, resulting in $175 billion of theoretical losses. Ally was projected to see the greatest losses from its credit card book, which was projected to decline 40%. Goldman Sachs (25.4%), Capital One (23.2%), TD Group (21.5%) and Discover (20.3%) also saw significant credit card losses in the stress test. BMO's leading loss category was also credit cards, at 18%. On the corporate lending side, the Fed noted that banks have largely shifted their books toward non-investment grade corporate debt, though it notes that this shift largely corresponds with banks electing to downgrade their holdings based on changing conditions with their borrowers and broader economic conditions. Commercial and industrial loan losses were projected to total $142 billion for the banks. The Fed also noted that banks have seen their fee incomes dwindle in recent years while expenses have increased, resulting in lower net income. While both fees income and expenses would decline under the scenario, expenses would continue to outpace non-interest income. The results also showed sustained losses to commercial real estate loan books, accounting for roughly $77 billion of losses, or 11% of the total projected decline. But it noted that this risk exposure is on par with what was measured by last year's test. As a result of this year's stress test, the aggregate stress capital buffer applied to the large banks will likely increase modestly because capital declines in this year's test exceeded last year's results.
After passing stress tests, big banks plan to increase dividends -The nation's eight largest banks will all increase their dividends following affirmation from the Federal Reserve that they would have plenty of capital to power through a worst-case economic scenario.Bank of America , Citigroup , Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase , Morgan Stanley, PNC Financial Services Group, U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo each announced late Friday that they plan to add to the size of shareholders payouts. Bank of New York Mellon, State Street Corp. and Fifth Third Bancorp, which are also among the country's 25 largest banks, signaled the same.The announcements come on the heels of the Wednesday release of the Federal Reserve's annual stress test results. The Fed found that the 31 large and midsize banks it tested could maintain capital levels above regulatory minimums when run through a recession scenario, but not without strain.The tests, which modeled a severe global recession with high unemployment and a real estate crisis, found that banks could see losses of nearly $685 billion. Some banks' balance sheets took a bigger hypothetical hit than others.The annual stress tests results guide the Fed in setting banks' so-called stress capital buffers, which are added on top of a common equity tier 1 capital ratio of 4.5% to calculate minimum capital requirements. Some of the largest banks — including Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan, and Wells — are on the hook for an additional capital surcharge of at least 1%.In practice, minimum current capital requirements range from 7% to nearly 14%, though many banks maintain levels far above their compliance baselines, especially amid policy uncertainty. The so-called Basel III endgame, a proposal from the Fed, could boost the big banks' minimum capital requirements by about 16%, but movement on the rule is on pause.Roughly half of the 31 banks that were stress-tested this year released statements after the stock market closed on Friday about their preliminary stress capital buffers. Nine of those companies said that their preliminary stress capital buffer is larger than last year's, while the buffer was smaller at four banks, and it was unchanged at three more.The Fed is expected to finalize the final stress capital buffers for the stress-tested banks by Aug. 31.
Which banks were winners and losers in this year's stress tests? -- The big picture on the annual stress tests is that large and regional banks could absorb a nasty downturn. But a closer look at the results reveals some tidbits that are worth watching. Some banks got mildly disappointing news, which will weigh on their ability to please their investors by buying back shares. A couple of others did better than expected. The worries over banks' commercial real estate loans appear to have been a bit more bark than bite — at least at the 31 big and regional banks that were tested. And the country's largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, said its own numbers suggest the Fed mildly overstated the bank's strong footing. The latest Federal Reserve tests showed that banks would stay resilient under a severe hypothetical recession. They'd absorb heavy losses of $685 billion, driven by credit card losses and commercial loans, but the Fed says they'd have enough of a cushion to withstand them. "The goal of our test is to help to ensure that banks have enough capital to absorb losses in a highly stressful scenario. This test shows that they do," Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr said in a news release, even as he also noted that banks performed worse than last year due to riskier balance sheets and increased expenses. Bank analysts agree that the tests showed the industry could withstand a brutal downturn. Still, they noted, this year's stress tests had more negative surprises for individual banks than positive ones. Analysts expect banks to start providing information on Friday about how much excess capital they plan to return to shareholders via dividends or buybacks. But they also note that the banks' plans hinge on what happens to the Fed's pending proposal to raise capital requirements on banks. The Fed appears poised to soften its proposal after facing massive industry pushback, but the final outcome is far from clear. "We may not see an overall pickup in buybacks until economic and regulatory uncertainty abates," Wedbush Securities analyst David Chiaverini wrote in a note to clients. The numbers are still being finalized, but Citigroup appears to be the only megabank whose capital requirements will go down. The bank's revenues stayed strong during the hypothetical scenario, Wolfe Research analyst Steven Chubak wrote in a note to clients. That should lead to a mild decrease in the stress capital buffer that Citi is required to hold to guard against loan losses, while the comparable buffers at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are due to rise a bit, Chubak wrote. Citi's positive surprise "was an encouraging result," given that the Fed cited credit card defaults as a major factor driving this year's stress test losses, he wrote. Like other banks, Citi would see significant losses from its credit card portfolio, with nearly 17% of its card portfolio experiencing losses under the Fed's "severely adverse" scenario. But that figure was better than the 17.6% median at the 31 banks the Fed tested. Citi's improvement this year could free up some $3 billion in capital that it could use to buy back shares, Bank of America analyst Ebrahim Poonawala wrote in a note to clients. It also helps boost investor hopes that Citi may achieve the return-on-equity targets that have long eluded the bank — a top priority for CEO Jane Fraser as her turnaround attempt continues. Poonawala expects Citigroup's stress capital buffer to drop by 30 basis points. Among those that will see a bump-up to their SCB, Goldman Sachs stands out with a roughly 100 basis point increase, Poonawala noted, writing that it's a "near-term negative for our bullish investment thesis" on the Wall Street investment bank. Among regional banks, Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, will see a significant 70 basis point decline in its stress capital buffer, Poonawala wrote. M&T Bank in Buffalo, New York, and Truist Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina, should also see declines, while Citizens Financial Group in Providence, Rhode Island, will see a 60 basis point increase, he added.
Derivatives pose thorny problem for banks, regulators in resolution plans — Federal regulators want large banks to get specific about their contingency plans for their derivatives holdings. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve cited four of the country's largest banks last week for weaknesses in their resolution plans related to derivatives — a broad and varied market of financial contracts that include swaps, options and futures. The move was the latest and most direct move by the agencies to encourage banks to step up their practices around the handling of these contracts. Some experts say regulators still have not gone far enough. Mayra Rodriguez Valladares, managing principal of the financial regulatory consulting firm MRV Associates, said the findings show that some banks do not have the personnel or the procedures in place to safely engage in such a critical component of the financial market. "If you don't know where these things are housed, if you don't know how much money you could lose during a period of upheaval and if you don't know how you can unwind, then you cannot be in this business," Rodriguez Valladares said. "If you can't explain, in plain English, to regulators the issues they're asking you to answer in these living wills then you cannot be in that business." Derivatives are bilateral agreements tied to the performance of specific market factors, such as interest rates, commodity prices or foreign exchange rates. Regulators flagged derivatives shortcomings with Citigroup Inc., Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. The FDIC went so far as to call Citi's weakness a "deficiency," rendering its overall resolution plan "not credible." "The performance of Citigroup's resolution forecasting tools and systems demonstrated that the firm lacks the capability to incorporate updated stress scenarios and assumptions, and that ongoing weaknesses regarding data reliability and the firm's control environment contributed to materially inaccurate calculations of the resources required to execute its preferred resolution strategy," said FDIC chair Martin Gruenberg in a prepared statement. "This weakness could undermine the feasibility of the company's resolution plan and requires urgent attention by the firm's senior management and board of directors." The Fed took a less harsh view of the New York-based bank's plan, deeming it a "shortcoming" rather than a "deficiency" and thus sparing it a full overhaul. Citi, for its part, defended itself by saying that its firm-wide stress testing and resolution planning processes are "rigorous" and its balance sheet "strong." In his statement, Gruenberg said the firms examined in the biannual review have improved their performance cycle to cycle. He also noted that the firms have the proper playbooks to handle resolutions in theory, but not the capabilities to implement them in practice.
The Fed and FDIC Wake Up Suddenly to the Threat of Derivatives, Flunking the Four Largest Derivative Banks on their Wind-Down Plans --by Pam Martens --Since the financial crash of 2008 and the Fed’s multi-trillion dollar bank bailouts that followed, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has been waving a giant red flag every quarter in its “Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities” reports. For sixteen years the OCC has been reporting that just four megabanks are responsible for more than 80 percent of the trillions of dollars in bank derivatives. As the chart above shows, as of December 31, 2023, Goldman Sachs Bank USA, JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., Citigroup’s Citibank and Bank of America held a staggering total of $168.26 trillion in derivatives out of a total of $192.46 trillion at all U.S. banks, savings associations and trust companies. That’s four banks holding 87 percent of all derivatives at all 4,587 federally-insured institutions in the U.S. that existed as of December 31, 2023. Now, it would appear, some market-savvy bank examiner embedded in one of those megabanks has had an epiphany and decided to ask the question: “How is it possible that all four of these megabanks with trillions of dollars in derivatives happened to be on the correct sides of these trades during the fastest and steepest interest rate increases in 40 years?” Multiple bank counterparties to these trades should be reporting massive losses and yet all we hear are crickets. This puzzle becomes all the more urgent if you take a closer look at the above chart and notice that $40.368 trillion of Goldman Sachs Bank USA’s $54.13 trillion in derivatives are interest rate derivatives, or 75 percent. JPMorgan Chase’s interest rate derivatives represent 89 percent of its total of $49.68 trillion in derivatives. The OCC report for the quarter ending December 31, 2023 also shows that $20.8 trillion of these interest rate derivative contracts at these four megabanks have maturities in excess of five years – a very long time to climb out on a limb on interest rate decisions by the Fed.On Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve Board jointly released their findings on the resolution or wind-down plans in a potential bankruptcy of the eight megabanks in the U.S. The plans are also known as “living wills.”It came as no surprise to us that the four largest U.S. derivative banks — JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup’s Citibank, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs — were faulted on shortcomings in how they planned to wind down their derivatives. The surprise was that the Fed – which has a gold-plated revolving door to these banks – would acknowledge the derivatives problem after years of ignoring it. The Fed and FDIC wrote the following in their letter to Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, which regulators already acknowledge is the riskiest bank in the U.S. (but nonetheless allowed it to get even bigger and riskier in May of last year by rubber-stamping its purchase of the collapsed First Republic Bank): “The Agencies found the Covered Company’s 2023 Plan to have a shortcoming related to the implementation of its derivatives unwind strategy. An assessment of the Covered Company’s capability to unwind its derivatives portfolio under conditions that differed from those specified in the 2023 Plan revealed some weaknesses in the refresh of and approach to compiling financial results. This, in turn, raises questions about the firm’s ability to implement this aspect of its preferred strategy in an actual resolution event. Specifically, in response to a capabilities test initiated by the Agencies, the response from the firm showed that the firm is unable to update certain economic conditions in its entity-level-resource-needs calculation of resolution capital execution need (RCEN) and resolution liquidity execution need (RLEN) associated with unwinding its derivatives portfolio in a timely manner. Furthermore, the firm did not accurately incorporate funding assumptions as specified by the Amended and Restated Support Agreement dated June 5, 2019, as amended, in the current resolution metrics production process. To remediate this shortcoming, the Covered Company’s 2025 Plan should demonstrate, including through reporting in the 2025 Plan on internal validation and testing conducted by the Covered Company, that the Covered Company has developed the ability to quantify each material legal entity’s RLEN and RCEN for changes in macro/financial market conditions, calculate recapitalization needs for a macro scenario change in a timely way, and provide for downstream liquidity and capital funding needs according to the terms of the Amended and Restated Support Agreement. The Covered Company should develop and submit to the Agencies by September 1, 2024, a description of the key actions needed to remediate this shortcoming and a timeline illustrating the date of their expected completion.” Adding to the hubris, this is now the second time in eight years that federal regulators have told Dimon to get his act together in dealing with derivatives if the bank has to wind-down operations. In a letter dated April 12, 2016, the Fed and the FDIC faulted the bank on its trading and derivative plans. The letter was apparently so frightening that numerous segments were redacted by the two federal regulators by blacking out the text.
Surge in credit report lawsuits has banks, credit agencies scrambling -Consumers trying to get out of debt are filing lawsuits in droves disputing information on credit reports, encouraged by what critics say is a proliferation of credit repair firms posting videos on TikTok, Instagram and social media. Banks, auto loan servicers, credit card issuers and debt collectors have long been targets of disputes alleging a failure to investigate inaccuracies on credit reports. While the three credit reporting bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — overwhelmingly bear the brunt of consumer complaints and litigation, more financial institutions are being bombarded with disputes alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. "This area has exploded in litigation," said Ryan DiClemente, an attorney at the law firm Husch Blackwell. "What we've seen in the past three to four years is an exponential growth in FCRA lawsuits. What used to be a small piece of the pie — maybe 10-20% — is now north of 50% for national litigation." Experts attribute some of the increase to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has repeatedly called out the credit bureaus and data furnishers for failing to investigate disputes. The CFPB also has questioned whether consumers actually owe their debts and is seeking public comment on a proposed rule that would ban medical debts from credit reports. Defense and plaintiff's attorneys also point to the rise of credit repair companies and to consumers being more involved in checking their credit scores on apps like Credit Karma. "What's driving this is the sheer number of hits for credit repair companies on YouTube, Instagram and social media," said Manny Newburger, founding shareholder and vice president at the law firm Barron & Newburger, P.C. Newburger said he's also seen a big increase in pro se litigants — plaintiffs who represent themselves in court — who are guided by what he calls "an unseen hand." He said more people are willing to execute false declarations claiming to be victims of identity theft. Others claim harm to their credit that cannot be substantiated by evidence. "People get desperate and they don't want to lose their homes, they don't want to lose their cars and they go online and get bad legal advice," Newburger said. "People who are not lawyers are filing lawsuits without the benefit of counsel advising them on whether there is any merit to the suit."
Judge denies $30 billion antitrust settlement between Visa, Mastercard - A federal judge Tuesday rejected a $30 billion antitrust settlement between Visa, Mastercard and a select group of retailers that was decried by the larger industry.Visa and Mastercard, which control a combined 80 percent of the credit card network market, agreed in March to limit interchange fees they charge retailers who accept their card. As part of the preliminary agreement, which was subject to approval by the judge, the credit card giants agreed to roll back so-called swipe fees by at least 4 basis points for at least three years and cap their fees at 2023 levels for the next five years.The full order appears to be sealed, but according to the docket entry, “the Court finds that it is not likely to grant final approval to the Settlement and accordingly denies Plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary settlement approval.”“As we noted earlier this month, we are disappointed by this development. We believe the settlement presented a fair resolution of this long-standing dispute, most notably by giving business owners more flexibility in how they manage their card acceptance activities,” Seth Eisen, senior vice president of communications at Mastercard, told The Hill.Eisen also said Mastercard would pursue other options to resolve the long-standing legal matter.A Visa spokesperson pointed The Hill to the company’s June 13 comment: “We continue to believe that the proposed settlement agreement was the appropriate resolution resulting from lengthy and thoughtful discussions with the merchant class.”Retail industry groups slammed the proposed settlement in March over concerns that the deal provided only temporary relief to a systemic problem.“Thankfully, the judge made the right call in recognizing what a bad deal this would have been for Main Street merchants and their customers. It’s extremely unusual for a judge to reject a settlement at the preliminary stage, so this shows how far Visa and Mastercard’s proposal missed the mark,” said Christopher Jones, chief government relations officer and counsel at the National Grocers Association and a member of the executive committee of the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC). Retailers pay an average 2.24 percent fee each time they swipe a credit card, although those fees can be as high as 4 percent, according to the National Retail Federation, an MPC member that says swipe fees are typically the biggest operating cost for retailers after labor.
CFPB sets record for fair lending enforcement actions and DOJ referrals -The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under Director Rohit Chopra has been one of the most active agencies in rooting out unlawful discrimination. Last year, the CFPB referred 18 matters to the Department of Justice and initiated 28 fair lending examinations or targeted reviews, setting records for the agency. On Wednesday, the CFPB released its annual Fair Lending Report to Congress describing the enforcement actions, referrals and other efforts the CFPB made last year to address discrimination. The sheer number of fair lending enforcement actions and DOJ referrals stands in stark contrast to previous years. In 2022, the bureau issued four fair lending actions alleging violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and referred two matters involving allegations of discrimination to the DOJ. In 2020, under former acting CFPB Director Dave Uejio, the agency filed one lawsuit and issued four Justice Department referrals. The office issued only one enforcement action in 2019 under the leadership of former CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger."The CFPB used every tool at our disposal to carry out our fair lending work, from enforcement and supervision to guidance and rulemaking, including close coordination with our state and federal partners," Patrice Alexander Ficklin, the CFPB's fair lending director, wrote in a blog post with J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo, the bureau's principal deputy director of fair lending.
CFPB extends compliance deadline for small-business lending rule -Large banks and financial institutions will have an additional nine months to prepare for compliance with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's small-business lending rule, which was stayed pending a Supreme Court decision last month upholding the bureau's funding is constitutional. The CFPB said Tuesday that lenders with the highest volume of small-business loans must begin collecting data by July 18, 2025, while lenders with a moderate volume of loans have until January 16, 2026. The smallest-volume lenders have until October 18, 2026, to collect the data. The bureau said the deadline for reporting small-business lending data remains June 1 following the calendar year for which data is collected. The CFPB said it does not intend to assess penalties for reporting errors for the first 12 months of collection. As long as lenders engage in good faith compliance efforts, the CFPB said it only intends to conduct examinations to assist lenders in diagnosing compliance weaknesses.The small-business lending rule, also known as 1071 for its section in the Dodd-Frank Act, was put on hold pending the outcome of a Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality of the CFPB's funding. The bureau had finalized the rule last year and was promptly sued by bank trade groups to block the rule from taking effect.
BankThink: The CFPB finds nonexistent problems, threatening services users value | American Banker - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently issued a report to coincide with a politically motivated joint hearing with the Department of Transportation. The purpose? To issue a press release trying to convince people there is a problem with airline and credit card rewards that simply doesn't exist. But even a cursory look at their report reveals this all to be a farce. Consumers aren't frustrated. Not even a little. But it's a politically convenient narrative for the Biden CFPB, cheered on by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, Sen. Roger Marshall and their allies who have been attempting to smear the credit card industry in order to promote their legislation.The new report notes that the CFPB received 1,200 complaints last year involving credit card rewards. In case you were wondering, there are about 336 million people in the U.S., and about 143 million own a rewards credit card. The share of those who filed a complaint in 2023 is 0.0008%. To give you another frame of reference, there were 1.3 million complaints to the CPFB last year. The idea that people are encountering "numerous problems," and that credit card companies are doing a "bait and switch" is numerically laughable.So how did the report come up with the conclusion that rewards programs are a problem? Well, that is a great question. Their analysis is vague at best, noting they looked at "several hundred consumer complaints" and found four problematic themes. Why those several hundred? How many hit upon each theme? No idea, because they declined to share their methodology. It's impossible to tell if their themes are based in reality. The report also claims that rewards programs are too complex for people to understand.Consumer research shows people are happy with credit card rewards and find them easy to use. Credit card issuers offer numerous options when it comes to rewards: miles, cash, gift cards and more. A recent study from the Electronic Payments Coalition showed people at all income levels use and value these rewards, especially cash-back. There's a reason these programs are continuing to grow, and consumers have more options than ever. The CFPB's own study from February said during the first half of 2023 there were 643 credit cards offered by 156 issuers. So why is the CFPB out to demonize credit card rewards? The agency's longtime fan, Durbin, and newfound supporter, Marshall, called for a CFPB investigation into this. Conveniently, Durbin and Marshall also authored a bill that will change how credit card payments are processed. This bill will put more money into the hands of their political supporters, namely corporate megastores like Target and Walmart. Target, Walmart, Home Depot and others have been plotting with Durbin for eons, and now with Marshall, to push their agenda. Rather than having their own rising prices scrutinized, they've taken the approach of going after the financial system, and their political friends are happy to do their dirty work.This bill will come back to bite them in the end, as it allows stores to circumvent the safe and secure payment systems they need. You would think in the decade since the infamous Target data breach that affected 41 million people that they would have realized the value of data security, but, alas, they'd rather cut corners with the help of the Senate and their bureaucrat allies.
MBA Survey: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases Slightly to 0.21% in May --From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases Slightly to 0.21% in May The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) monthly Loan Monitoring Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance declined slightly to 0.21% as of May 31, 2024. According to MBA’s estimate, 105,000 homeowners are in forbearance plans. Mortgage servicers have provided forbearance to approximately 8.2 million borrowers since March 2020. In May 2024, the share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance declined 1 basis point to 0.10%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance remained the same relative to the previous month at 0.39%, and the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) also stayed flat at 0.31%. “The performance of servicing portfolios in May was solid, with about 96 percent of borrowers making their mortgage payments on time,” said Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s Vice President of Industry Analysis. “There was a slight decline in the performance of post-forbearance loan workouts, but the results were relatively strong with 75 percent of homeowners making their payments in accordance with the workout terms.” At the end of May, there were about 105,000 homeowners in forbearance plans.
MBA: Mortgage Applications Increased in Weekly Survey -- From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey Mortgage applications increased 0.8 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Applications Survey for the week ending June 21, 2024. This week’s results include an adjustment for the Juneteenth holiday. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 0.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 10 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index was essentially unchanged from the previous week and was 26 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 10 percent compared with the previous week and was 13 percent lower than the same week one year ago. “Mortgage rates were mostly lower last week, with the 30-year fixed rate declining slightly to 6.93 percent, the lowest level in more than three months,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist. “Lower rates, however, were still not enough to entice refinance borrowers back, as most continue to hold mortgages with considerably lower rates.” Added Kan, “Purchase applications did see a small increase after adjusting for the Juneteenth holiday. Government purchase loans, primarily FHA and VA, saw gains of more than 2 percent over the previous week, as homebuyers in those segments sought to take advantage of the recent rate relief.” ... The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) decreased to 6.93 percent from 6.94 percent, with points unchanged at 0.61 (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 13% year-over-year unadjusted. Red is a four-week average (blue is weekly). Purchase application activity is up slightly from the lows in late October 2023, but still 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.
Housing June 24th Weekly Update: Inventory up 2.2% Week-over-week, Up 37.7% Year-over-year -- Altos reports that active single-family inventory was up 2.2% week-over-week. Inventory is now up 28.4% from the February seasonal bottom, and at the highest level since July 2020. This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research. As of June 21st, inventory was at 634 thousand (7-day average), compared to 621 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 80% from the record low for the same week in 2021, but still well below normal levels.Inventory was up 37.7% compared to the same week in 2023 (last week it was up 37.3%), and down 33.6% compared to the same week in 2019 (last week it was down 34.2%). Inventory should be above 2020 levels for the same week in a few weeks.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.
Realtor.com Reports Active Inventory Up 36.1% YoY - 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 35.2% YoY, but still down almost 34% compared to April 2017 to 2019 levels. Now - on a weekly basis - inventory is up 36.1% 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 June 22, 2024 Active inventory increased, with for-sale homes 36.1% above year-ago levels. For the 33rd week in a row, the number of for-sale homes grew compared with one year ago. This past week, the inventory of homes for sale grew by 36.1% compared with last year, essentially the same gap as in recent weeks. While recent inventory growth is substantial compared to a year ago, it highlights just how far inventory had fallen. Even after recent growth, active inventory in May was down more than 30% from typical pre-pandemic levels. New listings–a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale–were up this week, by 7.4% from one year ago.Seller activity is up compared to one year ago, but momentum has waned from recent weeks and earlier this year. Realtor.com analysis shows that 87% of outstanding mortgages have a rate below 6%. If these homeowners sell, they are relinquishing relatively inexpensive debt for today’s roughly 7% mortgage rates, a costly proposition. As rates ease, they will cause less drag on the ‘move or stay’ calculus, and we are likely to see an increase in seller interest. Here is a graph of the year-over-year change in inventory according to realtor.com. Inventory was up year-over-year for the 32nd consecutive week. However, inventory is still historically low.New listings remain below typical pre-pandemic levels although up year-over-year.
Watch Months-of-Supply! -Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Watch Months-of-Supply! - A brief excerpt: Although inventory is well below normal levels, so are sales. I think we need to keep an eye on months-of-supply. Historically nominal prices declined when months-of-supply approached 6 months - and that is unlikely this year - but we could see months-of-supply back to 2019 levels later this year. What would it take to get months-of-supply back to 2019 levels by mid-year? The following table is a simple exercise. If sales stay depressed at 2023 levels, how much would inventory have to increase to put months-of-supply at 2019 levels?
Case-Shiller: National House Price Index Up 6.3% year-over-year in April - S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for April ("April" is a 3-month average of February, March and April 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 Break Previous Month's All-Time High in April 2024: The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 6.3% annual gain for April, down from a 6.5% annual gain in the previous month. The 10-City Composite saw an annual increase of 8.0%, down from an 8.3% annual increase in the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted a year-over-year increase of 7.2%, dropping from a 7.5% increase in the previous month. San Diego continued to report the highest annual gain among the 20 cities in April with a 10.3% increase this month, followed by New York and Chicago, with increases of 9.4% and 8.7%, respectively. Portland once again held the lowest rank this month for the smallest year-over-year growth, with a 1.7% annual increase in April. ... The U.S. National Index, the 20-City Composite, and the 10-City Composite upward trends decelerated from last month, with pre-seasonality adjustment increases of 1.2%, 1.36% and 1.38%, respectively. After seasonal adjustment, the U.S. National Index and 10-City Composite posted the same month-over-month increase of 0.3% and 0.5% respectively as last month, while the 20-City reported a monthly increase of 0.4%. “For the second consecutive month, we’ve seen our National Index jump at least 1% over its previous all-time high,” “Thirteen markets are currently at all-time highs and San Diego reigns supreme once again, topping annual returns for the last six months. The Northeast is the best performing market for the previous nine months, with New York rising 9.4% annually.” 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 April (SA). The Composite 20 index was up 0.4% (SA) in April. The National index was up 0.3% (SA) in April. The second graph shows the year-over-year change in all three indices. The Composite 10 SA was up 8.0% year-over-year. The Composite 20 SA was up 7.2% year-over-year. The National index SA was up 6.3% year-over-year. Annual price changes were slightly above expectations. I'll have more later.Comments on April House Prices, FHFA: House Prices Increased 0.2% in April -- Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Case-Shiller: National House Price Index Up 6.3% year-over-year in April; FHFA: House Prices Increased 0.2% in April, up 6.3% YoY Excerpt: S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for April ("April" is a 3-month average of February, March and April closing prices). April closing prices include some contracts signed in December, 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 0.26%. This was the fifteenth consecutive MoM increase, but this tied December as the smallest MoM increase in the last 14 month. On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices increased month-to-month in 16 of the 20 Case-Shiller cities. Seasonally adjusted, San Francisco has fallen 7.8% from the recent peak, Seattle is down 6.0% from the peak, Portland down 3.7%, and Phoenix is down 3.7%.
Housing is ‘impossibly unaffordable’ in these US cities – Five U.S. cities are considered “impossibly unaffordable” when it comes to housing, placing them among the most expensive markets in the world, according to a new study.Researchers at Chapman University and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Canada analyzed 94 major cities in eight countries and determined San Jose, California is the least affordable housing market in the U.S. The Silicon Valley metro was the fourth most unaffordable in the English-speaking world. In fact, four of the top 10 least affordable housing markets on the list were in California: Los Angeles (5th), San Francisco (8th) and San Diego (10th). Honolulu, ranked sixth, was the only city outside the Golden State ranked near the top.“Restrictive housing policies may be packaged as progressive, but in social terms, their impact could better be characterized as regressive,” Joel Kotkin, Director for Chapman’s Center for Demographics and Policy, said in the report.The rankings were based on each metro’s price-to-income ratio, which is the median house price divided by the median household income.The report found the gap between housing costs and income has widened since the pandemic, triggering a cost-of-living crisis for many American families.As for what’s driving the crisis, the report blamed land use policies that “artificially restrict housing supply” and drive up land prices.A separate Zillow report out this week found the U.S. housing shortage now stands at 4.5 million homes. That deficit is one of the reasons prices continue to hit record highs even as mortgage rates remain elevated. Even with those issues, the Chapman study did have some good news for Americans. Researchers found nine of the 10 most affordable cities were in the U.S.Of the nearly 100 cities analyzed, Pittsburgh’s housing market was the most affordable, followed by Rochester and St. Louis. Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit also ranked near the top for affordability. The three least affordable housing markets were all outside the U.S.: Hong Kong, China; Sydney, Australia; and Vancouver, Canada.The least affordable major cities in the world, according to the study:
- Hong Kong, China
- Sydney, New South Wales (Australia)
- Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada)
- San Jose, California (U.S.)
- Los Angeles, California (U.S.)
- Honolulu, Hawaii (U.S.)
- Melbourne, Victoria (Australia)
- San Francisco, California (U.S.)
- Adelaide, South Australia (Australia)
- San Diego, California (U.S.)
The most affordable major cities in the world, according to the study:
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (U.S.)
- Rochester, New York (U.S.)
- St. Louis, Missouri (U.S.)
- Cleveland, Ohio (U.S.)
- Edmonton, Alberta (Canada)
- Buffalo, New York (U.S.)
- Detroit, Michigan (U.S.)
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (U.S.)
- Cincinnati, Ohio (U.S.)
- Louisville, Kentucky (U.S.)
The report also listed 17 “severely unaffordable” housing markets in the U.S., ranked one tier below the “impossibly unaffordable” category. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of these cities are located on the West Coast, such as Seattle and Portland, and the California areas of Riverside-San Bernardino, Sacramento, and Fresno.On the East Coast, these markets include New York, Boston, and Providence, Rhode Island. Then, there’s the Southwest, with Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson, making the list. The South also has three “severely unaffordable” markets, all in Florida: Miami, Orlando and Tampa.
Monthly rents across country continue to rise in June: Report -The cost of shelter in the United States has gone up again, according to Zumper’s national rent report. The national median price for one-bedroom rents increased 1.5 percent to $1,526, while the national median price for two-bedroom rents increased 1.9 percent to $1,900 in June, according to the report. “The national index continuing this trend of monthly growth coupled with the current persistent inflation suggests that housing will remain a challenge for the Federal Reserve’s efforts to lower interest rates this year,” the report read. Annually, national one- and two-bedroom rent prices are up 1.5 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. While national rates are “currently fairly low,” they have not offset large rent spikes that have occurred across the country over the past few years, the report noted. “The national one and two-bedroom prices are still $300-$400 more expensive than 4 years ago,” the report reads. The New York rental market continues to show the fastest rent growth. Four cities in the Empire State have annual rent rate increases in the double digits. Rent prices in Syracuse have risen by 29 percent over the past year, making it the fastest growing rent market in the country, while rents have risen by more than 10 percent in Buffalo, Rochester and New York City. Rising rent prices in these cities are in part being driven by rising demand. In New York City, for example, the housing vacancy rate is down to 1.4 percent — a major drop from the city’s rate two years ago, which was 4.5 percent, according to the report. And the demand for housing in these four cities has spilled into the surrounding markets like Newark, N.J., and New Haven, Conn. Both cities have seen rent prices increase by more than 7 percent since last June, according to the report.
New Home Sales Decrease to 619,000 Annual Rate in May -- The Census Bureau reports New Home Sales in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 619 thousand.The previous three months were revised up sharply. Sales of new single‐family houses in May 2024 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 619,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 11.3 percent below the revised April rate of 698,000 and is 16.5 percent below the May 2023 estimate of 741,000.The first graph shows New Home Sales vs. recessions since 1963. The dashed line is the current sales rate.New home sales were close to pre-pandemic levels.The second graph shows New Home Months of Supply.The months of supply increased in May to 9.3 months from 8.1 months in April. The all-time record high was 12.2 months of supply in January 2009. The all-time record low was 3.3 months in August 2020.This is well above the top of the normal range (about 4 to 6 months of supply is normal)."The seasonally‐adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of May was 481,000. This represents a supply of 9.3 months at the current sales rate."Sales were well below expectations of 650 thousand SAAR, however sales for the three previous months were revised up significantly. I'll have more later today.
New Home Sales Decrease to 619,000 Annual Rate in May; Median New Home Price is Down 9% from the Peak --Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: New Home Sales Decrease to 619,000 Annual Rate in May Brief excerpt: The Census Bureau reports New Home Sales in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 619 thousand, however the three previous months were revised up sharply....The next graph shows new home sales for 2023 and 2024 by month (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate). Sales in May 2024 were down 16.5% from May 2023.This year-over-year decline followed 13 consecutive months with a year-over-year increase. In May 2023, seasonally adjusted sales hit the high for the year, so this was a difficult comparison.
AIA: Architecture Billings Declined in May; Multi-family Billings Decline for 22nd Consecutive Month --Note: This index is a leading indicator primarily for new Commercial Real Estate (CRE) investment. From the AIA: ABI May 2024: Business conditions at architecture firms continue to soften The AIA/Deltek Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score declined to 42.4 for the month, as more firms reported a decrease in billings in May than in April. In addition, there is increasing softness in the pipeline of new work coming into firms. While inquiries into new projects continued to increase, they did so at a slower pace than in recent months. And the value of new signed design contracts declined further in May, following a small decrease in April. Despite the fact that the high inflation of the last few years has largely receded, elevated interest rates continue to cause hesitation among many clients.Firm billings remained soft across all regions and sectors as well in May. Billings declined at firms in all regions of the country for the fourth consecutive month, as conditions remained weakest at firms located in the Midwest. Business conditions also softened further in May at firms with an institutional specialization, while fewer firms with commercial/industrial and multifamily residential specializations reported a decline in billings in May than in April. However, a majority of firms of both specializations still reported weak business conditions.The ABI score is a leading economic indicator of construction activity, providing an approximately nine-to-twelve-month glimpse into the future of nonresidential construction spending activity. The score is derived from a monthly survey of architecture firms that measures the change in the number of services provided to clients.• Northeast (47.7); Midwest (41.7); South (46.0); West (46.3)
• Sector index breakdown: commercial/industrial (48.2); institutional (43.2); multifamily residential (47.3)
This graph shows the Architecture Billings Index since 1996. The index was at 42.4 in May, down from 48.3 in April. Anything below 50 indicates a decrease in demand for architects' services.
Note: This includes commercial and industrial facilities like hotels and office buildings, multi-family residential, as well as schools, hospitals and other institutions.This index usually leads CRE investment by 9 to 12 months, so this index suggests a slowdown in CRE investment in 2024. Note that multi-family billing turned down in August 2022 and has been negative for twenty-two consecutive months (with revisions). This suggests we will see a further weakness in multi-family starts.
Personal Income increased 0.5% in May; Spending increased 0.2% -The BEA released the Personal Income and Outlays report for May: Personal income income increased $114.1 billion (0.5 percent at a monthly rate) in May, according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI), personal income less personal current taxes, increased $94.0 billion (0.5 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $47.8 billion (0.2 percent).The PCE price index decreased less than 0.1 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.1 percent. Real DPI increased 0.5 percent in May and real PCE increased 0.3 percent; goods increased 0.6 percent and services increased 0.1 percent.The May PCE price index increased 2.6 percent year-over-year (YoY), down from 2.7 percent YoY in April, and down from the recent peak of 7.0 percent in June 2022. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 2.6 percent YoY, unchanged from 2.8 percent in April, and down from the recent peak of 5.4 percent in February 2022.The following graph shows real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) through May 2024 (2017 dollars). The dashed red lines are the quarterly levels for real PCE. Personal income was above expectations, and PCE was below expectations. Inflation was below expectations. Using the two-month method to estimate Q2 real PCE growth, real PCE was increasing at a 1.8% annual rate in Q2 2024. (Using the mid-month method, real PCE was increasing at 1.8%). This suggests decent PCE growth in Q2.
PCE Measure of Shelter Slows to 5.5% YoY in May -- 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 May 2024. CPI Shelter was up 5.4% year-over-year in May, down from 5.5% in April, and down from the cycle peak of 8.2% in March 2023. Housing (PCE) was up 5.5% YoY in May, down from 5.6% in April, and down from the cycle peak of 8.3% in April 2023.Since asking rents are mostly flat year-over-year, these measures will slowly continue to decline over the next year.The second graph shows PCE prices, Core PCE prices and Core ex-housing over the last 3 months (annualized):Key measures are slightly above the Fed's target on a 3-month basis. Note: There appears to be some residual seasonality distorting PCE prices in Q1, especially in January.
PCE Price Index: 2.4% (3 month annualized)
Core PCE Prices: 2.7%
Core minus Housing: 2.2%
Hotels: Occupancy Rate Decreased 0.6% Year-over-year - From STR: U.S. hotel results for week ending 15 June -- The U.S. hotel industry reported higher performance results from the previous week but mixed comparisons year over year, according to CoStar’s latest data through 15 June. ...
9-15 June 2024 (percentage change from comparable week in 2023):
• Occupancy: 70.3% (-0.6%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$161.70 (+0.9%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$113.62 (+0.3%)
The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average. The red line is for 2024, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2023. Dashed purple is for 2018, the record year for hotel occupancy. The 4-week average of the occupancy rate is tracking last year and is slightly above the median rate for the period 2000 through 2023 (Blue). The 4-week average of the occupancy rate will now increase seasonally with the summer travel season.
Las Vegas May 2024: Visitor Traffic Up 4.6% YoY; Convention Traffic Up 2% -From the Las Vegas Visitor Authority: May 2024 Las Vegas Visitor Statistics With festivals such as EDC, coupled with convention attendance ahead of last year, May saw the destination host more than 3.6M visitors, showing a healthy 4.6% YoY gain for the month.Among the churn of rotational shows, Waste Expo returned to Las Vegas in May (14k attendees, last here in May 2022), and the destination hosted the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo for the first time (10k+ attendees).Overall hotel occupancy reached 86.1% (up 1.7 pts), as Weekend occupancy reached 93.4% (up 0.2 pts) and Midweek occupancy reaching 82.5% (up 1.7 pts). ADR exceeded $200 with RevPAR over $172, showing YoY increases of 9.1% and 11.3%, 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 4.6% compared to last May. Visitor traffic was down 0.9% compared to the same month in 2019. Year-to-date visitor traffic is up 0.4% compared to 2019.
TSA reports all-time record air travel day - The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) hit an all-time high Sunday for the number of travelers screened.The agency screened nearly 3 million travelers on June 23, which broke the record for the number of people screened in a single day, the TSA said in an announcement. The record comes ahead of what the agency expects to be a busy travel week ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.TSA is expecting to screen more than 32 million individuals between Thursday, June 27, and Monday, July 8, for the holiday week. This is about 5.4 percent higher than the number of travelers during last year’s Fourth of July season, according to the announcement.“We expect this summer to be our busiest ever and summer travel usually peaks over the Independence Day holiday,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement. “Compared to last year, we have cut our attrition rates by almost half and increased our recruiting as a result of the TSA Compensation Plan that was funded in the budget passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden.”“The traveling public is on the move, which is a sign of a healthy economy,” he added. “We are ready, along with our airline and airport partners, to handle this boost in passenger volumes.”The peak holiday travel day is expected to be Friday, when the TSA anticipates it will screen more than 3 million passengers.
FAA investigating after Southwest 737 flies 500 feet above Oklahoma City suburb - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Friday it is investigating an “incident” in which a Southwest Airlines flight “descended to a low altitude” near Oklahoma City on Wednesday.“After an automated warning sounded, an air traffic controller alerted the crew of Southwest Airlines Flight 4069 that the aircraft had descended to a low altitude nine miles away from Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City,” the FAA said in an emailed statement to The Hill about the incident.According to The Oklahoman, the flight seemed to go down as low as 500 feet when going over Yukon, Okla., per transponder data. The plane involved in the incident was a Boeing 737-800,according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.“Southwest is following its robust Safety Management System and is in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration to understand and address any irregularities with the aircraft’s approach to the airport,” a spokesperson for Southwest said in a statement to The Hill. “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees.”The drop by the Southwest flight on Wednesday follows another flight by the airline a few months ago that took a dive toward the ocean off the coast of Hawaii. The FAA is investigating that incident as well, it said in a prior statement to The Hill.
Largest Auto Dealers Begin to Warn about Impact of Ransomware Attack Crippling Dealer Software Provider CDK by Wolf Richter- When the $8.3 billion acquisition of auto-dealer software provider CDK by a PE firm under Brookfield Asset Management was completed in July 2022, the mergers & acquisitions firm, Paul Weiss, which had advised CDK on the deal, said in a now ironic press release: “The deal will allow CDK to continue to elevate the dealer and consumer experience when selling, buying or owning a vehicle.”Less than two years later, last Wednesday, CDK’s customers, including the biggest auto-dealer chains in the US, watched helplessly as a ransomware attack shut down CDK’s cloud-based software system, depriving all of its customers – 15,000 dealerships in total – of the most basic daily tools to run their new and used-vehicle sales operations, their parts and service operations, their inventories, their back-office operations, customer contact systems, loan applications, etc.Dealers have resorted to writing up sales orders and service orders by hand, then hand-typing all this into spreadsheets or whatever, to track it somehow, hopefully not making the situation even worse by adding typos into VINs, repair order numbers, names, and other key data. Then, someday, when the system is up and running again, they hope to re-type – or maybe copy and paste? – all this from spreadsheets into the CDK software system, praying all along the way to not make the situation even worse by introducing more typos into key data. The publicly held auto dealers – there are not many, but they’re huge, with lots of big dealerships around the country – have started to warn about the still unquantifiable consequences. And this could ripple across the economic data for Q2.
- AutoNation [AN], the largest dealer chain in the US, said in an SEC filing today that it had been notified on June 19 that CDK, “was experiencing a cyber incident impacting its systems, including the systems necessary to support our dealer management system (“DMS”), which supports our dealership operations, including our sales, service, inventory, customer relationship management, and accounting functions.” It said its stores remain open, “and we are continuing to sell, service, and buy vehicles, and otherwise serve our customers, through manual and alternative means and processes, albeit with lower productivity.” “As the incident is ongoing, the full scope, nature and impact of the incident is not yet known,” it said.
- Group 1 Automotive [GPI] said in an SEC filing today that “all Group 1 U.S. dealerships continue to conduct business using alternative processes until CDK’s dealers’ systems are available.” “CDK has advised that it anticipates the restoration of the dealer management system will require several days and not weeks. The timing of the restoration of other impacted CDK applications remains unclear at this time,” it said. “Group 1’s ability to determine the material impact, if any, of the CDK incident and the resulting service outage, will ultimately depend on a number of factors, including when, and to what extent, the Company resumes its access to the CDK’s dealers’ systems,” it said.
- Lithia Motors [LAD] said in an SEC filing today, “The Company, whose dealerships continue to operate, has implemented mitigation plans to minimize disruptions and continue serving its customers. While this incident has had, and is likely to continue to have, a negative impact on the Company’s business operations until the relevant systems are fully restored, the Company has not yet determined whether the incident is reasonably likely to materially impact the Company’s financial condition or results of operations.”
- Sonic Automotive [SAH] said in an SEC filing on Friday, “All of the Company’s dealerships are open and operating utilizing workaround solutions to minimize the disruption caused by this CDK outage.” “As the incident is ongoing, the full scope, nature and impact of the incident, including the extent to which the threat actor accessed any customer data, are not yet known,” it said. “While this incident has had, and is likely to continue to have, a negative impact on the Company’s business operations until the relevant systems are fully restored, the Company has not yet determined whether the incident is reasonably likely to have a material impact on the Company’s financial condition or results of operations,” it said.
- Penske Automotive Group [PAG] said in an SEC filing on Friday that its consumer-brands of dealerships were not using CDK’s software, and were not impacted, but its 48 heavy-truck dealerships were. The commercial truck dealership business – selling primarily Freightliner and Western Star trucks – “has lower unit volumes than the automotive dealership business and principally serves business customers,” it said.
- CarMax [KMX], the largest used-vehicle dealer in the US, said during its earnings call on Friday that it does not use CDK and wasn’t directly impacted by the hack, but that it works “with a lot of other dealers” to get parts to repair vehicles, and if their systems are down, there would be a “minor” impact on CarMax, and “there is a little impact on title work as well. But I would say it’s just minor in the scheme of things as far as the impact on us,” CEO Bill Nash said.
Impact on economic data for Q2: The industry is now heading into the last few days of the second quarter for purposes of the closely-watched reporting of deliveries of new vehicles to customers. Deals that got hung up could prevent the vehicle from being delivered by the quarter’s cut-off date, which may ripple across all kinds of Q2 economic data. Vehicle retail sales are an important factor in consumer spending. CDK shrouded itself in opacity about the nature of the hack. Emails to dealers have called this event a cyber incident and cyberattack. On Friday, Bloomberg reported that this was a ransom attack. On Saturday, CDK admitted that it was recovering from a “cyber ransom event.” Today, Bloomberg reported, citing the security firm Recorded Future, that the attack had been undertaken by hacking group BlackSuit. “The cybercrime group has demanded an extortion fee in the tens of millions of dollars from CDK, which plans to make the payment,” Bloomberg said.
June Vehicle Sales Forecast: 15.9 million SAAR, Down 1% YoY -- From WardsAuto: June U.S. Light-Vehicle Sales Likely Reduced by Cyberattack (pay content). Brief excerpt: Unknown is how many unit sales in June might be lost because of the attack. Not all affected dealers stopped selling vehicles and many that did have since resumed, often manually processing sales and finding alternative ways to deliver vehicles to customers. Another unknown is how many buyers might have switched to an unaffected dealer to make a purchase. The bright side is that any lost sales in June likely will be made up in July. This graph shows actual sales from the BEA (Blue), and Wards forecast for May (Red). On a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis, the Wards forecast of 15.9 million SAAR, would be unchanged from last month, and down 1.0% from a year ago.
Ford recalls 552,000 pickup trucks for transmission downshift risk -Ford is recalling more than 552,000 pickup trucks over a transmission issue that could cause it to suddenly downshift into first gear, increasing the risk of a crash, according to documentation posted Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).The recall potentially affects certain 2014 models of the Ford F-150 pickup trucks, Ford said in its report to the NHTSA. The Ford F-series has been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for years.The problem stems from a temporary loss in signal between a transmission speed sensor and the powertrain control computer, which could cause the downshift to first gear and cause drivers to lose control, “regardless of vehicle speed.”Owners will receive letters by mail by July 5, notifying them of the recall. They will be advised to take their vehicles to a Ford or Lincoln dealer to update the powertrain control module software. A Ford spokesperson said the software update is expected to be ready in the third quarter of 2024.
Amtrak service still disrupted in Northeast --Amtrak is still facing service disruptions Friday in the Northeast after service between New Haven, Conn., and Philadelphia was suspended Thursday afternoon. “As of 8:24 am ET, Due to a disabled commuter train in New York (NYP), All rail services will be delayed/modified between PHL & NYP,” Amtrak Northeast said in a post Friday morning on the social platform X. “Resumption of service is estimated at 12:00 pm. Delays of at least 60 mins are expected. Updates to come.”Amtrak Northeast noted the cancellation and suspension of some trains in the New York region Friday morning due to the disabled commuter train.Amtrak service was suspended between New Haven and Philadelphia due to a power outage Thursday. Amtrak Northeast said in a series of posts on X that an overhead power outage was reported between New York City and Newark and warned of “significant delays” while crews worked on the problem.Right before 3 p.m. EDT Thursday, rail traffic between New Haven and Philadelphia was suspended while the crews tried to bring back power in the New York area.“Significant delays are anticipated,” Amtrak said at the time on X. The company said in a release that a malfunctioning circuit breaker caused the power issue that brought about a loss of power on the tracks.
Heat wave may trigger Amtrak delays on Northeast Corridor --Amtrak warned that high temperatures could force trains on the Northeast Corridor to be delayed by up to an hour into Sunday evening.Extreme heat has blasted the Midwest and Northeast this week, with temperatures reaching the triple digits on the East Coast on Saturday and Sunday.High temperatures make the steel tracks expand, raising the risk of derailments or other track failures. Lowering the speed of trains ensures safety.The company said delays would slow and end around 7:30 p.m., as temperatures cooled.Similar delays are common on commuter rail and subway services as well. The Washington Metro slowed trains from a maximum of 65 mph to 35 mph due to the heat, causing slower service.The heat wave is expected to continue into this week, the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast, with temperatures in the 90s predicted for much of the East Coast. The Southeast, mid-South and the Plains regions will see the heat wave peak this upcoming week, with the possibility of temperatures exceeding 110 degrees on some days, according to NWS.AccuWeather meteorologists also predicted that the heat wave would cool off in much of the Northeast on Sunday but could lead to thunderstorms.
Tractor Supply drops diversity and climate goals after backlash -Home improvement and agriculture chain store Tractor Supply is eliminating its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and climate goals after weeks of conservative backlash. In a statement released Thursday, the company said it works hard to “represent the values of the communities and customers we serve.”“We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart,” the Tennessee-based company said. It added that the company will no longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign — an LGBTQ advocacy organization; eliminate DEI roles and retire all current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment; and withdraw its carbon emission goals to focus on land and water conservation efforts. Much of the criticism Tractor Supply faced came from Robby Starbuck, a film director who ran for Tennessee’s 5th congressional district as a Republican write-in candidate in 2022. In a post on X earlier this month, Starbuck criticized the company for its diversity training, funding Pride events and “climate change activism.” He also criticized investors, saying in a post earlier this week the “forced woke values by these entities must end.” In its statement on Thursday, Tractor Supply said it would now redirect its focus on the priorities of rural America “including ag education, animal welfare, veteran causes and being a good neighbor and stop sponsoring nonbusiness activities like pride festivals and voting campaigns.” “Rural communities are the backbone of our nation and what make America great,” the company added. “We are honored to be a part of them.”
Civil liberties groups file lawsuit against Louisiana Ten Commandments law -- A coalition of civil liberties groups on Monday filed a lawsuit against Louisiana after its governor last week signed a bill requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom starting in 2025. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), its branch in Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed the suit on behalf of a multi-faith group of nine Louisiana families with children in public schools. The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana alleges the new law violates the First Amendment and “substantially interferes with and burdens” parents’ rights to direct their children’s religious upbringing. The plaintiffs are made up of a group of Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and non-religious individuals. “It also sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments — or, more precisely, to the specific version of the Ten Commandments that H.B. 71 requires schools to display — do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences,” the lawsuit reads. The law requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed one easily readable posters in public school classrooms with three paragraphs about how the religious text have played an influential role in American history. “If you want to respect the rule of law,” Gov. Jeff Landry (R) said during his signing of the bill, “you’ve got to start from the original law giver, which was Moses.”Landry added at the time he “can’t wait to be sued,” which the ACLU vowed to do just hours after the bill was signed into law. “As a nonreligious family, we oppose the government forcibly subjecting our child to a religious scripture that we don’t believe in. The State of Louisiana should not direct a religious upbringing of our child and require students to observe the state’s preferred religious doctrine in every classroom,” said Jennifer Harding and Benjamin Owens, plaintiffs in the case. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) said her office “cannot comment on a lawsuit we haven’t seen.” “It seems the ACLU only selectively cares about the First Amendment — it doesn’t care when the Biden administration censors speech or arrests pro-life protesters, but apparently it will fight to prevent posters that discuss our own legal history,” Murrill said.
School worker layoffs loom as dozens of teacher contracts expire in Detroit and across Michigan Unprecedented cuts to public education are taking effect across Michigan, largely due to the ending of the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) program. ESSER had provided Michigan’s hard-pressed schools with $6 billion in temporary assistance. The Biden administration’s decision to allow the COVID school funding program to expire this September is expected to cost as many as 5,100 teachers their jobs in Michigan and more than 380,000 nationally. In addition, the drying up of ESSER funds is already leading to the destruction of many academic programs and services. The first wave of cuts coincides with the expiration of labor agreements covering teachers and other school workers in nearly 30 Michigan districts on June 30. These include Eaton-Rapids, Utica Community Schools, Berkley, Wayne-Westland, Ferndale, Clarenceville, Plymouth-Canton, Northville, Garden City, Armada, Pontiac, Flushing, Southfield, Fowlerville, Kalkaska, Grosse Pointe and the Detroit Public School Community District (DPSCD). Struggles have begun in many Michigan districts against this fundamental assault on the right to public education. In Ann Arbor, educators, teachers and students carried out weeks of militant protests, making passionate statements to the Board of Education on the urgency of defending teachers’ jobs and academic programs. Nevertheless, the district—with the collusion of the Ann Arbor Education Association (AAEA)—approved the elimination of 141 staff positions, including 94 teachers, on May 20. Far from opposing this, AAEA officials offered their assistance in “right-sizing” the district by recommending that educators take buyouts. After months of protests, Flint teachers shut the district down in a one-day sickout on March 13, forcing the district to partially backtrack on de facto pay cuts. In Wayne-Westland, teachers have been battling cuts throughout 2023-24. The district has reported a $30 million budget shortfall and urged $17 million in cuts for 2024-25. Grosse Pointe teachers, parents, and students rallied and protested similar cuts for months last year. Despite ESSER cuts affecting every district and expiring contracts statewide, the Michigan Education Association (MEA) and the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) have not lifted a finger to organize a unified fight to defend jobs. Just the opposite. They are actively blocking the urgently required struggle. Detroit teachers were not only entirely shut out of the negotiations, but instructed at union meetings that their input was not requested. Last year over 300 positions were cut “proactively,” before the ESSER fiscal cliff, compounding the struggles of educators working in the poorest big city in America. Yet, talks are proceeding without a union pledge to restore jobs. This is not a surprise since the DFT bureaucracy not only acquiesced to the layoffs, but it presented the elimination of the jobs of paraprofessionals not affiliated with the AFT (compared to those who were) as a “victory.” While Detroit teachers are being kept in the dark on talks, DFT President Lakia Wilson-Lumpkins enthused at the personal appearance of Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) Superintendent Nikolai Vitti in negotiations. She congratulated herself for inviting him, telling the local media, “And let me tell you, it worked. We were able to make some decisions that didn’t need an ‘Oh, wait, let me see.’” While these “decisions” are not being divulged to union members, the bureaucracy has made clear in several communications with teachers that a key priority is restoring payroll deduction for dues. In other words, they are eager to keep the union hierarchy’s hefty paychecks safe.
“Oversized classes in middle school and high school must be addressed”: Detroit teacher speaks out as contract expires -- As the June 30, 2024 contract deadline approaches for the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT), an educator spoke with the WSWS about conditions in the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) and the issues that must be addressed in a new contract. Detroit schools have been subjected to years of brutal budget cuts, emergency managers and privatization. In 2009, the Obama administration named Detroit the “epicenter” of school reform; since then fully half of Detroit students have been shunted to predominantly for-profit charter operations. While the automakers that dominate Detroit are posting massive profits, public education is increasingly under unrelenting attack. The gross profits for General Motors’ most recent quarter ending March 31, 2024 was a massive $5.912 billion, a 15.33 percent increase year over year. These astounding profits directly enrich hedge funds and millionaire investors but never find their way into public services such as education. The Biden administration, which is funneling more than $1 trillion to the military to fund a vast expansion of US wars of aggression, has allowed the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) to expire this fall. This loss of funding nationwide is plunging schools across the country into budgetary crisis, mass layoffs and school closures. A Detroit teacher, Beatrice, reviewed how budget cuts to Detroit schools have led to a growth in class sizes. She referred to the well-known harm of large class sizes. “In the 2020-21 school year, my first year of teaching, we had 20 students per class due to COVID restrictions. In 2021-22, that increased to 28 per class. Once the COVID restrictions ended, the class sizes increased to 32-40 students per class. “At the end of the 2023-24 school year, my middle school had 39 or 40 kids in each of the four 6th-grade class sections.” The long-term effect of overcrowded classrooms has been understood for decades. Reducing class sizes is the number one measure schools can take to increase learning. In 1979, one of the earliest and most influential meta-studies on the issue demonstrated that learning increased progressively as class size became smaller than 15. Following up, the Tennessee STAR study showed that small class sizes were even more important in poorer communities like Detroit. It found that students assigned to smaller classes were more likely to graduate in four years, more likely to go to college, and more likely to get a degree in a STEM field. The positive effect was twice as large for poor and minority students and thus narrowed the achievement gap. Not only are these academic needs of the majority of students being disregarded, Beatrice explained, but the normal problems of large class sizes are being compounded by the disproportionate number of special needs students in Detroit. She said, “A sample class from the 2023-24 school year of 34 8th graders would have 20 students who are second language learners, five of which are non-English speaking, three students with learning disabilities (ESE), nine who had more than 40 absences in the school year, six that are on grade level, seven that are one year below grade level, and 21 who are two or more grade levels behind.” To describe the struggles of educators under these conditions as “heroic” is almost an understatement. The terrible growth of social inequality and poverty in Detroit was dramatically exacerbated in 2009 when the Obama administration, in collusion with the automakers, halved the wages of the workforce, the same year that the city’s schools were made a model for privatization.
Study: Teacher perceptions of chronically absent young students may add to the challenges of missing school - A new study finds that early elementary school teachers report feeling less close to chronically absent students and view them less positively, even when those students do not cause trouble in the classroom. This "cooling down" in the relationship between teachers and their chronically absent students may exacerbate the academic challenges these children face. The study, by Michael A. Gottfried and Phil H. Kim at the University of Pennsylvania, and Tina Fletcher at the Walton Family Foundation, is published in AERA Open, a journal of the American Educational Research Association. Chronic absenteeism has skyrocketed since the pandemic, with 30% of U.S. students chronically absent in the 2021–22 school year, nearly double the rate in 2018–19, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. In addition to feeling less close to chronically absent students, teachers in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade reported viewing them as more withdrawn and as having worse interpersonal skills. When it came to academics, teachers perceived chronically absent students as having fewer positive learning behaviors as well as being worse at literacy and math, even if this was not true. The study found that while teachers reported feeling less close to these students, they did not feel as if they had more conflict with these students. Rather, teachers viewed chronically absent students as displaying more internalizing behaviors, such as being withdrawn, but not externalizing behaviors, such as acting out. "One stereotype about absent students is that they are 'troublemakers' when they are back in the classroom, but we don't find that to be the case at all," said Gottfried, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. Prior research has shown that negative teacher perceptions of students can harm children's growth and development in school. "Our findings suggest that absenteeism puts students at a double disadvantage," Gottfried said. "First, they miss out on essential learning opportunities by not being in school. And then it erodes their teachers' relationships with them, which can further harm their academic growth." Gottfried noted that schools can help by providing teachers with professional development to mitigate potential bias against students who miss a lot of school. This is especially important given that there are demographic disparities in who is absent, such as by race and ethnicity. Teachers might be adjusting perceptions in a systematic way by race and ethnicity as it is tied in with absenteeism. While previous studies have examined the impact of student absenteeism, this is one of the only studies to consider how student absenteeism might influence teachers. The study used nationally representative data from the National Center for Education Statistics on 14,370 students in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. The data were drawn from direct assessments of children, parent interviews, and education and administrator questionnaires. Chronically absent students were defined as missing at least 11 days of school during the academic year. Gottfried stressed that this study highlights that absenteeism is both an individual and classroom issue. "We need to pay attention to both if we are aiming to solve the absenteeism crisis," Gottfried said.
Financial sextortion schemes mostly target teenage boys, largely through Instagram: Report -- Teenage boys are the most frequent targets of financial “sextortion” schemes that are often conducted through Instagram and other social media platforms, according to a new report. The report was released jointly by technology company Thorn and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) on Monday and examined more than 15 million reports made to NCMEC’s CyberTipline from 2020 to 2023. It found that sextortion is on the rise, with an average of 812 reports of sextortion made per week to NCMEC in the last year. The report defines sextortion as “threatening to expose sexual images of someone if they don’t yield to demands.” The report found that about two-thirds of all the reports involved demands for money. The research noted that in the past, sextortion schemes frequently affected girls and included demands that were “sexual or relational in nature.” However, the latest report found that most victims of financial sextortion are now boys. The report found that 90 percent of victims of financial sextortion were boys between the ages of 14 and 17. “These reports most often include the use of ‘catfishing’ — in this case, a perpetrator impersonating another young person — to manipulate a teenage boy into sharing sexual images or videos of himself. That perpetrator then threatens to share that imagery with family, friends, or followers unless they are paid,” the report states. The report found that Instagram was the most common platform listed in financial sextortion data. Facebook and YouTube were also common platforms mentioned as platforms where perpetuators threatened to post content. Instagram was discussed in 81.3 percent of the threats to disseminate the content online, and was the chosen platform in 60 percent of reports in which the content was ultimately disseminated online. Instagram and Snapchat were also the top two platforms where initial contact was made with victims. Instagram was listed as the platform for initial contact in 45.1 percent of the reports that mention an initial-contact platform while Snapchat was listed 31.6 percent of the time. The Hill has reached out to Instagram and Snapchat for comment.
Hochul on NY social media law: ‘You cannot turn a blind eye to trauma that has been inflicted on our children’ -- New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) pushed back on some criticism of the new social media laws that she signed last week to address the impact it could have on children’s mental health. “You cannot turn a blind eye to trauma that is being inflicted on our children, especially young teenagers today, a seminal point in their lives … they’re being bombarded with intensely addictive algorithms to pull them into a dark space and hold them captive,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked about concerns about the new law. Hochul signed two social media laws last week that will regulate how social media companies provide addictive features to children and how they collect and use the data of minors. She also said Sunday that she “absolutely” believes the laws will hold up in court. Under the Safe for Kids Act, social media platforms will be prevented from offering addictive features for children without parental consent. The companies would also be barred from collecting, using or selling personal data of kids and teens without consent under the Child Data Protection Act. Hochul also said that she sat down with young people in forums and has discussed social media with them. “A young woman once said to me, ‘You have to save us from ourselves. We can’t stop.’ And I thought, it’s not her fault. These companies are monetizing our children’s mental health. They’re taking away from them,” she said. “And if we don’t stand up as a government and as parents, the first mom governor of New York, I’m going to make sure that we fight for our kids,” she added.
Advocates blast House for holding Kids Online Safety Act ‘hostage’ - Advocates pushing for social media regulations to keep kids safe online blasted the House for cancelling a Thursday markup of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) amid opposition to a separate data privacy bill also slated to be considered. A House Energy and Commerce Committee markup of 11 bills, including KOSA and the American Privacy Rights Act, was cancelled Thursday shortly before it was scheduled to begin after House Republican leaders strongly resisted the privacy bill. Child online safety advocates slammed the decision to cancel the markup and said Congress should take action on KOSA separate from other tech bills, including the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA). “To me this is hostage taking,” said Josh Golin, executive director of the advocacy group Fairplay for Kids. “[The committee] could have marked up KOSA without APRA,” Golin added, noting that Congress has been “trying for decades” to pass a comprehensive data privacy bill. “There’s no reason why families should have to wait for that in order to have a safer internet,” Golin added. KOSA would create regulations for how social media companies operate for minors and has gained momentum after years of hearings featuring tech company CEOs and whistleblowers about the harms social media has on youth mental health. The bill would require companies to limit access or allow minors to opt out of certain features, like automatic video playing and algorithmic recommendations, and also legally obligate the platforms to prevent the promotion of content about certain topics, such as suicide, eating disorders and self-harm. The bill faced opposition from some civil society groups who feared the duty of care standard could be interpreted in a way that could limit teens from accessing information about gender identity, sexuality and reproductive health. The text of the bill has been updated in response to concerns raised, and in February several LGBTQ advocacy groups, including GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign, withdrew their opposition.
US sees more signs of possible COVID-19 surge --COVID-19 levels in the United States were at their lowest of the pandemic in April and May, but growth in activity across several states indicate the possible start of a summer rise, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest respiratory disease snapshot."CDC will continue to monitor to see if these recent increases persist," the agency said, adding that rates of COVID hospitalizations are rising in adults ages 65 and older in some western locations.On X yesterday, the California Department of Public Healthsaid it is seeing an uptick in COVID activity in the state and it urged people to take steps to prevent disease spread, such as staying home and testing when sick, seeking treatment if positive, and masking when indoors. COVID-19 test positivity and emergency department (ED) visits, considered early indicators, are up from very low levels. Nationally, ED visits were up 23.3% from the week before, with Hawaii in the highest category, and a few western states reporting higher levels than the country as a whole, according to the latest CDC COVID data. Test positivity rose slightly to 8.1% and is highest in Hawaii and western regions of the country. Wastewater SARS-CoV-2 detections are still classified as low nationally, but trends show a steep rise in the West and a more modest rise in the South.In updated SARS-CoV-2 variant proportion estimates last week, the CDC reported another jump in the KP.3 variant, one of the offshoots of JN.1 that is thought to have greater capacity to evade earlier immunity from natural infection or vaccination.
XBB booster offers protection against JN.1 infections, hospital cases, new data show -When the COVID-19 booster targeting the XBB 1.5 variant was made available late last summer, the variant was the most dominant in the United States. Within weeks of the booster's introduction, variant JN.1 began to rise and replaced XBB as the dominant virus strain by the end of 2023.A new study in Clinical Infectious Diseases looks at outcomes among more than 3 million adult Singaporeans who received the XBB booster amid JN.1 virus circulation and finds protection against both infection and serious outcomes.The study was conducted from November 26, 2023 to January 13, 2024, and assessed COVID-19–associated emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations, stratified by vaccination status or prior infection. Outcomes among those vaccinated 8 to 120 days prior to infection were compared to people last boosted at least 1 year prior to their XBB dose.In total, during Singapore's JN.1 outbreak, 28,160 SARS-CoV-2 infections were recorded, including 2,926 hospitalizations and 3,747 ED visits, and the cases were driven by increasing circulation of the JN.1 variant (more than 90% of sequenced viruses).By the end of the study period, 20.8% (696,344 of 3,340,800) received a bivalent (two-strain) booster; while 3.2% (107,966 of 3,340,800) received an XBB 1.5 booster.An XBB booster was associated with a 41% reduced risk of JN.1 infection (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.59). COVID-19–associated ED visits were reduced 50% among those with XBB boosters (aHR, 0.50), while hospitalizations were 42% lower (aHR, 0.58).There was no statistically significant reduction of risk for JN.1 infections, ED visits, or hospitalizations in people vaccinated with a bivalent booster within 8 to 365 days after the shot.For Singaporeans with prior COVID-19 infections, compared to adults with no history of COVID-19 infection, those infected less than 1 year prior during XBB-predominant transmission had a 35% lower risk of COVID-19–associated ED visits (aHR, 0.65) and a numerically lower risk of hospitalization that was not statistically significant.Those with COVID-19 infections recorded more than 1 year prior had an increased risk of JN.1 infection and COVID-19–associated ED visits and hospitalizations.
New study aims to define long COVID through phenotypes of patients -- A new study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases uses data from 1,988 SARS-CoV-2–positive US Military Health System beneficiaries to define the characteristics and clinical patterns observed in patients with long COVID, or post-COVID condition (PCC), grouping patients into three phenotypes based on clusters of symptoms.The authors of the study said they wanted to use machine learning to analyze data on clinical symptoms 6 months post-infection to identify new definitions for PCC. The longitudinal study took place from March 2020 through May 2022. Case-participants tested positive for COVID-19 during the study period and completed a survey approximately 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after their first positive test.At each time point, participants were asked about the duration and severity of their symptoms, the authors said."To identify distinct PCC clusters based on differing symptomatology, we utilized a machine learning clustering algorithm of survey responses to identify patterns that differentiated participants based on their reported symptoms," they wrote.In total, the authors said three symptom-based clusters were identified: a sensory cluster (loss of smell and/or taste), a fatigue/difficulty-thinking cluster, and a difficulty-breathing and exercise-intolerance cluster."Cluster 1 (Sensory) was characterized by a higher frequency of sensory symptoms such as loss of smell and/or taste, Cluster 2 (Fatigue/Difficulty thinking) was characterized by a higher frequency of fatigue (including mental and physical fatigue) and difficulty thinking (e.g., brain fog), and Cluster 3 (Difficulty breathing/Exercise intolerance) was characterized by a higher frequency of difficulty breathing symptoms (e.g., shortness of breath) and exercise intolerance (e.g., difficulty exercising)," they said.Of the 1,988 participants included in the study, 60.4% were men, and 69.5% were 18 to 44 years old. Seventy-three percent had no significant comorbidities prior to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and 9.6% were hospitalized due to acute COVID-19 infection. The authors also found that certain comorbidities were linked to certain PCC symptoms, for example, obesity during COVID-19 infection was linked to difficulty breathing in the PCC period. Everyone in the sensory cluster was treated as an outpatient during COVID infection. "The sensory cluster was less likely to be vaccinated (15.6%) compared to the fatigue/difficulty thinking (36.2%) cluster and the difficulty breathing /exercise intolerance (39.1%) cluster," the authors said. In an editorial on the study, researchers from the University of Cambridge write, "This study underscores that PCC is not a single condition but, rather, a multisystemic condition with distinct symptom-based phenotypes that have specific risk factors and perhaps unique early inflammatory profiles."
Study Finds Alarming Surge In Deaths From Neurological Disease Among Young Adults - A recent preprint study which relies on extensive data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) paints a concerning picture of the neurological health landscape in the United States. The study, which focuses on those aged 15-44, reveals a disturbing increase in deaths from neurological diseases both as the primary cause and among multiple contributing factors.This uptick in mortality rates, which is particularly significant among younger adults, could have profound implications for the nation's public health policies, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.Perhaps most concerning, the study found an increase in neurological complications following COVID-19 vaccinations, including conditions such as Guillain-Barré syndrome and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. According to Phinance principal Ed Dowd, "The results show a clear break from the prior historical trend in death rates from neurological diseases." US - Trends in Death Rates from Neurological Diseases, Ages 15-44 Our results show that the excess UC (Underlying Cause) death rates from neurological diseases for individuals aged 15 to 44 age were 4.4% (Z-Score 4.9) in 2020, then rose to 10.0% (Z-Score 11.1) in 2021,…pic.twitter.com/HYA4wHtZ9S Researchers Carlos Alegria and Yuri Nunes of Phinance Technologies conducted a deep dive looking at neurological disease-related mortality across various age groups from 2000 to 2023. Their study distinguishes between deaths where neurological conditions were the underlying cause (UC) and instances where these diseases were listed among multiple causes (MC) on death certificates, and compares death rates against a baseline to identify excess deaths.Key findings from the study include:
- A notable rise in excess mortality from neurological diseases reported as the underlying cause of death among individuals aged 15 to 44, with increases of 4.4% in 2020, 10.0% in 2021, 9.9% in 2022, and 8.1% in 2023.
- Excess deaths from neurological conditions as part of multiple causes tracked overall mortality rises and were significant even after removing deaths where COVID-19 was also reported.
As Phinance notes, "The strength of the statistical significance of the excess deaths from neurological diseases was very high, being considered extreme events, indicating a clear change from the prior 2010-2019 trend." The intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic with the rise in neurological disease deaths adds layers of complexity to the analysis - including the notion that various medical interventions and societal disruptions might have exacerbated underlying neurological vulnerabilities:
- Notably, the study points to an increased risk of developing severe neurological conditions following COVID-19 vaccinations, with specific vaccines linked to higher risks of serious ailments such as the aforementioned Guillain-Barré syndrome.
- Some cases of long covid have been associated with long-term neurological complications.
Perhaps most alarming is the impact on younger individuals. Those aged 15-44, typically considered in the prime of life, exhibited a stark increase in neurological disease-related deaths. This raises serious questions about potential environmental, biological, or social factors that are disproportionately affecting younger populations. The authors conclude: How can we explain the excess UC deaths from neurological diseases in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023? In 2020, this could be explained by deaths from health effects related to the pandemic management measures such lockdowns and lack of medical care, or other related factors such as stress, less exercise, worse food habits, or from under-diagnosed COVID-19 itself, or related side effects. The acceleration in excess death rates from neurological diseases in 2021, 2022 and 2023 is more difficult to explain due to COVID-19 on its own. Given the case studies of neurological adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination cited in the literature, one possible factor could be adverse effects of the COVID-19 vaccines. Furthermore, one must also account for the possibility of continuous COVID-19 infections or Long COVID...
Heavier social media use tied to more frequent COVID, flu vaccination -A pair of new University of Pennsylvania studies describes the influences on the decision to vaccinate, with one tying greater adult social media use to keep current with recommended COVID-19 and flu vaccinations and one finding that parental attitudes and social norms influenced the decision to vaccinate children against COVID-19.For the first study, researchers from the Annenberg Public Policy Center repeatedly surveyed a probability sample of 1,768 Republicans and Democrats on their social media use and influences on their vaccination decisions from December 2022 to September 2023. The research was published in Social Science & Medicine. Participants were 51.4% women, 35.1% were Democrats, 30.2% were Republicans, 28.5% were Independents, 60.4% were White, 11.4% were Black, 12.4% were White Hispanic, 0.6% were Black Hispanic, 7.6% were Hispanic alone, 5.5% were Asian, 0.2% were Native American or Alaska Native, 0.6% were multiracial, and 0.2% were of another race. Overall, Republicans received COVID-19 and flu vaccinations less than Democrats, but the influence of social media on their vaccination decisions was equally strong between the two parties.Heavier social media use correlated with more frequent vaccination (cross-lagged coefficients, 0.113 for COVID-19 and 0.123 for flu). But Democrats and Republicans reported following different influences behind their decisions, with Democratic heavy social media users saying that they were influenced by information on emerging pathogens and Republican heavy users citing the vaccination decisions of people close to them.The second study, published in PLOS One, explored the psychosocial correlates of parents' intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. As part of the Philadelphia Community Engagement Alliance, the researchers surveyed 1,008 Philadelphia parents from September 2021 to February 2022, when guidance for child vaccination was anticipated, and analyzed the results using structural equation modeling. The average parent age was 36.9 years, 65.1% were women, and 42.3% were of minority races. Parents who received more than one COVID-19 vaccine accounted for 97.2% of participants, while unvaccinated parents made up 2.4%. Despite "the vital role of vaccination in promoting wellbeing and quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine hesitancy and refusal emerged as widespread challenges, posing barriers to achieving herd immunity and influencing decision-making processes," the study authors wrote. The analysis showed that parental attitudes and subjective social norms predicted intent to vaccinate among parents of minority races, while only subjective norms had a significant effect on intention among White parents. Both attitudes and subjective norms influenced women, while neither had a significant effect on men. In general, racial-minority parents reported weaker vaccination intentions than their White peers. The researchers noted that public health officials recommend that everyone aged 6 months and older be vaccinated against COVID-19. "In the U.S., 56% of children under 17 had not received the COVID-19 vaccination in 2023," they wrote.
Cases Of Covid 19 With New Variants On The Rise In Most US States This Summer --The latest data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that 39 states across the United States are currently experiencing a significant uptick in COVID-19 cases this summer. This surge is primarily attributed to the rapid transmission of new variants of the virus. These variants are categorized as subtypes of the omicron variant, with the KP.3 lineage being the most prevalent, constituting approximately 33.1% of cases nationwide, followed by KP.2 at 20.8% and LB.1 at 17.5%. The duration of this summer wave of COVID-19 remains uncertain, with medical experts cautioning that it could persist for a considerable period. Dr. William Schaffner, an expert in infectious diseases, forecasts a continued rise in cases throughout August, followed by a decline, only to rise again as colder weather sets in. Notably, emergency department visits related to COVID-19 have surged by nearly 15% in comparison to the previous week, while virus-related hospitalizations have increased by 25% since late May. Furthermore, there has been a notable spike of almost 17% in deaths from the virus in the most recent week. Dr. Thomas Russo emphasizes that population immunity has waned over time, underscoring the critical role of booster shots in mitigating infections. As the weather leads people to spend more time indoors with air conditioning, the risk of infection amplifies due to indoor activities. To minimize the risk of infection, it is imperative to adhere to preventative measures such as wearing masks, practicing frequent hand washing, and following quarantine protocols, particularly when traveling or utilizing public transportation. Health officials recommend those infected with the coronavirus to isolate for a minimum of five days, continue to observe safety measures, and consider treatment, particularly for high-risk individuals. The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) has reported that the current variants respond favorably to Paxlovid treatment.
CDC recommends COVID shot for all Americans this fall -The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending all Americans receive an updated COVID-19 shot this fall. The recommendation comes amid a slight uptick in COVID cases in some parts of the U.S., according to CDC data. The agency recommends everyone 6 months and older receive an updated 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine “to protect against the potentially serious outcomes” of the virus. “Our top recommendation for protecting yourself and your loved ones from respiratory illness is to get vaccinated,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen said in a statement. “Make a plan now for you and your family to get both updated flu and COVID vaccines this fall, ahead of the respiratory virus season.” The agency recommended everyone to get the shot “whether or not they have ever previously been vaccinated” with a COVID-19 vaccine. Updated vaccines will be available sometime later this year from Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax. In 2023, more than 916,300 people were hospitalized due to COVID-19 and more than 75,500 people died from the virus. That was down from 244,000 deaths in 2022. The CDC also recommended that all Americans 6 months and older receive the flu vaccine, noting that it will offer protection against the against H1N1, H3N2 and a B/Victoria lineage virus. And during the 2023-24 flu season, more than 44,900 people are estimated to have died from flu complications. The CDC emphasized that it was safe to receive the flu and COVID shots at the same time.
CDC advisers make recommendations for COVID, flu, pneumococcal vaccines --In deliberations yesterday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine advisory group recommended updated COVID-19 and flu vaccines for the upcoming respiratory virus season, with people ages 6 months and older advised to receive the vaccine in most circumstances.The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) made one tweak to the flu vaccine recommendation, which is that solid-organ transplant recipients who are ages 18 to 64 years old may receive an adjuvanted or high-dose flu vaccine as an off-label option.In a CDC statement accepting the group's recommendation, CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH, said the top recommendation for protecting people and their loved ones from respiratory illness is to get vaccinated. "Make a plan now for you and your family to get both updated flu and COVID vaccines this fall, ahead of the respiratory virus season."ACIP also unanimously voted to recommend Merck's new 21-valent (21-strain) pneumococcal vaccine as an option for adults ages 65 and older who have not received one or whose vaccination status isn't known. The advisers also said the vaccine could be used in the age-group with shared clinical decision-making on a supplemental basis in those who have completed their vaccine series with pneumococcal conjugate vaccine 13 (PCV13, which includes 13 strains) or pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine 23 (PPSV23, the 23-strain version). The group also recommended a single dose of the vaccine in patients ages 19 to 64 who have certain underlying health conditions, both those who haven't received a dose of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and those who started their series with PCV13 but have not received all recommended PPSV23 doses.
H1N2v flu infects 2 more people in Pennsylvania --The Pennsylvania Department of Health two more variant H1N2 (H1N2v) infections, both of them adults who had attended a livestock auction that had pigs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly influenza update.The state reported a similar H1N2v case in March, so the two new cases lift the nation's total for the year to three.The newly confirmed patients are close contacts who sought medical care the week ending June 22. One patient was hospitalized. No other illnesses were found among other contacts of the two people, and the investigation is still under way.In other flu updates, the CDC said seasonal flu activity remains low nationally. Three more pediatric flu deaths were reported, which occurred in December, April, and May, raising the season's total to 181, approaching the 2022-23 total of 185. The CDC has ramped up surveillance over the summer due to continuing H5N1 avian flu circulation in dairy herds, which was linked to three earlier human infections.
Study shows Pseudomonas infections more likely to develop resistance to ceftazidime-avibactam -- Data from a single-center study show that in patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosainfections, resistance occurred more commonly among those treated with ceftazidime-avibactam (CZA) than those treated with ceftolozane-tazobactam (C/T), researchers reported last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases.The study, conducted at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, included 113 adult patients (median age, 64 years; 63% male) with MDR P aeruginosa pneumonia or bacteremia. The aim of the study was to follow patients for 90 days after treatment with CZA or C/T. While both are considered first-line agents for MDR P aeruginosa infections, rates of resistance following treatment have not been established. The primary endpoint was development of resistance within 90 days of treatment initiation, defined as a four-fold increase in the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) from baseline.Ninety-three patients in the study received C/T, and 20 received CZA. Patient demographics, severity of illness, and treatment characteristics were similar for patients treated with either agent. Rates of 30-day survival, microbiologic failure, and recurrent infections did not vary between the two groups. Analysis of 107 patient isolates found a four-fold MIC increase from baseline in 40% (8 of 20) of patients treated with CZA and 10% (9/87) treated with C/T. A planned subgroup analysis of 63 patients treated from 2019 through 2021 showed rates of treatment-emergent resistance of 44% (8/18) in patients treated with CZA and 13% (6/45) in those who received C/T. The study authors say their findings, which are limited by the small number of patients treated with CZA and the single-center design of the study, "require validation in real-world multicenter studies aimed to assess the comparative effectiveness of these agents."
Suspected sepsis driving US broad-spectrum antibiotic use, study finds --A new study of clinical data from US hospitals indicates that suspected community-onset sepsis accounts for half of broad-spectrum antibiotic use, but much of it may be unnecessary.The study, published yesterday in JAMA Network Open, found that patients with suspected community-onset sepsis accounted for half of total inpatient antipseudomonal beta-lactam antibiotic and anti–methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) antibiotic days. But antibiotic-resistant organisms were isolated from less than 10% of sepsis patients, and the proportion with resistant infections declined over time, while the proportion who received broad-spectrum antibiotics increased.Sepsis occurs when the immune system overreacts to an infection, triggering a chain of events that can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death. The authors of the study say that while early, empiric administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics is strongly encouraged for sepsis patients to cover a wide range of potential pathogens, the "increasing mismatch between empiric prescribing and identified pathogens" observed in their study could promote antibiotic resistance and pose a risk to patient safety without any benefit."These results suggest that more attention is needed toward balancing early broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing for patients with sepsis with limiting overuse for the majority who do not have antibiotic-resistant infections," they wrote.To assess the extent to which community-onset sepsis is driving broad-spectrum antibiotic use, a team led by researchers from Harvard Medical School analyzed data on nearly 6.3 million adults admitted to 241US hospitals from 2017 through 2021. The main outcomes were annual rates of empiric anti-MRSA and/or antipseudomonal beta-lactam antibiotic use—the two primary types of broad-spectrum antibiotics used for sepsis—and the proportion of use that was likely unnecessary based on the absence of beta-lactam–resistant gram-positive pathogens or ceftriaxone-resistant gram-negative pathogens.Of the 6,272,538 hospitalizations (median patient age, 66; 49.6% male; 73.1% White) during the study period, 894,724 (14.3%) had suspected community-onset sepsis. Those patients accounted for 50.1% of total inpatient anti-MRSA antibiotic days and 49.3% of total antipseudomonal beta-lactam days. Patients with suspected sepsis who received anti-MRSA or antipseudomonal therapy tended to be more severely ill than those who did not.The most common empiric antibiotic was vancomycin (41.2%), followed by ceftriaxone (37.8%), piperacillin-tazobactam (31.1%), and cefepime (24.8%). Over the study period, the proportion of patients with suspected sepsis who received anti-MRSA or antipseudomonal agents rose from 63.0% to 66.7% (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] per year, 1.03; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 1.04). The increase was driven primarily by antipseudomonal beta-lactam use, which increased from 54.4% in 2017 to 59.6% in 2021.But resistant organisms were isolated in only 65,434 (7.3%) of all suspected sepsis cases, and the proportion of patients who had any resistant organism decreased from 9.6% in 2017 to 7.3% in 2021 (aOR per year, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.87 to 0.88). Most patients with suspected sepsis who were treated with anti-MRSA and/or antipseudomonal agents—90.5%—had no resistant organisms, with the proportion increasing from 88.0% in 2017 to 91.6% in 2021 (aOR per year, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.13).The fraction of patients who received inappropriately narrow-spectrum antibiotics was stable over time for those with resistant gram-positive organisms (aOR per year, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.96 to 1.00) but declined for those with resistant gram-negative organisms (aOR per year, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.87 to 0.90)."There was a decrease in patients receiving inappropriately narrow therapy, but the absolute number who received unnecessarily broad treatment was nearly 50-fold higher than the number who were undertreated," the authors noted, adding that the increase in broad-spectrum antibiotic use was not associated with improved mortality.
WHO ignites calls for urgent action on a dangerous mpox strain -The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning that the spread of mpox in Africa needs to be addressed urgently, particularly as a dangerous strain has been detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo.“There is a critical need to address the recent surge in mpox cases in Africa,” Rosamund Lewis, WHO’s technical lead on mpox said, according to Reuters.The doctor in charge of Congo’s mpox control program, Cris Kacita, told Reuters that there have been roughly 8,600 cases and 410 deaths this year due to the virus. In a separate briefing, John Claude Udahemuka of the University of Rwanda said the strain spreading in Congo’s difficult-to-reach South Kivu province is a mutated version of the virus that’s been in the country for decades, and he said it was extremely dangerous.Udahemuka said more research is necessary to determine how the virus is spreading in South Kivu, but it is in part spreading due to sexual intercourse.A less severe form of the virus spread globally in 2022. The global outbreak primarily affected men who had sex with men but was not only limited to them, WHO said.Vaccines were largely used to combat the global outbreak, but they are not available in Congo, Reuters said.
UK Shiga toxin-producing E coli outbreak rises to 275 cases -- The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said yesterday that an additional 19 people have been sickened in an outbreak of Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) that began in May, bringing the total to 275 cases.Of the confirmed STEC cases, 182 are in England, 58 in Scotland, 31 in Wales, and 4 in Northern Ireland. Information from 249 case-patients shows that 49% have been hospitalized, and 2 people with underlying medical conditions have died.The outbreak was first identified on May 22 through UKHSA's routine surveillance. UKHSA says investigators believe a type of lettuce in pre-packaged sandwiches containing is the likely source of the outbreak. "This remains a complex investigation and we continue to work with the relevant businesses and the local authorities to ensure necessary steps are being taken to protect consumers," Darren Whitby, Head of Incidents at the UK Food Standards Agency, said in a UKHSA press release. "Although we are confident in the likely source of the outbreak being linked to lettuce, work continues to confirm this and identify the root cause of the outbreak with the growers, suppliers and manufacturers so that actions can be taken to prevent a re-occurrence." STEC can cause severe and sometimes bloody diarrhea, stomach cramps, vomiting, and fever.
CDC issues alert for dengue in the US - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today issued an alert to warn health providers and the public about an increased risk of dengue virus infections in the United States.The warning comes against the backdrop of a record surge in the Americas region, where more than 9.7 million cases have already been reported this year—twice as many for all of 2023. In March, Puerto Rico declared a public health emergency due to an early rise in activity, with nearly 1,500 cases reported so far. Also, the CDC has reported a higher-than-expected number of travel-related cases in US travelers this year, with 745 dengue infections so far. Transmission is continuous in some US states and territories, and sporadic cases and outbreaks have occurred in a few states. The Florida Department of Health has reported eight local cases this year from three different counties: Miami-Dade (6), Pasco (1), and Hillsboro (1), according to its latest arbovirus surveillance report. The most recent case was from Hillsboro County. The CDC said higher temperatures can expand the range of mosquitoes that can spread dengue and noted that the US summer travel season often overlaps with months of increased dengue activity in many countries. It urged health providers to have a high index of suspicion in patients who have fever and a history of travel to dengue-affected countries. It also encouraged the public to avoid mosquito bites and control mosquitoes indoors and outdoors. Also, the agency said it is providing more frequent updates to stakeholders and is expanding lab testing capacity.
Dengue fever surging in all 50 states. These are symptoms you should watch for — U.S. health officials on Tuesday warned doctors to be alert for dengue cases as the tropical disease breaks international records. The virus, which is spread by mosquitoes, has been surging worldwide, helped by climate change. In barely six months, countries in the Americas have already broken calendar-year records for dengue cases.The World Health Organization declared an emergency in December, and Puerto Rico declared a public health emergency in March. Dengue remains less common in the continental United States, but in the 50 states so far this year there have been three times more cases than at the same point last year. Most were infections that travelers got abroad, but officials warn that local mosquitos are a growing dengue threat.In its health alert Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised doctors to know the symptoms, ask questions about where patients recently traveled and consider ordering dengue tests when appropriate.About 1 in 4 dengue fevers are symptomatic, the CDC says. Symptoms, if they do occur, show up typically five to seven days after infection. People often feel fever, and other flu-like symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, aches, rashes, joint and bone pain, and headaches.Severe cases can involve cause serious bleeding, shock and death. In its warning Tuesday, the CDC named warning signs that signal the disease is progressing into something serious. Those “warning signs” include abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, mucosal bleeding, liver enlargement, and others. Small infants, pregnant people and the elderly are more vulnerable to severe complications.Repeated infections can be especially dangerous. People showing symptoms of dengue should be tested, the CDC advised doctors. Dengue (pronounced DEHN’-gay) is caused by a virus spread by a type of warm weather mosquito that is expanding its geographic reach because of climate change, experts say.There are four types of dengue virus, simply known as 1, 2, 3 and 4. When someone is first infected with dengue, their body builds antibodies against that type for life. If they get infected with another type of dengue, the antibodies from the first infection may fail to neutralize the second type — and actually can help the second virus type enter immune cells and replicate.That’s a concern in Puerto Rico, which for the last two decades has been widely exposed to type 1. Last month, the island reported its first dengue death of the year.“We’re currently seeing increases in the cases due to dengue 2 and dengue 3, for which the population has very little immunity,” said Dr. Gabriela Paz-Bailey, the Puerto-Rico-based chief of the CDC’s dengue branch. There is no widely available medicine for treating dengue infections.
Childhood obesity tied to double the risk of dengue hospitalization --Obesity in children is associated with double the risk of hospitalization for dengue virus infection, according to a study yesterday inPLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.The sero-surveillance study is based on a cohort of 4,782 school children from 10 to 18 years old in Sri Lanka from September 2022 to March 2023. Dengue is endemic in Sri Lanka.During the study period, 182 children (15.8%) were hospitalized for dengue. The authors found that, of the seropositive children with body mass indexes (BMIs) higher than the 97th percentile, 12 of 66 (18.2%) were hospitalized, compared to 103 of 1,086 children (9.5%) with a BMI in the 96th percentile or less. Children with the higher BMIs were twice as likely to be hospitalized for dengue than children with lower BMIs, with an odds ratio [OR] of 2.1 (95% confidence interval, 1.1 to 3.9). Girls were also at a greater risk of hospitalization than were boys."Obesity is associated with an increase in risk of severe disease due to many other infections such as influenza and COVID-19," the authors wrote. "While public education programs have focused on the importance of reducing obesity to prevent occurrence of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer, there has been limited focus on the impact of obesity on many infectious diseases." The authors said the findings confirm other studies on the links among obesity, diabetes, and severe dengue. As dengue cases rise across much of the globe and BMIs also increase, the authors said it would be crucial to further investigate the risk of hospitalization due to obesity.
Surveillance data show rise in US Powassan virus cases --New passive surveillance of Powassan virus in ticks shows a four-fold rise in the number of US cases from 2014 to 2023 (compared with 2004 to 2013). The surveillance data is published inClinical Microbiology and Infection.From 2004 through 2013, 64 cases of human Powassan virus were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but that number jumped to 270 cases from 2014 to 2023.The authors said the increase in cases is due to increased awareness but also the geographic expansion of Ixodes scapularis vector ticks, or black-legged ticks. The ticks also carry Borrelia bacteria, which causes Lyme disease. Powassan virus can have severe outcomes, with up to 50% of case-patients experiencing lasting neurologic symptoms. In about 10% of cases, the virus causes fatal encephalitis, according to the CDC. However, the authors of the study said mild cases of Powassan may be unreported and undetected and cause few, if any, notable symptoms. "Most Powassan-positive bites may cause non-specific presentations that do not result in healthcare seeking or trigger testing for Powassan virus infection when healthcare is accessed," the authors wrote. "The proportion of humans bitten by Powassan-positive ticks that develop disease and the conditions under which neuroinvasive disease develop are still unknown."
Paper strip test can identify flu subtypes, may have other applications, scientists say --A newly developed paper test strip can detect different influenza types and may be able to be identify avian and swine flu strains, potentially guiding both clinical care and disease surveillance efforts, according to a study published in the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.Researchers from Princeton University and the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University collaborated with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the project. The inexpensive, one-step test strip uses CRISPR gene-editing technology to distinguish between influenza A and B and subtypes H1N1 and H3N2. With further development, the test strip could be reprogrammed to distinguish between SARS-CoV-2 and flu and recognize swine flu and avian flu, including the H5N1 subtype currently causing an outbreak in US dairy cattle, the study authors said. The team tested the strip using 20 nasal swabs from people with flu-like symptoms during the 2020-2021 flu season, nasal fluid from healthy people as the control, and 2016-2021 influenza sequences downloaded from the National Center for Biotechnology Information Influenza database. They compared the results with those from quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.Paper strip test results of nasopharyngeal samples showed 100% agreement with those of the more expensive and resource- and time-intensive RT-PCR tests. The test can identify two target viruses at the same time, which can help distinguish between flu strains susceptible or resistant to the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu). "Using a paper strip readout instead of expensive fluorescence machinery is a big advancement, not only in terms of clinical care but also for epidemiological surveillance purposes," co-first author Ben Zhang, a Harvard medical student, said in a Broad Institute press release. With refinement, the test could be done in 90 minutes at point-of-care sites without the need for specially trained staff, and the researchers said they hope to pare the time needed to 15 minutes. "Ultimately, we hope these tests will be as simple as rapid antigen tests, and they’ll still have the specificity and performance of a nucleic acid test that would normally be done in a laboratory setting,"
Scientists expand H5N1 testing in dairy products, launch human serology study --The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expanding its H5N1 avian flu testing to a wider range of dairy products to help fill in knowledge gaps, and a Michigan-led group has launched a human serology study to examine exposure impacts in workers exposed to sick cows.The updates were revealed today in research agenda updates from federal agencies, with officials sharing more details at a US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) media briefing.At the briefing, Don Prater, DVM, acting director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Nutrition, said the FDA last week launched a second round of testing in retail products to fill remaining gaps in knowledge about the status of products from different geographic areas and about a wider variety of products, which will include aged raw-milk cheese, cream cheese, butter, and ice cream.In an update on its website, the FDA said it will test 155 dairy products collected from retail outlets for H5N1.The FDA also said it has multiple research efforts under way to understand the effectiveness of pasteurization and other inactivation measures. In other developments, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday posted its research agenda, and Demetre Daskalakis, MD, who directs the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the CDC is providing technical assistance to Michigan health officials, who have launched a seroprevalence study in people who work with infected cows. He said a key goal is to see if asymptomatic infections are occurring in the risk group.The CDC spelled out three main research objectives, including preventing illness in people exposed to H5N1, with assessing antiviral effectiveness as one of the focus areas. Other objectives include understanding infection in people, including estimating the incubation period, and preparing for and mitigating the possibility of an H5N1 pandemic.So far, more than 690 people exposed to sick cattle have been monitored, and at least 51 with flulike symptoms have been tested, Daskalakis said. The number of human infections related to H5N1 outbreaks in dairy cows remains at three. In animal developments, Eric Deeble, DVM, Acting Senior Advisor for US Department of Agriculture (USDA) H5N1 response, told reported that the first herds in four states have enrolled in a voluntary H5N1 dairy herd status program, which was first announced at the end of May. The program is designed to give farmers more ways to monitor the health of their herds while streamlining the shipping of cows and providing ongoing information to the USDA.The herds are in Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Kansas.
Study shows persistence of H5N1 in unpasteurized milk and on milking unit surfaces | CIDRAP --A new study in Emerging Infectious Diseases shows the H5N1 virus persists in unpasteurized milk and remains infectious on milking unit surfaces for several hours. "Information on virus persistence is critical to understanding viral exposure risk to dairy workers during the milking process," the authors explained. "We analyzed the persistence of infectious influenza viruses in unpasteurized milk on surfaces commonly found in milking units, such as rubber inflation liners and stainless steel." To conduct experiments with infectious strains, the authors used influenza A(H5N1) strain A/dairy cattle/TX/8749001/2024 or a surrogate influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic influenza virus strain, A/California/07/2009. They compared the diluted virus 1:10 in raw unpasteurized milk with phosphate-buffered saline as a control. Virus samples were collected immediately and after 1, 3, or 5 hours to detect infectious virus."To mimic environmental conditions within open-air milking parlors in the Texas panhandle during March–April 2024, when the virus was detected in dairy herds, we conducted persistence studies using 70% relative humidity,” the authors said. The H5N1 cattle virus remained infectious in unpasteurized milk on stainless steel and rubber inflation lining after 1 hour, and the H5N1 cattle virus had a similar decay rate to the human H5 virus."Further experiments examining H1N1 infectiousness over longer periods revealed viral persistence in unpasteurized milk on rubber inflation liner for at least 3 hours and on stainless steel for at least 1 hour," the authors said. "Those results indicate that influenza virus is stable in unpasteurized milk and that influenza A virus deposited on milking equipment could remain infectious for >3 hours."The authors said the expert results suggest dairy workers should take extra care to wear personal protective equipment such as face shields, masks, and eye protection during milking."In addition, contaminated rubber inflation liners could be responsible for the cattle-to-cattle spread observed on dairy farms," they concluded. "Sanitizing the liners after milking each cow could reduce influenza virus spread between animals on farms and help curb the current outbreak."
Quick Takes: More avian flu in US dairy cattle | CIDRAP
- The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) updated its case counts of H5N1-infected dairy herds late last week, confirming 121 cases in 12 states since the beginning of the outbreak. There have been 58 confirmed cases in the last month, with Idaho reporting the most recent cases with 17 livestock herds affected in the past month.
- On Saturday the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship reported another affected dairy herd in Sioux County, raising the state’s total to 11 detections within dairy herds in Iowa.
- A team of USDA epidemiologists have traced H5N1 viral spread in Michigan to a single dairy herd unknowingly introduced in the spring to infected dairy cows from Texas, according to a story in theToledo Blade.
- US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack called on farmers to enhance biosecurity measures and to opt into USDA support programs and herd monitoring programs. In an editorial in Agri-Pulse, Vilsack said, "Farmers are going to lead the charge, but they won’t need to do it alone. USDA is here to support them every day and we will continue to do all we can to protect animal and human health."
State kills over 80 bears in Southwest Alaska in second-year effort to boost caribou --State wildlife officials have now killed a total of 180 brown bears on Southwest Alaska caribou calving grounds in just over a year as part of a contested strategy to restore the renowned Mulchatna herd. Shooting from a helicopter between May 10 and June 5, Alaska Department of Fish and Game employees killed 81 brown bears and 15 wolves they spotted across 530 square miles of tundra, officials said this month. In 2023, the first year of the program, state employees killed 94 brown bears including some cubs, five black bears and five wolves. State wildlife officials say killing bears feeding on newborn calves is a last-ditch attempt to shore up a herd that has declined from a peak of 200,000 animals in 1997 to just over 13,000 today. The state halted all hunting of Mulchatna caribou in 2021 with a goal of reaching a herd size of 30,000 to 80,000 animals. Wildlife officials now say the strategy is working: Calf-cow ratios used to measure summer calf survival nearly doubled last fall compared to a 10-year average, according to a June 14 Department of Fish and Game advisory. "Based on last fall, I anticipate we're going to see another pretty strong showing of calves pretty quickly," said Ryan Scott, the state's top wildlife official. But the new data comes amid ongoing questions in the scientific community about the role predators play when it comes to caribou survival compared to other factors like disease and access to the low-growing lichens the animals eat. When the Alaska Board of Game first approved the bear kill in 2022 as an expansion of an existing wolf control program that wasn't working, Fish and Game biologists who studied the Mulchatna herd called malnutrition and infection bigger factors in caribou declines than predators. Even now, two years into the project, the state still doesn't appear to have data that establishes killing bears will definitively boost caribou numbers, according to several retired biologists interviewed for this story. The improved calf-cow ratios announced this month may reflect a population recovering from brucellosis, a disease that can lower calf survival, rather than the effect of fewer bears, said Ken Whitten, a former Fish and Game wildlife biologist living in Fairbanks. Whitten said the state's own data indicated that bear predation was not a serious problem for newborn caribou, "especially for the western segment of the herd, which is where the control occurred." The state's bear-kill numbers this month also come amid growing questions about the role climate change may be playing in the collapse of caribou populations in North America, including Alaska's Western Arctic and other herds, including the Mulchatna. Jim Dau, a Kotzebue-based caribou biologist who retired from the Department of Fish and Game in 2016, said the concern among his peers is that a "really aggressive" predator removal program was enacted without knowing how many bears move through the area or just what's driving the herd declines. "The overriding concern for me is how climate change is affecting caribou worldwide," Dau said. "If we just continue to throw our time and resources into hacking out bears and wolves, we could be missing a lot of other things." Dau said he's seen winter rains that freeze snow into a crust that animals can't penetrate to vegetation below, as well as brushy shrubs replacing the low-growing lichen on which caribou rely. Scott, director of the state's Division of Wildlife Conservation, said he agrees climate change is probably affecting many Alaska caribou herds, including the Mulchatna population, in those ways. There's "very little we can do to impact that in a positive way," he said. "But we know that bears and wolves eat the calves and it's the one lever that we can pull to try to make a positive impact." Fish and Game wasn't able to put radio collars on newborn calves last year to track and study them closely—a point of contention with predator control critics—but have collared 42 calves this year, Scott said. The agency is also trying to learn more about what led to the deaths of calves that didn't survive, he said. According to this month's advisory, wildlife officials are also conducting nutritional research and disease monitoring "to determine if further bear and wolf reductions during spring calving are warranted to further improve calf survival and herd growth."
Coffee recalled nationwide due to risk of fatal food poisoning (WJW) – Nearly 300 types of canned coffee products distributed nationwide through different coffee roasters and retailers are being recalled. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Snapchill LLC, a Wisconsin-based company, is voluntarily recalling all of its canned coffee products within expiration date because they learned the company’s manufacturing process could lead to a potentially fatal form of food poisoning. The recall alert states the manufacturing process “could lead to the growth and production of the deadly toxin, botulinum toxin, in low acid canned foods.” According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Botulism, is a rare but serious illness that can cause difficulty breathing, muscle paralysis, and even death. The FDA states symptoms can begin from six hours to two weeks after eating food that contains the toxin. The recalled products were sold under a range of roaster and brand names and in variety of metal can sizes ranging from 7 oz to 12 oz., according the FDA. “The products are identifiable by the language ‘Produced and distributed by Snapchill LLC’ underneath the nutrition facts panel. Some of the products can also be identified by the text ‘Snapchill Coffee’ on the label,” reads the alert. A complete list of the recalled products can be found, here. Impacted products should either be destroyed or returned to Snapchill or the place of purchase for a refund, reports the FDA. The FDA notes that no illnesses have been reported as a result of the recalled products and that Snapchill is not aware of any products containing the toxin.
Widely Used And Deemed Safe, These Food Additives Are More Harmful Than Thought - Today, over 73 percent of the U.S. food supply is ultra-processed. While both natural and ultra-processed foods are referred to as “food,” there is a vast difference between them. For instance, ultra-processed foods are not grown in soil but manufactured in factories, using many ingredients that cannot be found in the average home pantry. Beyond conventional additives such as preservatives, colors, and flavorings, many new additives are emerging. Stabilizers, emulsifiers, firming agents, leavening agents, anti-caking agents, humectants, and more have been invented to modify and improve the taste and texture of food. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lists at least 3,972 substances added to food. “A safety assessment involves the scientific review of all relevant data, including toxicology and dietary exposure information,” an FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times. These include tests conducted on rodents and cells. The ingredients will be added to food after the FDA gives its approval. Among the most widely used FDA-approved substances added to food, many have a safety classification known as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) based on their extensive historical use before 1958 or their safety evaluation in the 1970s or more recently. However, many people may not realize that substances classified as GRAS often lack an upper limit on the amount that can be added to food. In other words, the amount of substances added is left to the manufacturer’s discretion. Over time, GRAS classification may be withdrawn for certain substances if the FDA is presented with compelling evidence of safety concerns associated with its use. A notable example is the official removal of trans fats from the GRAS list in 2015. There is no oversight on how much of these additive-containing foods people actually consume. “Many of the commonly used food additives were granted GRAS approval between 1970 and 1975, when people could not foresee the situation today,” During that era, fewer women worked outside the home, and people consumed more home-cooked meals made from natural ingredients. With the prevalence of ultra-processed foods in today’s diet, the consumption of certain additives has naturally exceeded initial expectations.After an additive is approved for a specific function, food manufacturers often quickly incorporate it into a wide range of products, including breads, cookies, instant soups, sausages, and frozen, prepackaged meals. Scientists have demonstrated in various studies the health hazards of consuming ultra-processed foods, including their close association with early death, cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders, respiratory diseases, metabolic syndrome, and cancer. Specifically, a cohort study involving nearly 45,000 middle-aged and older individuals in France found that for every 10 percent increase in the intake of ultra-processed foods, the risk of all-cause mortality increased by 14 percent. According to a 2024 umbrella review published in the BMJ, convincing evidence has been found linking ultra-processed food to a 50 percent increase in cardiovascular disease mortality, a 53 percent increase in common mental disorder outcomes, and a dose-dependent 12 percent increase in diabetes risk. A 2023 study published in the Journal of Renal Nutrition found that of all the 3,466 U.S. packaged foods tested, over half contained phosphate additives.Phosphate additives encompass a range of substances with various functions, such as stabilizing, thickening, emulsifying, adjusting acidity and alkalinity, improving texture, enhancing flavor, providing antioxidant properties, preserving, and coloring. Some phosphates serve multiple functions simultaneously.Multiple studies have shown that the health hazards associated with consuming ultra-processed foods are linked to a high intake of inorganic phosphates. The body’s absorption rate and utilization efficiency for phosphorus vary depending on the source. When a person eats natural foods, the release of phosphorus is relatively slow, and not all of it is absorbed. In contrast, inorganic phosphate food additives are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, significantly increasing blood phosphate levels and releasing hormones that promote phosphate excretion. These hormones can have a range of adverse effects on the cardiovascular system, kidneys, and bones, resulting in reduced vitamin D levels, bone loss, vascular calcification, and impaired kidney filtration capacity. Using inorganic phosphate additives in animal or cell experiments results in immediate side effects. “That gives you enough rationale to suspect that these may happen also in humans,” said Dr. Uribarri.
Childhood air pollution exposure linked to adult bronchitis: Study - Early-life exposure to air pollution may have direct connections to the manifestation of bronchitis symptoms during adulthood, a new study has found. Previous investigations have already confirmed a consistent relationship between air pollution exposure and childhood lung problems, as well as a separate association between childhood lung issues and those in adulthood. But the new study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Clinical Care Medicine, takes those findings one step further — by establishing a direct link between childhood exposure and adulthood symptoms. To cement this connection, the scientists turned to the University of Southern California’s Children’s Health Study, a large-scale, decades-long initiative that has followed groups of school-age participants into adulthood. “Our results suggest that childhood air pollution exposure has more subtle effects on our respiratory system that still impact us in adulthood,” corresponding author Erika Garcia, an assistant professor at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, said in a statement. Garcia and her colleagues reviewed relevant health data from 1,308 Children’s Health Study participants who were on average 32 years old during their adult assessment. When asked about recent bronchitis indicators — such as chronic cough or phlegm production not associated with a cold — a quarter of participants said they had experienced relevant symptoms during the previous year. After accounting for these current manifestations, the researchers then matched up family home addresses on a month-by-month basis to determine comprehensive childhood exposure levels. The authors found that adulthood bronchitis was connected to childhood exposure to two types of pollutants: nitrogen dioxide, a byproduct of transportation and power plant combustion, and tiny airborne particles, including dust, pollen, wildfire ash, industrial emissions and vehicle exhaust. Because the respiratory and immune systems of children are still developing, in comparison to those of adults, they breathe in more air relative to their body mass, the scientists explained. Even when adjusting for the presence of childhood bronchitis or asthma, the authors said the links between early life pollution exposure and adulthood symptoms remained solid. However, they did identify stronger such associations among those individuals who also had asthma as children. One finding of particular interest to the authors was the fact that impacts were tangible even when childhood exposure to nitrogen dioxide occurred at levels far below the Environmental Protection Agency standard. That standard, they noted, has not been updated since 1971. “Because there’s only so much that we can do as individuals to control our exposure, the need to protect children from the adverse effects of air pollution is better addressed at the policy level,” Garcia said.
Just how bad are gas appliances for your health? | Canary Media - Electrifying our appliances isn’t only a climate solution; it’s a public health measure. Burning fossil gas in our homes — whether to heat our rooms, warm water for our showers, dry our clothes, or cook our food — releases pollutants that can make people sick.Yet it’s easy to forget the health risks when gas appliances are so prevalent: 61 percent of American households burn fossil gas in at least one appliance, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The fossil gas industry wants to keep it that way. For decades, it has mirrored the tactics of Big Tobacco to sow doubt about the dangers of these appliances, especially of gas stoves.But evidence of the health risks of gas appliances has been mounting since the 1970s, and the past couple of years have seen a renaissance of research on the topic, said Brady Seals, buildings and air-quality expert at climate think tank RMI. (Canary Media is an independent affiliate of RMI.)Concerned groups are now taking historic action to protect consumers. Lawmakers in California are moving closer to requiring warning labels for all new gas stoves sold in the state. And advocates have filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against manufacturer GE Appliances to push the company to put warning labels on its gas stoves.Unfortunately, stoves, water heaters, furnaces, and other fossil-fuel equipment frequently leak gas even when they’re off. And although stinky compounds are added to fossil gas to make these leaks easier to sniff out, they can still be evasive — and dangerous for reasons beyond flammability.Fossil gas is made mostly of methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas, though not directly toxic. But fossil gas also contains a panoply of harmful compounds.A study published this month found 25 hazardous air pollutants in gas analyzed from hundreds of U.S. and Canadian homes. The carcinogen benzene showed up in 97 percent of samples. While the average level of leaked benzene stayed under the safety threshold set by California regulators, Sebastian Rowland, scientist at nonprofit research institute PSE Healthy Energy and lead author of the study, points out that even low levels of benzene can cause leukemia and other blood cell cancers. That’s why the World Health Organization says no level of benzene exposure is safe.“Even when your stove’s off,” Rowland said, “it could be exposing you to a chronic low level of benzene without you ever becoming aware of it.”Combusting gas emits yet more pollutants. Perhaps most infamous among them is carbon monoxide (CO), a partial combustion product of methane. Odorless and invisible, carbon monoxide kills more than 400 people every year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Burning fossil gas also creates dangerous particulate matter. Particulates with up to a 2.5-micrometer diameter (PM2.5) — just 5 percent the width of a human hair — can work their way deep into the lungs and the bloodstream, causing respiratory and cardiovascular problems and even premature death in people with heart or lung disease. Research has shown that gas stoves emit twice as much PM2.5 as electric stoves when cooking the same food.Other harmful combustion products are nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and its precursor nitrogen oxide (NO). NO2 inflames the lining of the lungs and is linked to respiratory diseases, including asthma.And while gas appliances don’t emit as much NO2 as vehicles, they’re still massively polluting. Appliances in U.S. buildings release 425,000 tons of harmful nitrogen oxides each year — more than oil refineries or gas-fired power plants.
High levels of toxic PFAS chemicals found in Australia’s drinking water -- A recent Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) report on “forever chemicals” in drinking water across Australia’s eastern seaboard and further afield shows a large section of the population has been exposed to these cancer-causing substances for many years. Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are used in numerous household products such as non-stick cooking utensils; stain-, grease- and water-resistant clothing and carpet, and cosmetics. They have also been used as fire retardants as they resist extremely high temperatures. They have been dubbed “forever chemicals” as they don’t break down in the environment and accumulate with continued use. They persist in the human body and in animals, meaning that prolonged exposure is cumulative. The use of the chemicals has become so ubiquitous that they have been detected in the tissue of polar bears in extremely remote areas. There are more than 5,000 PFAS chemicals and only a few have been tested for their toxicity. The SMH report included data from publicly available sources showing that the water supply of the country’s two most-populous cities, Sydney and Melbourne, has been contaminated with the toxic substances. Suburbs named as most affected in Sydney include North Richmond, Quakers Hill, Liverpool, Blacktown, Emu Plains and Campbelltown. Regional centres in New South Wales such as Newcastle, Bathurst, Wagga Wagga, Lithgow, Gundagai and Yass had high concentrations. In Melbourne, Footscray was named, while the pollutants were also detected in Queensland regional centres Cairns and Gladstone. They were present in the cities of Darwin, Adelaide, Hobart, and Canberra. Australia is considered to be a PFAS contamination “hotspot” along with China, Europe and North America. PFAS chemicals have been found to be a considerable health threat causing thyroid cancer and liver damage. High exposure can lead to decreased fertility, developmental delays in children and increased risk of some cancers, including prostate, kidney and testicular cancers. This has led to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling in April that there is no safe level of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in drinking water, even at very low concentrations. The US has set a limit of 4 parts per trillion for PFOS and PFOA, while in December the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that PFOA was carcinogenic. Senior Advisor to the National Toxics Network Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith told the SMH that it was a “national disgrace” that PFOA is permitted in Australia’s tap water at 140 times the maximum level the US will now allow. The accepted limit for Australia of PFOA is 560 parts per trillion.
‘Please come and see me because I’ll be dead soon’: how Michael Sheen got sucked into a forever chemicals exposé - The star met an eco-activist who was convinced we’re all being poisoned by a chemical that was banned in 1981. Then he went to a toxic site and got sick. Head inside staggering new podcast Buried: The Last Witness An opera-loving member of high society turned eco-activist who was forced into police protection with a panic button round his neck. A Hollywood actor who recorded said activist’s life story as he was dying from exposure to the very chemicals he was investigating. Throw in two investigative journalists who realise not everything is as it seems, then uncover some startling truths, and you have “podcasting’s strangest team” on Buried: The Last Witness.On their award-winning 2023 podcast Buried, the husband and wife duo Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor dug into illegal toxic waste dumping in the UK and its links to organised crime. This time, they focus on “forever chemicals”, specifically polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and set out to discover whether one whistleblower may have been decades ahead of his time in reporting on their harmful impact.“It’s amazing how big the scale of this story is,” says Ashby, as we sit backstage at the Crucible theatre, where they are doing a live discussion as part of Sheffield DocFest. “With this series, we don’t just want it to make your blood turn cold, we want it to make you question your own blood itself.”It all started when Taylor and Ashby were sent a lead about the work of former farmer’s representative Douglas Gowan. In 1967, he discovered a deformed calf in a field and began to investigate strange goings on with animals close to the Brofiscin and Maendy quarries in south Wales. He linked them to the dumping of waste by companies including the nearby Monsanto chemical plant, which was producing PCBs.PCBs were used in products such as paint and paper to act as a fire retardant, but they were discovered to be harmful and have been banned since 1981 in the UK. However, due to their inability to break down – hence the term forever chemical – Gowan predicted their legacy would be a troubling one. “I expect there to be a raft of chronic illness,” he said. He even claimed that his own exposure to PCBs (a result of years of testing polluted grounds) led his pancreas and immune system to stop working. “I’m a mess and I think it can all be attributed to PCBs,” he said.
Microplastics discovered in human penises for the first time -- Scientists have found microplastics in human penises for the first time, as concerns over the tiny particles’ proliferation and potential health effects mount.Seven different kinds of microplastics were found in four out of five samples of penis tissue taken from five different men as part of a study published in IJIR: Your Sexual Medicine Journal on Wednesday. Microplastics are polymer fragments that can range from less than 0.2 inch (5 millimeters) down to 1/25,000th of an inch (1 micrometer). Anything smaller is a nanoplastic that must be measured in billionths of a meter. They form when larger plastics break down, either by chemically degrading or physically wearing down into smaller pieces. Tiny plastic shards found in human testicles, study says Some minuscule particles can invade individual cells and tissues in major organs, experts say, and evidence is mounting that they are increasingly present in our bodies. Study lead author Ranjith Ramasamy, an expert in reproductive urology who conducted the research while working at the University of Miami, told CNN that he used a previous study that found evidence of microplastics in the human heart as a basis for his research.Ramasamy said he wasn’t surprised to find microplastics in the penis, as it is a “very vascular organ,” like the heart.The samples were taken from study participants who had been diagnosed with erectile dysfunction (ED) and were in the hospital to undergo surgery for penile implants to treat the condition at the University of Miami between August and September 2023.The samples were then analyzed using chemical imaging, which revealed that four of the five men had microplastics in their penile tissue.Seven different types of microplastics were detected, with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP) the most prevalent, according to the study.Now their presence has been confirmed, more research is needed to investigate potential links to conditions such as ED, Ramasamy said.“We need to identify whether microplastics are linked to ED and if there is a level beyond which it causes pathology and what types of microplastics are pathologic,” he said.As for the wider implications of the findings, Ramasamy said he hoped the study would “create more awareness about the presence of foreign bodies within human organs and foster more research surrounding this topic.”Prior research has found that one liter of bottled water — the equivalent of two standard-size bottled waters — contained an average of 240,000 plastic particles.“I think we need to be mindful about consuming water and food from plastic bottles and containers and try and limit the use until more research is done to identify levels that could cause pathology,” Ramasamy said.Toxicologist Matthew J. Campen told CNN that this is “an interesting study that confirms the ubiquity of plastics in the body.”“As we are trying to understand the potential health effects of plastics, this is another concerning paper,” said Campen, a regents’ professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, who wasn’t involved in the research.“Plastics are generally non-reactive with the cells and chemicals of our bodies, but they could be physically disruptive to the many processes our bodies undertake for normal function, including functions related to erection and sperm production.”
5 takeaways from the NTSB investigation of Ohio train derailment - The Allegheny Front -- The National Transportation Safety Board met in East Palestine, Ohio, Tuesday to vote on the findings of its investigation into a train derailment here that released toxic chemicals into the community. On February 3, 2023, a Friday evening, 38 train cars derailed just outside of town, near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Eleven of the cars were carrying hazardous materials. There were fires, and 2,000 people were evacuated.Over that weekend, Norfolk Southern became concerned that one of five cars carrying vinyl chloride, a toxic, carcinogenic chemical, could explode. So, Ohio’s Governor and the East Palestine Fire Chief approved the rail company’s plan to vent the chemical from the cars and burn it. That operation led to an explosion and a huge chemical plume that spread contamination throughout the community. The NTSB issued a preliminary report about the incident in February 2023 and held investigative hearings in June 2023.
- 1 – An overheated wheel bearing caused the derailment. The Norfolk Southern train was heading east from Illinois to Pennsylvania. The NTSB found that 30 miles before it derailed, hot bearing detectors along the tracks recorded that one of the wheel bearings was 38 degrees Fahrenheit above ambient temperature. Ten miles later, the bearing was detected at 103 degrees. It was 20 miles before the next detector. At that point, the train was rolling through East Palestine, and the wheel bearing was 253 degrees F above ambient air. The overheated bearing caused the axle to separate, causing the railcar’s lead truck to derail.
- 2 – NTSB wants a maximum distance set for spacing of hot bearing detectors. To identify safety issues and avoid derailments, NTSB investigators mentioned studies showing that the ideal spacing for hot bearing detectors along the tracks is 15 miles between boxes.In March 2023, the Association of American Railroadsannounced that the industry’s new standard would be anaverage hot box spacing of 15 miles. But this did not please NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. “I have a real concern about using averages,” she said at Tuesday’s meeting. Homendy noted that an average means some can still be spaced farther apart — the nearest detector as the train approached East Palestine was 20 miles away.“Would that [an average detector spacing of 15 miles] have done anything for this one to prevent it? Not a single thing. They’re adopting the exact same thing that occurred here,” she said. The NTSB recommends that the Federal Railroad Administration develop and establish maximum distances between wayside detectors.
- 3 – Certain tank car models are known dangers. After the derailment, the NTSB found that the fire likely began with hazardous materials, probably butyl acrylates, which were among the chemicals released from breached DOT-111tank cars. While the five tank cars that contained vinyl chloride that became the center of the vent and burn decision were DOT-105 tank cars (not DOT-111s), that DOT-111 butyl acrylate release is what started the fires, according to the NTSB.“If DOT-111 tank cars transporting combustible and flammable liquids had not sustained mechanical breaches during the derailment, the DOT-105 tank cars transporting vinyl chloride monomer likely would not have been exposed to the fire conditions that led to concerns about polymerization and ultimately the vent and burn actions that released additional lading from those five DOT-105 tank cars,” states the NTSB in its findings.Investigators noted that DOT-111 tank cars have been a known safety concern for over 30 years. According to the NTSB, when DOT-111 cars were in accidents, 54 percent of them released their contents. While no one was killed in the East Palestine derailment, DOT-111 cars have been involved in deaths, like a 2013 train disaster in Lac-Mégantic Quebec where 47 people were killed, and half the downtown was destroyed. The NTSB found that 25,300 of these tank cars are still in use in the U.S. “If DOT-111 cars continue to carry hazardous materials, we will see more derailments and the release of hazardous materials in communities,” said Board member Michael Graham at the meeting.Under the 2015 FAST Act, DOT-111 tank cars will be phased out of use by May 1, 2029. The NTSB is recommending a faster phase-out of these, as well as AAR-211 cars, which are used to transport lower-level hazardous materials. The NTSB is also recommending that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration “obtain the necessary legislative authority and accelerate the deadline for removing specification DOT-111 tank cars from flammable liquids service,” the NTSB summary report states.
- 4 – The initial emergency response lacked information and communication. Within minutes of the train derailing at about 8:54 p.m., the East Palestine Fire Department (EPFD) was called to the scene and established a command post 400 feet from the derailment site, inside what is known as the “hot zone.” The EPFD started fighting the fire with large streams of water. “Amount of fire like that, there’s not enough water available,” NTSB investigator Troy Lloyd told the Board, relaying what the assistant EP Fire Chief had reported. “The fire just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So it was not effective.” It also only took minutes for East Palestine emergency dispatchers to call Norfolk Southern’s dispatch center, trying to find out what was on board those rail cars, what is called the train “consist.” Lloyd said getting that information is “a game changer” in determining what is happening during a hazardous materials emergency.But it took an hour for the rail company to provide the information, and more time before the EP Fire Chief found out that vinyl chloride was on board.It was at least 11 p.m. before the command post was moved farther away, out of the “hot zone,” and residents within a one-mile radius were evacuated. “The delayed transmittal of the train consist…resulted in greater exposure of emergency responders and to the public to post-derailment hazards,” Lloyd said/ “It’s unacceptable,” he told Board members. “A train consist needs to be in the hands of the first responders immediately.” The NTSB is recommending that Norfolk Southern and the Federal Railroad Administration do more to provide real-time, accurate information about the hazardous materials involved in an emergency. In addition, the agency found fault with Ohio’s laws regarding volunteer firefighter training, which investigators said were “not sufficient to support a safe emergency response to the derailment.” It noted that Pennsylvania has more robust firefighter training.
- 5 – The vent and burn operation was not necessary. Two days after the derailment, Norfolk Southern’s contractor, Drew McCarty, found the temperature increasing in the vinyl chloride tank cars, indicating, he thought, that a chemical process called polymerization was happening inside and that the car could explode. Norfolk Southern told decision-makers that a vent and burn was the only option to prevent the car from blowing up and gave the East Palestine Fire Chief and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine only 13 minutes to decide whether or not to approve the operation. Their approval led to a wider evacuation of residents. “Norfolk Southern Railway and its contractors compromised the integrity of the vent and burn decision by creating unwarranted urgency,” the NTSB said in its investigation findings.In the hours after the vent and burn decision, but before the operation was initiated, Oxy Vinyls, the owner of the vinyl chloride in the cars, found that the temperature inside that rail car had actually decreased and stabilized. Oxy Vinyls advised Norfolk Southern that the vent and burn was not necessary. However, the rail company did not provide that information to the fire chief, who was the incident commander. “No explanation or argument for Norfolk Southern Railway and its contractors’ continued advocacy for the vent and burn procedure justifies failing to communicate relevant expertise and dissenting opinions to the incident commander,” according to the NTSB findings.
Half the water flowing from US rivers is at risk of pollution: Study --About 55 percent of the water emanating from U.S. rivers is vulnerable to pollution, due to their lack of protections under the Clean Water Act, a new study has found.The Supreme Court last year ruled that “ephemeral streams” — those that fill up and flow only after weather events — do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, the authors noted.Yet these fleeting entities furnish about 55 percent of the water that empties out of regional river systems across the country, according to the study, published Thursday in Science. Within that national figure, the study also identified a stark regional divide: Rivers west of the Mississippi River are far more influenced by ephemeral resources than those on the other side. For example, about 94 percent of the water pouring out of river systems in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert and in California’s Humboldt County come from temporary stream sources, per the study. “The irony is that the federal Clean Water Act was adopted precisely because state and local governments were thought to be doing a poor job of protecting the nation’s waterways,” co-author Doug Kysar, a professor at Yale Law School, said in a statement. “States don’t necessarily have incentives to adopt costly water protections when the benefits will be felt by ecosystems out of state,” Kysar added.Nonetheless, the Supreme Court in May 2023 determined the only entities protected are “those relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water.” These bodies, per the decision, form “geographical features that are described in ordinary parlance as streams, oceans, rivers, and lakes.”In response, the Environmental Protection Agency then narrowed the scope of its Waters of the United States rule — determining that wetlands would only be protected if they have a clearer connection to permanent waterways. Regardless of the recent downgrades in federal oversight of waterways, Kysar emphasized that contamination is a transboundary concern that affects interstate commerce.The new study, he noted, demonstrates “just how far downstream from an ephemeral waterway the ultimate impacts of pollution can be felt.” He therefore stressed the importance of regulating temporary streams even if they don’t meet historic definitions of navigable waters.To back up this perspective, the scientists developed a model to quantify ephemeral stream contributions to more than 20.7 million permanent water bodies in the contiguous U.S.They found that temporary waters flow less frequently in the U.S. West — about four to 46 days each year — compared to the East Coast, where they flow 173 days on average annually.Yet despite their relatively infrequent occurrence in the U.S. West, ephemeral streams in this region are responsible for as much as 79 percent of downstream river flow. Their Eastern counterparts, on the other hand, are responsible for only about 50 percent on average, according to the study.
California lawmakers reject proposal to curb well-drilling where nearby wells could run dry --Over the past several years, California's water managers have seen a pattern emerge in farming areas of the Central Valley: Even as declining groundwater levels have left thousands of residents with dry wells and caused the ground to sink, counties have continued granting permits for agricultural landowners to drill new wells and pump even more water. A bill that was sponsored by the California Department of Water Resources sought to address these problems by prohibiting new high-capacity wells within a quarter-mile of a drinking water well or in areas where the land has been sinking because of overpumping. Despite support from Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration, the measure was narrowly rejected in the Senate last week after encountering opposition from the agriculture industry, business groups, local governments and water agencies. The opposing organizations—which included the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Farm Bureau Federation and more than 30 other groups representing growers and water suppliers—said the bill was "too restrictive and may impede ways to achieve groundwater sustainability." Kristopher Anderson, a legislative advocate for the Association of California Water Agencies, told a Senate committee that the legislation would impose unworkable mandates and be "a blanket one-size-fits-all moratorium on approval of new wells that will harm local economies while failing to address these issues." After a brief debate, members of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee rejected the bill in a 5-4 vote. Assemblymember Steve Bennett, a Democrat, who introduced the bill, said it was intended to address a significant loophole in California's groundwater law. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, passed in 2014, created local agencies tasked with developing plans for curbing overpumping in many areas of the state, but left counties in charge of issuing permits for new wells. That has led to a situation where there are "more straws going in while they're trying to regulate the current straws," he said. In some rural communities, farmworkers and other residents have seen their wells run dry soon after growers drilled new wells to irrigate crops on nearby fields. "Too many counties have been unwilling to protect the most vulnerable people's wells because they don't want to take on the most powerful people, who want to keep putting high-capacity wells in," Bennett said. "We've been trying to get people to do something about it, and they refuse. It is the state's responsibility to finally say, enough is enough." Parts of California have some of the fastest groundwater depletion rates in the world, and matters worsened during the last drought. In parts of San Joaquin Valley, falling water levels have caused the ground to sink at rates of more than half a foot per year. Land subsidence has required costly repairs of levees, canals and other infrastructure, with public agencies footing the bill. "The counties that are approving the most high-capacity wells are the ones that have the most land subsidence in California," Bennett said, referring to counties such as Tulare, Fresno and Kern. "It just does not make sense that we keep putting more—hundreds of new high-capacity wells—in areas that have significant land subsidence." Bennett has introduced similar legislation three times. He said the bill's defeat this year means that "the status quo will reign," allowing the drilling of more wells while land subsidence continues and water levels drop. "A lot of families, particularly in the Central Valley, will have their wells go dry because we refused to take action," he said.
State officials criticize Supreme Court, Biden administration after ruling on Rio Grande dispute -- Colorado, Texas and New Mexico state officials voiced unanimous discontent after the Supreme Court on Friday upended a deal aimed at resolving long-term water disputes on the Rio Grande.Siding with the federal government, the court — in a 5-4 decision — denied a motion made by the states to enter a consent decree for the shared management of the 1,896-mile river.“I am disappointed that a narrow majority of the Supreme Court has unfortunately and incorrectly granted the federal government even more power over the States,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said in a statement.The consent decree had detailed how New Mexico and Texas would solve past quarrels over how the former delivers water to the latter. But the U.S. argued that the proposal would both require the government to adhere to plans that it hadn’t approved and violate historic compact conditions.Paxton countered that assertion, emphasizing that the proposed decree could “put an end to more than a decade of litigation and ensure Texas farmers have access to vital water supplies.”“However, the Biden Administration objected, claiming that they can unilaterally block the states’ resolution of a dispute between the states themselves,” he added.Since the signing of the 1938 Rio Grande Compact, the three states have managed river use through a debt-credit system that accounts for shifts in hydrological conditions. New Mexico typically receives 57 percent of the domestic flow, while 43 percent goes to Texas. Two decades prior to the 1938 deal, the U.S. had also signed a separate water-sharing agreement with Mexico.The Supreme Court on Friday found that the 1938 deal “is inextricably intertwined” with contracts that both predate the compact and require the U.S. to facilitate water deliveries from New Mexico to Texas. Any hypothetical interference, the opinion argued, could render the government “unable to meet its duties.”
State of disaster in Iowa, helicopters rush to evacuate flooded Rock Valley - In the pre-dawn hours of June 22, 2024, Rock Valley, Iowa, awoke to sirens and rising waters as the Rock River burst its banks, leaving the town scrambling to evacuate. As much of the United States struggled with extreme heat, communities in Iowa faced a different kind of disaster. In Rock Valley, Iowa, a town of 4 200 people, sirens blared at 02:00 LT on Saturday, June 22, 2024, warning residents to evacuate as the Rock River overflowed due to excessive rainfall. Mayor Kevin Van Otterloo stated that the state had dispatched a helicopter to assist with evacuations, but the mission was canceled when boats managed to reach the stranded residents. “We’ve had so much rain here,” Van Otterloo said. “We had 4 inches [102 mm] last night in an hour and a half time. Our ground just cannot take anymore.” Governor Kim Reynolds declared a disaster for 21 counties in northern Iowa, including Sioux County, where Rock Valley is located. Drone footage posted by the local sheriff showed only roofs and treetops visible above the water. A rain gauge in Rock Valley reported over 152 mm (6 inches) of rain over the past several days, while nearby towns of Ashton and Terril reported around 203 mm (8 inches) of rain, with Rock Rapids reporting just under 305 mm (1 foot) as multiple thunderstorms swept across the area, FOX Weather reported. In addition, flooding along the Big Sioux River at Hawarden exceeded its record crest by 1.2 m (4 feet), leading to mandatory evacuations in town. City officials say power was turned off to parts of town that were underwater, and the water and sewer treatment plant was shut down due to inundation. In South Dakota, Governor Kristi Noem declared an emergency after heavy rainfall in the southeastern part of the state, where the town of Canton, 48 km (30 miles) southeast of Sioux Falls, received 457.2 mm (18 inches) of rain. Several highways were closed, including a critical section of Interstate 29 south of Sioux Falls, which later reopened. “Even though the rain is slowing down, we need to keep vigilant,” Noem said. “The worst of the flooding along our rivers will be Monday and Tuesday [June 24 and 25].” Flooding also affected southern Minnesota, where state highways and county roads were closed. In Windom, a town of about 4 800 people, 31.7 mm (1.25 inches) of rain compounded earlier downpours, causing the Des Moines River to reach a record crest. “ We’re having a tough time just keeping up, putting up barricades,” city council member Jenny Quaid said. “We put barricades up, and then all of a sudden the water’s rising so much, the barricade’s way back in the water.” Iowa faced additional challenges as power was cut off at wastewater treatment plants in Hawarden and Spencer, affecting 14 000 residents.
Record rainfall causes devastating floods in Upper Midwest, 1 dead in South Dakota - South Dakota’s governor Kristi Noem confirmed one death on June 23, 2024, as record rainfall caused devastating floods across the Upper Midwest from June 22 to 24. Torrential rains across the region led to record-breaking river levels, extensive property damage, and evacuations. Iowa and Minnesota have declared emergencies, with Iowa’s floods surpassing 1993 levels. Numerous rivers, including the Big Sioux, are at historic highs, forcing evacuations and emergency rescues. Authorities warn that more rain could exacerbate the already severe flooding. Heavy rainfall over the past few days has led to catastrophic flooding across parts of the Upper Midwest, resulting in at least one fatality in South Dakota. Several states remain under flood warnings, with rivers swelling to record levels and causing widespread damage and displacement. In South Dakota, central and eastern regions were inundated by torrential rains for three consecutive days. On June 23, Governor Kristi Noem announced the death of one individual due to the severe weather, though details about the victim and circumstances were not disclosed. Numerous rivers in the state shattered previous water-level records, with the Big Sioux River expected to reach an unprecedented 12.9 m (42.2 feet) on June 24. Governor Noem expressed the gravity of the situation, stating, “This is probably the first time we’ve seen this kind of rainfall come this quickly.” Voluntary evacuations were urged in Dakota Dunes, a community of approximately 4 000 residents situated along the Big Sioux River. Plans were made to close a segment of Interstate 29 on the evening of June 23 to facilitate the construction of a levee across the highway to prevent further flooding. Iowa is also grappling with severe flooding, with rivers surpassing levels recorded during the infamous 1993 floods that claimed 50 lives across the Midwest. Governor Kim Reynolds declared a disaster for over 20 counties on June 23, highlighting the extensive damage. On June 22 alone, emergency responders conducted 250 water rescues, and more than 1 000 people were sheltered. The flooding had damaged over 1 900 properties, with hundreds being completely destroyed. Governor Reynolds described the situation as “staggering,” noting that many cities were without power and potable water, hospitals and nursing homes had been evacuated, and numerous businesses were closed.
Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota Cope With Extreme Flooding After Torrential Rains - The governors of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota over the weekend each issued emergency declarations as heavy rains that began late last week flooded rivers throughout the region. Flood warnings remain in place Monday and areas south of those already hit are expected to see major rivers cresting through at least July 1. A swath of counties in northwest Iowa, southwestern Minnesota and southeastern South Dakota saw rainfall Thursday to Saturday that ranged anywhere from 5 to 8 inches in most areas and as much as 15 inches in some spots, according to the National Weather Service. "An area from about Mitchell, South Dakota to Albert Lea, Minnesota may have got the worst of the flooding, but it is more extensive than that," said DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick. "Heavy rain fell in that general area but also east through southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and into parts of Michigan. These areas may have been able to handle the heavier rain better, as they had not seen the extensive rainfall that those western areas experienced prior to the deluges last week, but heavy rain has been a large nuisance and damaging factor for the northwestern Corn Belt for much of the last couple of months," Baranick said. . "The forecast is not dry, either. A frontal boundary will move through these flooded areas Monday and Tuesday with scattered showers with another coming through Thursday and Friday with more. Showers and thunderstorms may be hit-or-miss, but any hits would only prolong the damage." Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds declared a state disaster for 22 counties after touring the flooded areas on Saturday. On Sunday, Reynolds requested an expedited presidential disaster declaration that would access programs from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Small Business Administration and USDA. "While we're still very early in the response, the projected damage is staggering," Reynolds said. "It is estimated that at least 1,900 properties are impacted and hundreds have been destroyed." Interstate 29 was closed in South Dakota and in Iowa on Monday morning due to the flooding. About 100 miles farther northwest, the town of Spencer, Iowa, with more than 11,400 people, faced catastrophic flooding over the weekend and was largely cutoff with its roads and highways closed. In Rock Valley, Iowa, a town of 4,000 residents, emergency sirens at 2 a.m. Saturday morning alerted residents that the Rock River was flooding and people should evacuate. Iowa officials noted the floodwater from rivers such as the Big and Little Sioux rivers is flowing into the Missouri River and will cause downstream flooding. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had a request much like Reynolds', calling in the Minnesota National Guard to deploy to Waterville, Minnesota, on Sunday morning to cope with flooding on the Cannon River. Areas such as Mankato, Minnesota, saw as much as 8 inches of rainfall Thursday and Friday. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported Windom, Minnesota, would see a record flood level for the Des Moines River. Governor Kristi Noem in South Dakota also reported at least one person had died in her state from severe weather. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen ordered National Guard helicopters to help Iowa with rescues. In Iowa, most state highways in northwest Iowa had some form of road closure. Two major railroads in the region were seeing bridge closures and track damage in the Iowa-Minnesota-South Dakota region. BNSF lost a bridge over the Big Sioux River between Iowa and South Dakota. "That is the main bridge going into Iowa that a lot of commodities and different materials move on throughout the state," said Noem said in a news conference Monday. "That'll impact us for many, many months to come." Robynn Tysver, a spokeswoman for Union Pacific, said rail crews are repairing tracks damaged by heavy rains and flooding this past weekend in northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota. Two different routes into St. Paul, Minnesota, have been closed to traffic due to the floodwaters, and traffic has been rerouted to avoid the impacted lines, she stated. The Union Pacific line between Mason City, Iowa, and St. Paul, Minnesota, closed Saturday. It is expected to reopen late Monday or early Tuesday morning. The line between Sioux City, Iowa, and St. Paul, Minnesota, also closed Saturday. We do not have an estimate on when it will reopen at this time. It may be too early to determine crop damage, but most of the Missouri River bottom fields were already in standing water before this past deluge. Kelly Nieuwenhuis, who farms near Primghar, Iowa, posted videos and photos on social platform X reporting 3 inches of rain that had flooded his fields. "I think we're at a new all-time rainfall amounts for a single spring in NW Iowa!!! It's a mess." Nieuwenhuis said 2024 was the most rain his farm had seen, though there was flooding in 2018 and 2019. He said he expects tiling he had installed would help, but added, "We won't have a large number of acres affected, but many aren't as fortunate. I've got water sitting in areas and if it doesn't go away soon those crops will die from lack of oxygen in the soil, I've seen 3ft corn with 2 inches of water on the ground die from this in the past!!," he added. "Unbelievable how much water went over roads Friday night." In Omaha, the National Weather Service predicts the Missouri River will rise 12 feet over the next week to a forecast of a 34.5-foot crest, which would compare to flood levels in 2019.
Rapidan Dam in Minnesota is in 'imminent failure condition,' officials warn -- The Rapidan Dam in Minnesota is in a precarious state after recent flooding of the Blue Earth River, prompting officials on Monday to warn that the structure is in "imminent failure condition." The Blue Earth County Sheriff's Office said the river has cut around the sides of the dam and debris has been accumulating in the water. It announced the "imminent failure condition" status and notified those who may be impacted. "We do not know if it will totally fail or if it will remain in place, however we determined it was necessary to issue this notification to advise downstream residents and the correct regulatory agencies and other local agencies," the sheriff's office said. The dam is outside the city of Mankato, about 85 miles southwest of Minneapolis. By Monday afternoon, the sheriff's office reported a "partial failure" of the dam on the west abutment. "The dam in still intact and there are no current plans for a mass evacuation," the sheriff said on Facebook. "A portion of the river flow has diverted around the west side of the dam and water continues to flow." An Xcel Energy substation at the dam, which supplies power to about 600 customers, was washed away early Monday. The utility company said its crews were working to replace the destroyed substation and restore power. "The river level was already high from the large amounts of recent rainfall and moving fast when it diverted around the dam near the substation and flowed onto the bank," the company said in a statement. Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz at a news conference Monday morning noted that the state has received roughly 18 inches of rain over the last few weeks, saturating the ground and leaving the water nowhere else to go. There is potentially more rain coming, he added. The Rapidan Dam is in a precarious state after recent flooding of the Blue Earth River. The Rapidan Dam is in a precarious state after recent flooding of the Blue Earth River.KARE The river has cut around the sides of the dam The river has cut around the sides of the damKARE "With that being said, the resources that are being deployed are strategically out there," Waltz said. "We're making sure, first and foremost, people are safe, protecting property and protecting public infrastructure." Flooding has impacted roughly 40 counties so far, with some declaring a state of emergency, Waltz said. The governor said he would move to request a presidential disaster declaration if the damage assessment reached a threshold that required federal assistance.
Crazy images show major dam breach in Minnesota — with buildings and roads destroyed in flooding --Several buildings and roads along Minnesota’s Blue Earth River have been destroyed by floodwaters following a dam breach Monday, with residents in low-lying areas warned to evacuate the shores. Harrowing footage shared by Fox Weather shows the moment the powerful current along the river erodes the shore to the point where a small building and nearby trees are swallowed up by the raging waters. The destroyed building could be seen slowly being dragged off by the flood until it plummets down a small waterfall and disappears from view in the mist. Other videos from the scene showed the dire situation at the Rapidan Dam, which was experiencing an “imminent failure condition” after storm debris accumulated around the 114-year-old dam. The water could be seen bursting through large cracks on the dam, with the ground eroding around a nearby home as the flood threatened to devour it.The National Weather Service had i ssued a flash flood warning for areas downstream until 10:30 a.m., with residents in the low-lying areas of the Minnesota River Valley warned to monitor the situation and evaducat if needed.Blue Earth County officials said the breach in the dam was caused by high water and debris from the weekend’s flood hitting the dam.Gov. Tim Walz said that at least 40 counties had been impacted by the flood as of Monday, adding that no serious injuries or deaths have been reported so far..Minnesota wasn’t the only state to face severe flooding, as Iowa experienced record-setting levels caused by the weekend storm, according to Gov. Kim Reynolds.The floods in Iowa left one person dead, damaged thousands of homes and prompted evacuation calls and natural disaster declarations. It led to major surges in the Rock and both the Big and Little Sioux Rivers, leading to flood level records being broken at 16 different locations in Iowa, Reynolds said. The surge along the Big Sioux River also caused the main railroad bridge that connects Iowa and South Dakota to collapse, Kare 11 reported.Sioux City officials said the Big Sioux River, in Riverside, crested at 45 feet Monday morning, way above the previous record of 37 feet. “We have damaged roads. We have damaged bridges,” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said of the damages also facing her state. “That will impact us for many, many months to come.”
Minnesota’s Rapidan Dam faces imminent failure after flooding breach - (video) On Monday morning, June 24, 2024, flooding on the Blue Earth River breached the Rapidan Dam, prompting officials to declare an “imminent failure condition.” This followed debris accumulation identified on June 23, which led to emergency measures in North Mankato, including road closures and levee construction, with potential downstream impacts predicted to raise river levels by 15 to 60 cm (6 inches to 2 feet) toward Mankato. The dam faced imminent failure conditions due to the debris, which included contributions from Xcel Energy and County infrastructure. This situation led to power outages and the potential for road closures, specifically on County Road 33 bridge and County Road 90 bridge, which were closely monitored for debris passing downstream. On June 24, the City of North Mankato declared a flood emergency, initiating the construction of a temporary earth wall levee at the intersection of Lookout Drive and Lee Boulevard. The intersection was closed to facilitate these efforts, aimed at protecting the city from the potential failure of Rapidan Dam. The rising river levels were closely monitored, with the levee built to a height of 10.5 m (34.6 feet) as a precaution. City officials assured residents that no evacuations were necessary at this time but urged them to stay informed via the city’s communication channels. The current river level stood at 8.5 m (28 feet), with the levee system designed to handle up to 12 m (39.5 feet). Engineers on-site predicted that a failure of the dam could result in an increase of 15 to 60 cm (6 inches to 2 feet) in river levels downstream. As a precautionary measure, Xcel Energy deployed 170 employees and 400 pieces of equipment to protect the nearby substation at Sibley Park, with the MSU campus serving as a staging area. Continuous updates were provided to city officials, including Mayor Najwa Massad, who met with Senator Amy Klobuchar and Representative Brad Finstad to discuss the situation. The city implemented the Rapidan Dam Emergency Action Plan, which included continuous patrols and monitoring of the levee and flood control systems, staffing the Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) 24/7, and ensuring that pump stations were operational. Parks such as Land of Memories Park, Kiwanis Recreation Area, and parts of Sibley Park were closed due to flooding. Residents were advised to avoid closed areas and follow travel advisories due to road closures. For any flood-related inquiries, residents were directed to contact the Emergency Operations Center at 507-387-8788. The situation remains under close observation, with authorities prepared to take further action as necessary. The Blue Earth River begins in northern Iowa and flows 174 km (108 miles) north through southern Minnesota, passing cities like Blue Earth, Winnebago, and Vernon Center before entering the Minnesota River at Mankato. The watershed includes 21 cities, with Mankato and Fairmont being the largest. Blue Earth County officials told WCCO the dam was recently inspected and was in good shape before the rainfall, saying the partial failure is a result of high water and debris hitting the dam.
Aerial images show raging water flowing around Rapidan Dam in southern Minnesota - CBS Minnesota — New aerial images from Tuesday morning show strong water continuing to rush around a dam that has partially failed in southern Minnesota.The Blue Earth County Sheriff's Office says debris started accumulating on Sunday at the Rapidan Dam, a 114-year-old structure located about 10 miles southwest of Mankato, placing it "in imminent failure condition." As of Tuesday afternoon, the dam is still intact and there are no plans for a larger evacuation.Officials said that there had been a partial failure on the west abutment. That's where part of the river has been diverted, causing erosion and forcing an evacuation of the family home of the owners of the Rapidan Dam Store.The home is at risk of being swallowed by the raging river waters, with the east side of the house hanging over a cliff.Le Sueur County residents in low-lying areas of the Minnesota River Valley are advised to closely monitor the situation and potentially evacuate, according to the county's emergency management office. In 1972, the historical society says the county board ruled the dam should either be rebuilt or torn down since the dam would cause "considerable damage" to the surrounding areas should it collapse.To address safety concerns, engineers added more concrete reinforcement to the Rapidan Dam in the 1980s. The National Society of Professional Engineers called the renovations "one of the top engineering feats of 1986."The National Inventory of Dams rated it in poor condition as of April 2023, classifying its hazard potential as "significant." Meanwhile, Iowa residents have needed rescue from record-setting flooding. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said water in some areas rose above records from 1993, a flood many in the Midwest remember as the worst of their lives. The floods have also hit parts of South Dakota and Nebraska.The Minnesota National Guard has been activated to help with the toll. Gov. Tim Walz declared a peacetime emergency for the state over the weekend, which allowed the National Guard to deploy.
Receding Midwest floodwater exposes devastation as warnings extend into other areas - In the residential development where Kathy Roberts lived along McCook Lake in North Sioux City, the devastation was coming into focus as floodwaters began to recede, exposing collapsed streets, utility poles and trees. Some homes were washed off their foundations.There was no water, sewer, gas or electrical service in that area, Union County Emergency Management said Tuesday in a Facebook post.South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X Tuesday night that people needed to stay out of the area unless escorted by public safety officials.“We are working on a schedule for families to get their belongings,” Noem said. “Until then, downed power lines, sinkholes, and other threats make it too dangerous to go in alone.”A vast swath of lands from eastern Nebraska and South Dakota to Iowa and Minnesota has been under siege from flooding from torrential rains since last week, while also experiencing a scorching heat wave. Up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) of rain have fallen in some areas, and some rivers rose to record levels. Hundreds of people were rescued, homes were damaged and at least two people died after driving in flooded areas.Tornado warnings, flash flooding and large hail Tuesday night also added insult to injury for some people in the Midwest. The National Weather Service on Tuesday afternoon and evening issued multiple tornado warnings in parts of Iowa and Nebraska as local TV news meteorologists showed photos of large hail and spoke of very heavy rain. No damage from tornadoes was immediately reported and the extent of any hail damage wasn’t clear.The weather service on Tuesday night also extended flood warnings for multiple rivers in South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota. Earlier Tuesday, floodwaters breached levees in Iowa, creating dangerous conditions that prompted evacuations. THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:Become a Sponsor The sheriff’s office in Monona County, near the Nebraska border, said the Little Sioux River breached levees in several areas. In neighboring Woodbury County, the sheriff’s office posted drone video on Facebook showing the river overflowing the levee and flooding land in rural Smithland. No injuries were immediately reported. As new areas flooded Tuesday, some cities and towns were cleaning up after the waters receded while others downstream were piling sandbags and taking other measures to protect against the oncoming swelled currents. Some normal, unassuming tributaries ballooned into rushing rivers, damaging homes, buildings and bridges. South Dakota state geologist Tim Cowman said that the five major rivers in the state’s southeastern corner have crested and are slowly dropping. In Sioux City and Woodbury County, Iowa, officials responded to residents’ complaints that they had received little warning of the flooding and its severity. Sioux City Fire Marshal Mark Aesoph said at a news conference Tuesday that rivers crested higher than predicted. “Even if we would have known about this two weeks ago, there was nothing we could do at this point. We cannot extend the entire length of our levee,” Sioux City Fire Marshal Mark Aesoph said. Water had spilled over the Big Sioux River levee, and Aesoph estimated hundreds of homes likely have some internal water damage. Homes on the south side of Spencer, Iowa, near the Little Sioux River are unlivable as water has reached the main floor, resident Ben Thomas said. A lot of people in town are facing a “double whammy,” with homes and businesses affected. Officials in Woodbury County said around a dozen bridges over the Little Sioux River had been topped by flood water, and each would need to be inspected to see if they can reopen to traffic. Forever Wildlife Lodge and Clinic, a nonprofit animal rescue, in northwest Iowa has answered over 200 calls since the flooding started, said licensed wildlife rehabilitator Amanda Hase. Hase described the flooding as “catastrophic” for Iowa wildlife, which are getting washed out of dens, injured by debris and separated from each other. She and other rehabilitators are responding to calls about all kinds of species, from fawns and groundhogs to bunnies and eaglets. “I’ve never seen it this bad before, ever,” she said.
Swollen river claims house next to Minnesota dam as flooding and extreme weather grip the Midwest (AP) — A house that was teetering on the edge of an eroding riverbank near a Minnesota dam collapsed into the river in the latest jarring example of extreme weather gripping the upper Midwest. Video shows most of the house owned by the Barnes family falling into the flood-swollen Blue Earth River near Mankato on Tuesday night. The dam's west abutment failed Monday, sending the river around the dam and eroding the bank where the home sat. The family had evacuated the house before the collapse. “It’s been a very scary and hard situation,” Jenny Barnes, whose family has run the nearby Dam Store for decades, told KARE-TV on Tuesday before the house fell into the river. She also was worried about the store. “That’s our life, as well. That’s our business; that’s our livelihood. It’s everything to us,” Barnes said. “There’s no stopping it. It’s going to go where it wants to go. It’s going to take what it wants to take.” Blue Earth County officials said Wednesday that there were dramatic changes around the dam overnight, with the river cutting more widely and deeply into the bank, and they are concerned about the integrity of a nearby bridge over the river. A swath through Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota has been under siege from flooding because of torrential rains since last week, while also suffering through a scorching heat wave. Up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) of rain have fallen in some areas, pushing some rivers to record levels. Hundreds of people were rescued, homes were damaged and at least two people died after driving in flooded areas. Tornado warnings, flash flooding and large hail Tuesday night also added insult to injury for some people in the Midwest. The weather service on Tuesday night also extended flood warnings for multiple rivers in the region. Earlier Tuesday, floodwaters breached levees in Iowa, creating dangerous conditions that prompted evacuations. Preliminary information from the weather service shows the recent flooding brought record-high river levels at more than a dozen locations in South Dakota and Iowa, surpassing previous crests by an average of about 3.5 feet (0.5 meters). The Big Sioux River reached nearly 41 feet (12 meters) in Hawarden, Iowa, on Saturday and nearly 45 feet (14 meters) in Sioux City, Iowa, on Monday, exceeding previous highs by 5 to 7 feet (1.5 to 2.1 meters), respectively.As new areas were flooding this week, some cities and towns were cleaning up after the waters receded while others downstream were piling sandbags and taking other measures to protect against the oncoming swelled currents. Many streams, especially with additional rainfall, may not crest until later this week as the floodwaters slowly drain down a web of rivers to the Missouri and Mississippi. The Missouri will crest at Omaha on Thursday, said Kevin Low, a weather service hydrologist.
Watch: Flooding Sweeps Building Over Failing Dam - Videos from The Weather Channel
Vehicles Stall, Motorists Stranded, After Flash Flooding in Southeast Missouri - Storms pushing through the region on Wednesday brought with it lots of rain, particularly to one area of southeast Missouri. The Butler County Emergency Management Agency Director Robbie Myers tells News 3 there were multiple reports of flooding throughout the county and in Poplar Bluff during the morning hours. The flooding caused multiple cars to become stranded in the area. The National Weather Service stated a flash flood was reported near Highland Road and Pershing Street with multiple stranded motorists and street closures, including water over Westwood Blvd. Myers said there were stalled cars near Walmart along WestWood Blvd. He also stated there were a couple of water rescue calls in the county, however, the water receded quickly before rescue crews arrived. Another report from the National Weather Service stated six inches of water entered one of the hallways in the Poplar Bluff High School after flash flooding. "It was coming down so hard and so fast," Myers said. "We were trying to tell people not to drive out in it." The National Weather Service reported 4.79 inches of rain fell from 11 p.m. on Tuesday night through 11 a.m. on Wednesday.
Missouri governor declares emergency as Missouri River swells -- Floodwaters that have inundated parts of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota are making their way into Missouri, prompting an emergency declaration by Gov. Mike Parson. In an announcement Wednesday, Parson said the state needs to be prepared for potential flooding along the Missouri River in the coming days. “We have seen the tremendous, destructive force of flooding this past week in neighboring states to our north and must ensure resources are available should flooding threaten areas of our state,” the governor said. “This extension allows us to be ready to respond and support our communities.” Flooding along the Missouri River in 2019 destroyed millions of dollars of property and left homes underwater in northwest Missouri for months. Missouri has been under a continuous drought alert since May 2023. A prior drought alert was active from July 2022 to March 2023. The National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for several areas near Kansas City and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is monitoring conditions along the Missouri River. Minor flooding on the river is expected between St. Joseph and Hermann. In Atchison County, the northwest corner of Missouri, emergency management officials Monday recommended the removal of grain and equipment from fields in the river bottom because the levees protecting farmland “new, untested and are considered vulnerable.” Up to 18 inches of rain have fallen in some areas, pushing some rivers from Nebraska to Minnesota to record levels, requiring rescues and evacuations. The governor’s office said declaring the emergency allows the state to directly assist local governments in responding to flooding and in recovery efforts. It also marks the first step required by the federal government to seek a major disaster declaration.
Missouri River flooding: Photos show rising water Council Bluffs—The Missouri River flood has already caused major devastation in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska.Rising water levels have closed Interstate 29 north of Council Bluffs and two levees have broken in Monona County.A viewer shared photos showing an aerial view of the flooding from the Western Historic Trails Center in Council Bluffs on Thursday afternoon.As of Thursday morning, the Missouri River is expected to crest Friday in the Omaha area.The National Weather Service said moderate to near major flood stages are expected along the Missouri River from Blair to Rulo this week, "rivaling stages that were last experienced in 2019."Moderate flooding is forecast for the Missouri River at Omaha.
State of emergency extended as floods expected through Kansas City - Missouri’s state of emergency has been extended as flooding is expected along the Missouri River through Kansas City. Missouri Governor Mike Parson announced on Wednesday, June 26, that he signed an executive order to extend the current State of Emergency declaration ahead of more potential flooding along the Missouri River. Gov. Parson noted that he first declared the State of Emergency on May 2 in response to severe storms that rolled through the state. “We have seen the tremendous, destructive force of flooding this past week in neighboring states to our north and must ensure resources are available should flooding threaten areas of our state,” Parson said. “This extension allows us to be ready to respond and support our communities. We encourage Missourians to follow their local forecasts and have preparations in place to protect themselves and their loved ones.” The Governor indicated that the extension ensures the state can help local jurisdictions in their recovery efforts. This is the first step required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to seek a major disaster declaration if statewide damages meet the federal requirements. The extended executive order is now set to expire on July 31 unless canceled or extended. The Missouri Levee and Drainage Association also announced on Wednesday that the current crest of the Missouri River moves downstream between Sioux City, N.D., and Hermann, Mo. As rainfall remains in forecasts to the northwest, the Association indicated that the river is primed for floods. Residents have been asked to remain alert to changing river conditions. In Kansas City, officials indicated a technical team is out at various locations as teams attempt to fight floods in Holt County. No direct request for aid has yet been made. Corning and Union Township are expected to see an inch and a half of freeboard while Cannon and rural areas of Holt County are set to see 2-5 inches of freeboard. The Association also noted that all levees in the Kansas City district have been repaired after the 2019 flood event and are ready to function properly. Around 3.7 million sandbags have been placed along the Missouri River in Kansas City as further assistance remains available. Members said releases from Kansas Reservoirs have been reduced to minimum flow to aid with floods along the river. There have been no changes in releases from the Truman Dam.
Massive Saharan dust plume making its way over the Atlantic - The largest outbreak of Saharan dust this summer is currently making its way across the Atlantic Ocean, potentially impacting air quality and weather patterns throughout the Caribbean and parts of the United States. This marks a significant shift in the season’s weather patterns, influenced by the Saharan Air Layer (SAL), which is known for its ability to suppress tropical cyclone formation. The current Saharan dust plume is the largest of the 2024 hurricane season, with its effects already observable in various regions. The warm, dry, and windy conditions associated with the dust clouds are expected to continue suppressing tropical cyclone activity, providing a temporary respite from storm formation. However, it remains to be seen whether this round of aerosols will reach the Lower 48 states, as early models from NASA and the European Union’s Copernicus program suggest that the dust may not traverse the entire Atlantic basin. Saharan dust, composed of sand and mineral particles from the Sahara Desert, is transported across vast distances by high-altitude winds. This phenomenon is not unusual for this time of year. “These plumes are common in the Atlantic basin at this time of year, typically peaking in late June and early July with a proclivity to spoil tropical development by stealing moisture from the air,” said Michael Lowry, Hurricane Specialist and Storm Surge Expert at WPLG-TV, ABC Miami, Florida. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) describes the SAL as having about 50% less moisture than the typical tropical atmosphere. This dry air, combined with strong winds and warm temperatures, can significantly impact tropical weather systems. The extremely dry air can weaken tropical cyclones by promoting downdrafts around the storm. Additionally, the African Easterly Jet, with winds ranging from 40 to 88 km/h (25 to 55 mph), increases vertical wind shear, disrupting the internal structure of tropical cyclones. The warmth of the SAL stabilizes the atmosphere, suppressing cloud formation and maintaining its temperature as it travels across the ocean. This year’s plume of Saharan dust began its moving over the Sahara Desert during the late spring, and as weather patterns transitioned to summer, the dust moved westward into the Atlantic basin. The latest outbreak is expected to hold disturbances in the Main Development Region (MDR) in check for at least a week, possibly longer, limiting the formation of tropical cyclones.Throughout the spring, major cities in Europe, including Rome, Paris, Athens, and Kyiv, experienced reduced visibility and poor air quality due to northward-traveling dust plumes. As these patterns shifted, the dust is now headed towards the Caribbean and potentially the Gulf of Mexico. Coastal communities along the Florida Peninsula and the Gulf Coast are familiar with these summer dust plumes, which can impact air quality, produce colorful sunrises and sunsets, and reduce precipitation chances. Islands in the Caribbean are particularly likely to see significant impacts from this dust plume, as enough particles will reach near the surface. According to forecasts, the dust is expected to enter the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico this week and weekend, with varying degrees of impact on air quality and weather conditions. Saharan dust has both positive and negative effects. On the beneficial side, it contributes to vibrant sunrises and sunsets and transports nutrients like iron across the ocean, enriching soil in areas such as the Amazon rainforest. However, the dust can also pose health risks, particularly for individuals with respiratory issues like asthma. The particles can exacerbate respiratory conditions and negatively impact coral reefs, contributing to algae blooms.
Heat wave may trigger Amtrak delays on Northeast Corridor --Amtrak warned that high temperatures could force trains on the Northeast Corridor to be delayed by up to an hour into Sunday evening.Extreme heat has blasted the Midwest and Northeast this week, with temperatures reaching the triple digits on the East Coast on Saturday and Sunday.High temperatures make the steel tracks expand, raising the risk of derailments or other track failures. Lowering the speed of trains ensures safety.The company said delays would slow and end around 7:30 p.m., as temperatures cooled.Similar delays are common on commuter rail and subway services as well. The Washington Metro slowed trains from a maximum of 65 mph to 35 mph due to the heat, causing slower service.The heat wave is expected to continue into this week, the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast, with temperatures in the 90s predicted for much of the East Coast. The Southeast, mid-South and the Plains regions will see the heat wave peak this upcoming week, with the possibility of temperatures exceeding 110 degrees on some days, according to NWS.AccuWeather meteorologists also predicted that the heat wave would cool off in much of the Northeast on Sunday but could lead to thunderstorms.
National Weather Service experiences a widespread network outage - The National Weather Service (NWS) is experiencing a vast network outage disrupting numerous operational functions as extreme weather continues to grip the country.The “widespread network outage” began on Monday around 5:30 p.m. EDT and continued into Tuesday, a spokesperson from the NWS said in a statement.The outage has hampered the agency’s ability to operate as usual by causing the “degradation of forecast and warning dissemination, disruption of data flows, and sluggish websites,” the spokesperson said.“NWS systems engineers worked overnight to restore some functionality – including the flow of weather forecasts and warnings,” the spokesperson said. “And progress continues to be made today.”An initial investigation into the cause of the outage revealed a network hardware configuration issue, the spokesperson added.The disruption in NWS’s operations coincides with ongoing extreme weather, including a record-breaking heat wave that hit the mid-Atlantic region last week and this past weekend. That extreme heat will now make its way to the South and southern Plains, with temperatures expected in the triple-digits.Dangerous flooding hit numerous states this weekend, and President Biden even approved a major disaster declaration for Iowa due to the heavy rain and flooding. A dam in Minnesota was declared by its county emergency management officials as being in “imminent failure condition” after the weekend’s flooding.
Karachi Sees a Surge in Deaths as Heat Wave Sears Pakistan - Bloomberg
- Rescue agency reports 568 casualties in the city in five days
- Temperatures hover 7C above normal, no relief in coming days
Karachi is witnessing an unusual spike in the number of deaths, a relief agency said, with the baking conditions set to persist in Pakistan’s commercial capital. Rescue agency Edhi Foundation reported receiving 568 bodies in the city in the five days through June 25, up from an average of about 40 per day. The local government said the casualties weren’t due to heat and that just 13 people had died of weather-related issues in Karachi in June.
Hundreds dying every day in Karachi as Pakistan battles brutal summer - At least 427 people have died over four days in just one city in Pakistandue to the lethal heatwaves scorching south Asia this summer.The non-profit Edhi Foundation said it received 427 bodies in four days until Tuesday in Karachi, the country’s biggest city and financial centre.Most of them were homeless people and drug addicts living on the streets, the NGO said on Wednesday.“The extreme heatwave got to them as these people spend their entire day out in the open searching for fixes,” Faisal Edhi, who heads the foundation, was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.“We have four mortuaries in Karachi and we have reached a stage where there is no more space to keep bodies.”Mr Edhi said his foundation received 135 bodies on Tuesday alone and 128 on Monday.The government of the southern Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, meanwhile reported 23 deaths across three government hospitals on Tuesday.Sindh is living through a brutal summer with the temperature nearing a record 52.2C last month.The heat intensified again this week as the mercury crossed 40C for the third consecutive day in Karachi on Wednesday – temperatures that are too high and dangerous in a humid coastal city.The prolonged heatwave has increased pressure on the power grid with outages recorded across the country, depriving people of the little respite fans and coolers could offer.The Edhi Foundation said many of the bodies they received were from areas “where a lot of load-shedding is going on”.Deaths from heatwaves have been soaring across South Asia.India, battling its longest-ever heatwave this year with temperatures crossing 50C, reported over a hundred deaths and 40,000 cases of suspected heatstroke until May.Heat-related deaths are generally highly underreported across the world and activists in India and Pakistan have said the numbers could be much higher than the official tallies.
India heat: What record air conditioner sales reveal about heatwave -- Govind Ram, a junk dealer living on the outskirts of the Indian capital, Delhi, bought an air conditioner in May after his children pleaded with him. A fiery heatwave was scorching the city and its neighbourhood, and his school-going children complained of “choking” heat. Using his savings, Mr Ram bought the air conditioner for his children’s bedroom. This relief, he says, has come at a cost – his electricity bill last month soared to seven times the usual amount. “I’ve endured the worst summers under just a fan. But this year, my children suffered so much that I had to buy our family’s first air conditioner,” Mr Ram said. Over the past five decades, India has faced over 700 heatwaves but this summer’s severe and unrelenting heat has to count among the worst, experts believe. Some 97% of Indian households are electrified, with 93% relying on fans for comfort, according to think tank Council on Energy Environment and Water (CEEW). But this year, India’s air conditioning market has surged like never before. “In my 45 years in the air-con industry, I've never seen anything like this. The spike in demand is a complete surprise, with sales likely to more than double this summer compared to last year,” says B Thiagarajan, managing director of Blue Star, a leading cooling and refrigeration company. Nearly a billion people across 23 states are exposed to heat stress in India The sale of air conditioners will possibly see an unprecedented growth of 60% this summer in India - March to July - from the usual 25-30% growth in previous years, Mr Thiagarajan reckons. Around a decade or more ago, he remembers, sales would peak in the last week of May. “Now demand peaks in April.” Companies have sold in three months what they would usually sell in nine. Despite only 8% of India’s 300 million households owning air conditioners, with some having multiple units, India is the world's fastest-growing AC market. Of the 170 million units sold globally last year, China purchased 90 million, while India bought 12 million. The International Energy Agency (IEA), a Paris-based energy think tank, predicts a nine-fold rise in home air conditioner ownership in the country by 2050, outpacing growth in ownership of all other household appliances, including TVs, refrigerators and washing machines. By then, India’s total electricity demand from home air conditioners would surpass Africa’s current total electricity consumption, reflecting the ongoing trends in energy system evolution, according to IEA.
At least 1,300 hajj pilgrims died during extreme heat, Saudi Arabia says --At least 1,300 people have died during the hajj pilgrimage, which took place during intense heat, Saudi Arabia has said, adding that most of the deceased did not have official permits.“Regrettably, the number of mortalities reached 1,301, with 83% being unauthorised to perform hajj and having walked long distances under direct sunlight, without adequate shelter or comfort,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.A tally last week, compiled by Agence France-Presse and based on official statements from diplomats, put the toll at more than 1,100. Arab diplomats told AFP that Egyptians accounted for 658 deaths, 630 of them unregistered pilgrims. Riyadh had not publicly commented on the deaths or provided its own toll until Sunday. On Friday, however, a senior Saudi official gave a toll of 577 deaths for the two busiest days of hajj: 15 June, when pilgrims gathered for hours of prayers in the blazing sun on Mount Arafat; and 16 June, when they participated in the “stoning of the devil” ritual in Mina.The Saudi health minister, Fahd al-Jalajel, on Sunday described the management of the hajj this year as “successful”, SPA reported. He said there had been attempts to raise public awareness of the dangers of extreme heat, and added: “May Allah forgive and have mercy on the deceased. Our heartfelt condolences go to their families.” The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam that all Muslims with the means must complete at least once in their lives. Saudi officials said 1.8 million pilgrims took part this year, a similar number to last year, and that 1.6 million came from abroad. For the past several years, the mainly outdoor rituals have fallen during the sweltering Saudi summer. Temperatures in Mecca this year climbed as high as 51.8C (125.2F). On Saturday, the Egyptian prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, ordered 16 tourism companies to be stripped of their licences and referred their managers to the public prosecutor over illegal pilgrimages to Mecca, Egypt’s cabinet said. It said the rise in the number of deaths of unregistered Egyptian pilgrims stemmed from some companies that “organised the hajj programmes using a personal visit visa, which prevents its holders from entering Mecca” via official channels. Hajj permits are allocated to countries on a quota system and distributed to individuals by lottery. Even for those who can obtain them, the steep costs spur many to attempt the hajj without a permit, though they risk arrest and deportation if caught.
Rich Gulf States Have Huge Ambitions. Will Extreme Heat Hold Them Back? - The wealthy petrostates of the Persian Gulf have big plans for the future, hoping to increasingly attract tourists and investors, host marquee sporting events, build new cities and diversify their economies away from oil.But they face a looming threat that they cannot easily buy their way out of: extreme and sometimes deadly heat that roasts their countries every summer, which climate change is expected to exacerbate in the coming decades.Sweltering temperatures drive up energy demand, wear down infrastructure, endanger laborers and render even simple outdoor activities not only unpleasant, but potentially perilous. That all will impose a significant long-term tax on the vast ambitions of Gulf countries, experts say.“We keep thinking we want to go bigger and larger, but we don’t think about the implications of climate change in the future,” said Aisha Al-Sarihi, a research fellow from Oman at the Middle East Institute at National University of Singapore. “If we keep expanding and expanding, it means we need more energy, more water and more electricity, especially for cooling. But there are limits, and we see those limits today.”The threat of extreme heat became clear this week when Saudi Arabia announced that more than 1,300 people had died during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, including at least 11 Americans. Saudi officials said that most of those who perished had made the trip without permits that would have granted them access to heat protections, leaving them vulnerable to temperatures that at times exceeded 120 degrees.The deaths raised questions about Saudi Arabia’s management of the event, which drew more than 1.8 million Muslims to the holy city of Mecca. The kingdom and other countries throughout the Gulf are pouring tremendous amounts of their oil wealth into efforts to boost their economies and move up the list of popular global destinations.Saudi Arabia is building super-high-end resorts on the Red Sea coast and a futuristic city known as Neom in its northwestern desert. Qatar hosted the men’s soccer World Cup last year and has brought in other international sporting events and trade shows. The United Arab Emirates put on a splashy World Expo and its business friendly policies have helped it become a playground for the hyperwealthy.But these countries face significant environmental challenges.All have long had searingly hot summers, but scientists say that climate change has already made the season longer and hotter — a trend expected to accelerate in the coming decades. Some projections warn of weekslong heat waves with temperatures of up to 132 degrees during the second half of this century. Temperatures that high can endanger human life. Gulf countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, are among the world’s most water-stressed, meaning that the water available barely keeps up with demand. That requires them to import water or remove the salt from seawater, an expensive and energy-intensive process. Many Gulf countries have announced sweeping environmental initiatives aimed at slashing carbon emissions, greening big cities and developing climate-friendly technologies. They have also invested heavily in efforts to mitigate the dangers of extreme heat — often with measures that other Middle Eastern countries grappling with high temperatures, like Egypt, Yemen and Iraq, cannot afford. But money is not always enough. This month, sudden power outages hit parts of Kuwait, a major oil exporter. In some areas, traffic lights went out and people got stuck in elevators as the temperature soared to 125 degrees. The authorities blamed rising energy demand that overwhelmed the power stations. To reduce the load, the government has imposed rolling blackouts during the hottest hours of the day, forcing people to seek out alternative air-conditioned spaces. The summer heat drastically restricts life in Kuwait, altering when people work and sleep and keeping those who can afford it in air-conditioned environments. “If the temperature keeps rising, especially in the summer periods, it is expected that Kuwait will be uninhabitable,” Dr. Al Sarraf said. “This change will definitely affect future generations.”
Exclusive: US Treasury, USAID call in development banks for urgent talks on extreme heat (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Agency for International Development are calling leaders of multilateral development banks into an urgent meeting on extreme heat and its devastating impact on developing countries, according to Treasury officials.The private, virtual meeting on Thursday morning - the first of its kind - is aimed at finding ways to shift more resources to help countries build climate resilience and adaptation to reduce extreme heat damage amid a summer of record temperatures globally, the Treasury officials told Reuters.While investments to fight climate change have increased dramatically in recent years, much of that growth has gone towards the transition to clean energy sources and reducing carbon emissions, not in helping countries adapt to the harmful impacts, including more severe droughts, wildfires, violent storms and rising ocean levels.As heat waves grip the world and claim at least hundreds of lives, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will use the meeting to tie the urgent needs of developing countries hardest hit by high temperatures to broader work that multilateral development banks are doing to increase their lending capacity to help fight climate change and other global crises."Extreme weather events, including heat waves, continue to become increasingly severe and frequent, from the East Coast of the United States to India," Yellen said in remarks to the banks seen by Reuters. "Mitigating and responding to these events, and addressing climate change more generally, is a key priority for the Treasury Department."Yellen will tell the World Bank and its sister institutions that they should link temperature increases to their assessments of developing countries' climate resilience and adaptation.USAID Administrator Samantha Power, who in March launched a summit and an "action hub" to focus international donor attention on the issue, said that of 400 projects funded by the climate investment funds, only seven dealt directly with extreme heat."The multilateral development banks are our only hope of securing enough funding to directly address the scale of the extreme heat crisis," she said, adding that rising temperatures were likely killing tens of thousands of people each year and are estimated to cost the global economy $2.4 trillion by 2030.
Sydney receives a year’s worth of rain in less than six months, entering one of its wettest winters - In less than six months, Sydney, Australia, has received more than a year’s worth of its average rainfall, marking this the start of its sixth wettest winter since 1859. The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts more rain over the next seven days. Last week New South Wales recorded 60 mm (2.36 inches) of rain in 48 hours ending on June 23 at 09:00 local time. This brought the city’s total rainfall to 361 mm (14.21 inches), making this Sydney’s wettest June since 2007. Based on records dating back to 1859, this is Sydney’s sixth wettest start to the winter. The rains were supported by the frequent easterly winds that drove moisture-laden air toward New South Wales from the Tasman Sea. The abnormally high pressure in the south and southeast of Australia made these easterlies a bit more persistent than usual, especially between May and June. The above-average surface temperature of the Tasman Sea caused these winds to carry more moisture than usual providing a boost to the downpour
Hundreds of thousands affected by floods in central China - Heavy rains impacted several provinces in central China on June 23, 2024, causing floods and landslides that affected hundreds of thousands of people and left at least 8 people dead. Local authorities have issued several alerts and are currently carrying out disaster control and rescue operations in high-risk regions. 8 people lost their lives and 4 houses collapsed in a landslide triggered by heavy rains on June 23 in China’s Douxi village of Xinhuang Dong Autonomous County in Hunan Province. Sorry, the video player failed to load.(Error Code: 101102) More than 350 personnel from local fire departments, public security, natural resources, and health departments rushed to the village following the disaster to carry out rescue operations, according to the disaster’s emergency rescue headquarters. On June 23, the Hunan Provincial Meteorological Bureau raised the emergency response level of the meteorological disaster from level III to level II. Meteorological departments at all levels are required to closely monitor local weather conditions and the water levels of rivers and reservoirs across the province. Heavy rainfall has been hitting several Chinese provinces including Hunan, Anhui, and Guizhou, affecting tens of thousands of people. More than 200 tourist spots have been temporarily closed as five rivers in Anhui exceeded warning levels. More than 30 000 residents from dangerous areas have been evacuated in advance, and more than 4 000 people trapped by the floods have been rescued as per the latest updates. According to the local meteorological authority, northern and central Hunan will continue to receive persistent heavy rain and torrential downpours in the coming week, with risks of floods, geological hazards, and urban waterlogging. Between June 22 and 23, widespread rainfall swept areas south of Hefei, the capital city of Anhui Province. Some regions also experienced heavy rain and torrential downpours, according to the provincial emergency management department. Heavy rains have also affected 213 300 people across 41 counties in Southwest China’s Guizhou Province, since June 21, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters. So far, nearly 7 000 residents have been evacuated to safety and almost 1 000 people have been relocated.
Widespread floods in Bangladesh leave over 2 million people stranded - Heavy monsoon rains affecting Bangladesh since Wednesday, June 19, 2024, have left over 2 million people stranded and at least 10 dead. Bangladesh Meteorological Department predicts continued heavy rains which could potentially worsen the situation. Northeastern Bangladesh experienced severe flooding this week due to heavy monsoon rains and upstream river water from India, leaving over 2 million people stranded, according to officials. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that more than 772 000 children are in urgent need of assistance in the affected regions. The northeastern region, particularly the Sylhet division, has been severely affected by heavy rainfall and upstream water, with significant infrastructure damage. Over 810 government schools are flooded, nearly 500 of which are being used as flood shelters. Additionally, almost 140 community clinics are submerged, disrupting essential healthcare services. UNICEF Representative to Bangladesh, Sheldon Yett, warned about the increased risks for children, including drowning, malnutrition, waterborne diseases, displacement trauma, and potential abuse in overcrowded shelters. The Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, housing over 1 million people, have also been severely affected. Mohammed Kamal, a Rohingya refugee, described the situation as terrible, with narrow, slippery paths becoming hazardous. On June 19, the flooding claimed 10 lives, including eight Rohingya Muslims, who were killed by landslides in refugee camps in southern Bangladesh. The Water Development Board (WDB) issued warnings about rising water levels in major rivers on June 21, with the Brahmaputra and Jamuna rivers likely reaching danger levels within 72 hours. Similarly, the Dudhkumar, Teesta, and Dharala rivers in northern Bangladesh may cause short-term floods in the Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, and Nilphamari districts.The Bangladesh Meteorological Department has forecasted further heavy rainfall, which could worsen the flooding and trigger landslides in hilly areas.
Severe mudflows ravage southeastern Switzerland, leaving 1 dead and 2 missing - - Severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall caused devastating floods and landslides in southeastern Switzerland on June 22, 2024, heavily impacting the canton of Grisons, particularly the Mesolcina Valley. The event left 1 person dead, 2 missing, and extensive damage to infrastructure. Heavy rains caused, several rivers to burst their banks in the Mesolcina Valley on Saturday, June 22, covering roads, fields, and villages with heavy debris. In the village of Sorte, three houses and three cars were swept away by floodwaters, while two police officers narrowly escaped when their vehicle was submerged up to its roof. The body of one man was discovered 8 km (5 miles) from where he disappeared after three people went missing on June 22, when floodwaters swept through the town of Misox in the alpine valley of Graubünden – also known as Grisons. Initially, four people were reported missing on June 22 but a woman was later found alive under the rubble and taken to hospital in nearby Lugano. “The probability of finding them alive is low,” said Police spokesman William Kloter, referring to the two individuals who remain missing. A team of 200 rescuers has been deployed, utilizing excavators, specially trained search dogs, drones, and army helicopters. However, the ongoing adverse weather conditions have hampered efforts, with search operations having to be halted during the night due to heavy rain. Swiss authorities reported that a segment of the Swiss motorway A13, a major transit route between the San Bernardino Pass and Roveredo in Graubünden, has been completely submerged and destroyed. Even though the repairs have begun, this crucial road is expected to remain closed for several months. According to MeteoSchweiz, the government’s office for weather and climate, 124 mm (4.88 inches) of rain fell in the Mesolcina Valley on June 21, with 63 mm (2.48 inches) falling within just one hour. “It was not the level of rain, but the concentration of rain in such a short period of time which caused the problems,” a spokesman for MeteoSchweiz stated, adding that this concentration of rain happens only once every 30 years.
Dozens stranded after avalanches hit Chile’s Maipo Province – (drone video) On June 25, 2024, two avalanches cut off two towns and a ski center in Maipo Province, Chile, leaving dozens isolated. According to local authorities, heavy snowstorms left large piles of snow over mountain towns in the Maipo Province, east of Chile’s capital Santiago, causing road closures and cutting off two small towns in Cajon del Maipo as well as a ski center. “The 20 people isolated in Lagunillas, in the Cajón del Maipo were rescued. 10 people went down from Baños Morales to Lo Valdés and there are still 3 people isolated,” said Alejandra Cortes, a federal government delegate to Cordillera province. “We are doing everything possible to reach them and take them to a safe area, in the next few days, authorities will attempt to set off a controlled avalanche to clear snow if it does not occur naturally first,” she added. At Lagunillas Ski Center, 33 people were trapped, including eight children, Lieutenant Colonel Bernardo Leiva of Chile’s national police said. “No people were injured (at the ski resort), and food has been brought to them,” he added. Access to the road in the mountains was blocked by a second avalanche that caused a snow buildup of 10 m (33 feet), leaving nine people trapped in the town of Banos Morales and 20 stuck in Lo Valdes, according to Cortes’ office.
Stromboli volcano alert level raised to Orange, Italy – video = The alert level for the Stromboli volcano in Italy was raised from Yellow to Orange on June 24, 2024, due to increased volcanic activity observed since June 23. This activity included a lava overflow, frequent explosions, and heightened volcanic tremor. Italy’s Department of Civil Protection raised the alert level for the Stromboli volcano from Yellow to Orange on June 24, 2024, following an eruptive phase that began on June 23. This phase included a lava overflow on the Sciara del Fuoco, frequent explosions in the southern crater area, and an increase in the average amplitude of the volcanic tremor. The decision to move to the Orange alert level was based on reports and hazard assessments provided by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the CNR-IREA, and the Universities of Florence, Palermo, Pisa, and Turin. These assessments indicated a heightened state of volcanic activity and potential danger. Raising the alert level means volcano monitoring will be strengthened and information sharing between the scientific community and the National Civil Protection Service’s operational structures enhanced. The Department of Civil Protection said it has communicated this information to the Sicilian Region’s civil protection structure, which will alert local civil protection structures and implement any necessary emergency response measures. The Mayor of Lipari, who participated in the meeting, will be kept informed of the situation’s evolution to ensure the population receives constant and accurate information. Residents of the island are advised to stay informed and follow the instructions provided by local civil protection authorities.
Stadium-sized asteroid to buzz by Earth on Saturday: What to know -An asteroid the size of a football stadium will thread the needle between Earth and the moon Saturday morning — the second of two astronomical near misses in three days. Near miss, in this case, is a relative term: Saturday’s asteroid, 2024 MK, will come within 180,000 miles of Earth. On Thursday, meanwhile, asteroid 2011 UL21 flew within 4 million miles. But the Saturday passage of 2024 MK — which scientists discovered only two weeks ago — coincides with a sobering reminder of threats from space. Sunday is Asteroid Day, the anniversary of the 1908 explosion of a rock from space above a Russian town — the sort of danger that, astronomers warn, is always lurking as the Earth hurtles through space. Asteroids are rocks in space that orbit the sun, rather like the planets with which they occasionally cross paths.Also like planets, asteroids formed more than 4.6 billion years ago out of the condensing cloud of dust and gas that formed the solar system — making them in effect time capsules of the distant time before the formation of Earth or the sun. Scientists have identified about 1.3 million of them, mostly orbiting in the vast space between Mars and Jupiter. Both individually and in the aggregate, they tend to be small — the entire weight of all the asteroids in the solar system is believed to be lower than that of the moon. Over the long sweep of history, asteroid impacts also may have been crucial to life on Earth. An asteroid doesn’t have to be particularly large to do damage. In 2013, for instance, an asteroid about 62 feet across that broke apart nearly 20 miles above Siberia released 30 times as much energy as the atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima.While most of the impact energy was absorbed by the atmosphere, the detonation triggered a shock wave that blew out windows and injured more than a thousand people. Asteroid Day on Sunday commemorates an even bigger impact, the 1908 Tunguska event, which also took place above Siberia.In that event, the Russian newspaper Sibir (Siberia) reported that peasants looking upward saw a “strangely bright (impossible to look at) bluish-white heavenly body, which for 10 minutes moved downwards.” The body appeared to be a “pipe” cylinder, which began to “smudge” as it hit the denser atmosphere above the forest and broke apart into billowing black smoke,” the article said.“A loud knocking (not thunder) was heard as if large stones were falling, or artillery was fired. All buildings shook. At the same time the cloud began emitting flames of uncertain shapes. All villagers were stricken with panic and took to the streets, women cried, thinking it was the end of the world.” If 2024 MK, with a diameter of 500 to 800 feet, were to hit rather than pass by Earth on Saturday, the impact would “have the equivalent impact energy in the hundreds of megaton approaching a gigaton,” Peter Brown of Canada’s Western University told the Canadian Broadcasting Service.That’s an enormous potential impact — for context, the explosion would be 10-20 times bigger than that from most hydrogen bombs that have been tested, which are in the 50-megaton range. “It’s the sort of thing that if it hit the east coast of the U.S., you would have catastrophic effects over most of the eastern seaboard. But it’s not big enough to affect the whole world,” Brown said. The impact of a hypothetical collision with 2011 UL21, the asteroid that flew by Thursday, would be far more disastrous. While it was comfortably far out in space and had no chance of hitting the Earth, it was also very large: the approximate size of Mount Everest.At 1.5 miles in diameter, that asteroid was about a quarter the size of the asteroid that struck the earth 65 million years ago, wiping out all dinosaurs that walked, as well as the majority of life on earth.
Two large asteroids safely pass Earth just 42 hours apart --Two large asteroids will safely pass Earth this week, a rare occurrence perfectly timed to commemorate this year's Asteroid Day. Neither poses any risk to our planet, but one of them was only discovered a week ago, highlighting the need to continue improving our ability to detect potentially hazardous objects in our cosmic neighborhood. Asteroid 2024 MK is between 120 and 260 m in size and was discovered on 16 June 2024. The asteroid will fly past Earth on 29 June during the height of this year's Asteroid Day activities. 2024 MK is large for a near-Earth object (NEO) and will pass within 290 000 km of Earth's surface—roughly 75% of the distance between Earth and the moon. There is no risk of 2024 MK impacting Earth. However, an asteroid this size would cause considerable damage if it did, so its discovery just one week before it flies past our planet highlights the ongoing need to improve our ability to detect and monitor potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs). Due to its size and proximity, 2024 MK will be observable in clear dark skies on 29 June using a small telescope or good binoculars for amateur astronomers in some parts of the world. Plan your observations using ESA's NEO toolkit. Asteroid (415029) 2011 UL21 is the larger of the week's visitors. At 2310 m across, this asteroid is larger than 99% of all known near-Earth objects (NEOs). However, it won't come anywhere near as close to Earth. At its closest point on 27 June, it will still be more than 17 times as far away as the moon. This asteroid's orbit around the sun is steeply inclined, which is unusual for such a large object. Most large objects in the solar system, including planets and asteroids, orbit the sun in or close to the equatorial plane. (415029) 2011 UL21 is in an '11:34 resonance' with Earth. It completes 11 revolutions about the sun in almost the exact same amount of time in which Earth completes 34 revolutions (i.e. 34 years). The result is a pleasant repeating pattern when you visualize the asteroid's location relative to Earth over a period of 34 years while keeping Earth fixed in place.
Old region 3664 returns with M9.3 solar flare - The WatchersOld region 3664/3697 — the source of multiple Earth-directed CMEs and G5 – Extreme geomagnetic storming in May, has returned to Earth-view with a strong M9.3 solar flare at 13:01 UTC on June 23, 2024. The region is now numbered 3723. The event started at 12:51 and ended at 13:11 UTC. There were no radio signatures that would suggest a coronal mass ejection (CME) was produced. Even if it was, the current location of this region does not favor Earth-directed CMEs. This will change in the days ahead as it rotates into a more geoeffective position. Radio signatures were forecast to be most degraded over the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, and Africa at the time of the flare.
Fossil Fuel, CO2 Emissions Hit Record High In 2023 --At a time when the peak of "green" virtue signaling has come and gone, we regret to inform you that all that jawboning and posturing has achieved... absolutely nothing because according to the Statistical Review of World Energy report released on Thursday, global fossil fuel consumption and energy emissions hit all-time highs in 2023 (even as fossil fuels' share of the global energy mix decreased slightly on the year). Growing demand for fossil fuel despite the scaling up of renewables could be a sticking point for the transition to lower carbon energy as climate alarmist scream and rage that global temperature increases are set to reach 1.5C (2.7F), the threshold beyond which scientists say impacts such as temperature rise, drought and flooding will become more extreme; then again these are the same shrill activists who predicted in 2018 that the world would end unless we stop using fossil fuels by 2023. Not only has that not happened, but fossil fuel use is hitting annual records!"We hope that this report will help governments, world leaders and analysts move forward, clear-eyed about the challenge that lies ahead," Romain Debarre of consultancy Kearney said, realizing with even clearer-eyes that absolutely nothing will change since the bulk of fossil fuel consumption now comes from China and India, both of which could give a rat's ass what some woke liberal kitten-hoarding, purple-haired screaming freak thinks.Last year was the first full year of rerouted Russian energy flows away from the West following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and also the first full year without major movement restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, it confirms that attempts to throttle Russian sales of fossil fuels have been a total fiasco.It gets better (or worse if you are a green lunatic): overall global primary energy consumption hit an all-time high of 620 Exajoules (EJ), the report said...as CO2 emissions exceeded 40 gigatonnes of CO2 for the first time.
CO₂puts heavier stamp on temperature than previously thought, analysis suggests --A doubling of the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere could cause an increase in the average temperature on Earth from 7 to a maximum of 14 degrees. This is shown in the analysis of sediments from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, by researchers at NIOZ and the Universities of Utrecht and Bristol. Their results were published in Nature Communications. "The temperature rise we found is much larger than the 2.3 to 4.5 degrees that the UN climate panel, IPCC, has been estimating so far," said the first author, Caitlyn Witkowski. The researchers used a 45-year-old drill core extracted from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. "I realized that this core is very attractive for researchers, because the ocean floor at that spot has had oxygen-free conditions for many millions of years," said Professor Jaap Sinninghe Damsté, senior scientist at NIOZ and professor of organic geochemistry at Utrecht University. "As a result, organic matter is not broken down as quickly by microbes and more carbon is preserved," Damsté said. He was also the supervisor of Witkowski, whose doctorate thesis included this research. "CO2 over the past 15 million years has never before been examined from a single location," Witkowski said. The upper thousand meters of the drill core correspond to the past 18 million years. From this record, the researchers were able to extract an indication of the past seawater temperature and an indication of ancient atmospheric CO2 levels, using a new approach. The researchers derived the temperature using a method developed 20 years ago at NIOZ, called the TEX86 method. "That method uses specific substances that are present in the membrane of archaea, a distinct class of microorganisms," Damsté explains. "Those archaea optimize the chemical composition of their membrane depending on the temperature of the water in the upper 200 meters of the ocean. Substances from that membrane can be found as molecular fossils in the ocean sediments, and analyzed to this day." The researchers developed a new approach to derive past atmospheric CO2 content by using the chemical composition of two specific substances commonly found in algae: chlorophyll and cholesterol. This is the first study to use cholesterol for quantitative CO2 and the first study to use chlorophyll for this time period. To create these substances, algae must absorb CO2 from the water and fix it via photosynthesis. Damsté said, "A very small fraction of the carbon on Earth occurs in a 'heavy form,' 13C instead of the usual 12C. Algae have a clear preference for 12C. However, the lower the CO2 concentration in the water, the more algae will also use the rare 13C. Thus, the 13C content of these two substances is a measure of the CO2 content of the ocean water. And that in turn, according to solubility laws, correlates with the CO2 content of the atmosphere." When the researchers plot the derived temperature and atmospheric CO2 levels of the past 15 million years against each other, they find a strong relationship. The average temperature 15 million years back was over 18 degrees: 4 degrees warmer than today and about the level that the UN climate panel, IPCC, predicts for the year 2100 in the most extreme scenario. "So, this research gives us a glimpse of what the future could hold if we take too few measures to reduce CO2 emissions and also implement few technological innovations to offset emissions," Damsté said. "The clear warning from this research is CO2 concentration is likely to have a stronger impact on temperature than we are currently taking into account."
Midwestern carbon dioxide pipeline project gets approval in Iowa, but still has a long way to go Iowa public utility regulators on Tuesday approved a controversial carbon dioxide pipeline for transporting emissions of the climate-warming greenhouse gas for storage underground in a win for Summit Carbon Solutions’ project after setbacks in other states and opposition from landowners around the Midwest. The company still has many hoops to jump through before it can begin building in Iowa, including gaining other states’ approval. The $5.5 billion, 2,500-mile (4,023.36 kilometers) pipeline network would carry planet-warming CO2 emissions, liquefied under pressure, from more than 50 ethanol plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota to be stored deep underground in central North Dakota. Farmers and the ethanol industry see the pipeline as a way to qualify for federal tax breaks they see as key for growing a market for a cleaner-burning aviation fuel. Corn is among the top two crops in the Midwest, and Iowa is the leader in corn and ethanol production. “Whether you think it’s smart or silly, the world’s largest airlines want to decarbonize their fuel. Carbon capture and sequestration gets Iowa ethanol into that market, potentially providing a generational boost to Iowa’s economy,” Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw said in a statement. Summit CEO Lee Blank welcomed the decision in a statement. The project’s opponents, including many landowners, fear their land will be taken for the pipeline and that a potential pipeline rupture could release dangerous CO2 gas. A coalition opposing Summit’s project vowed to fight the Iowa board’s decision. Landowner attorney Brian Jorde said the decision was expected, with a lengthy process for Summit still ahead, such as applying in South Dakota. “It’s just one small thing in a maze, in a track-and-field event full of hurdles that they have to get over,” Jorde said. The Iowa Utilities Board approved Summit’s January 2022 application for a permit to build and operate the pipeline. But before the board issues the permit, the company must file proof of an insurance policy of at least $100 million to pay for any damages resulting from the pipeline project. Summit must provide proof of the insurance annually. The company also can’t start construction until it has approvals from North Dakota and South Dakota, including for routes in both states and underground storage in North Dakota. Summit also needs approvals from Minnesota and in Nebraska before it can begin to build lines out to ethanol plants in those states. The Iowa regulators’ decision comes after hearings last year and setbacks in other states. North Dakota regulators denied a siting permit in August, but later agreed to reconsider. Hearings on the underground storage proposal were held earlier this month. South Dakota regulators denied Summit’s application in September; Summit said it plans to file again in early July. In Nebraska, where Summit must work with individual counties, at least one county has denied a permit. The Iowa panel also granted the company the right of eminent domain over numerous parcels of land, but only after the permit is issued. The extent of Summit’s eminent domain powers wasn’t immediately clear from the 500-page order. The board denied use of some parcels of land; others require modifications to the route. The order also includes numerous other requirements of Summit, such as monthly construction reports and grants for equipment for cities and counties to respond to incidents. Supporters view carbon capture projects such as Summit’s as a combatant of climate change, with new federal tax incentives and billions from Congress for such carbon capture efforts. Opponents question the technology’s effectiveness at scale and the need for potentially huge investments over cheaper renewable energy sources. Companies behind two other CO2 pipeline projects proposed in the Midwest have canceled or shelved their plans. From the renewable fuels industry perspective, blows to projects such as Summit’s could put at risk the huge potential of a new aviation fuel market the industry believes would continue for many years. North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum supports the pipeline. He has hailed North Dakota’s underground rock formations as a “geologic jackpot” for CO2 storage potential. In 2021, he set a goal for North Dakota to become carbon neutral by 2030. He isn’t seeking reelection this year, and is a top choice to be former President Donald Trump’s running mate.
Dems bemoan Biden’s ‘missed opportunity’ on climate - Congressional Democrats say President Joe Biden’s abysmal debate performance Thursday against former President Donald Trump undermined the administration’s winning narrative on policy gains, including on climate action.Groups and lawmakers now say Biden must do a better job of selling those gains and connect with Americans who stand to benefit.“I don’t think anybody who watched the debate last night came away educated about the major policy issues of our time,” said Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.).“There will be plenty of other opportunities to do this, and I completely sympathize with all of the burdens that come from being the president of the United States … but his political team needs to get their act together to make sure he’s prepared next time.”As many Democrats wonder whether Biden should even stay in the race, the president’s allies pointed to a Supreme Court ruling Friday morning overturning the so-called Chevron doctrine, which gave agencies deference when interpreting laws and which environmentalists relied on for decades to protect their priorities.Environmentalists have relied on this doctrine for decades to protect their priorities, and the ruling further raises the stakes for a Democratic victory in November, they said. “People are dying from the heat waves, and they do not care about it,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.) said of the conservative Supreme Court justices — three appointed by Trump — who prevailed in the 6-3 decision.“This brings us back to last night’s debate: Trump put them [on the bench]. Trump put them there to do exactly this — to protect the biggest corporations, the biggest polluters. Trump did that.” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), a senior member of the House Natural Resources Committee, agreed that the “Chevron decision just underscores the contrast, and what’s at stake here,” if Trump wins the election.
Supreme Court halts EPA’s 'Good Neighbor Plan' - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Good Neighbor Plan.” By a 5 to 4 vote, the court ruled that the emissions-reductions standards set by the plan were likely to cause “irreparable harm” to almost half the states unless the court halted the rule pending further review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan aimed to ensure compliance with the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards law. To carry out the law’s mandate, the EPA required “upwind” states to reduce air pollution affecting “downwind” states. Under the Good Neighbor rule, states are first given the chance to create a plan that complies with agency’s ozone guidelines. If a state fails to submit an adequate plan, the EPA then designs a compliance plan for the state. In February 2023, the EPA determined that 23 states had not provided sufficient plans and the agency then decided to implement its own emissions-control program for those states.Ohio, plus several other states, large industrial companies, and trade associations, challenged the EPA plan in court. They contended that the agency’s “dictatorial approach” failed to adequately consider the legal and practical implications of substituting its own plan for the state plans. The opponents also argued that the plan’s implementation would cause significant economic and operational harm, particularly by forcing states to undertake costly modifications to their power plants while judicial review is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.On Thursday, the Supreme Court agreed with the states.The decision was a major loss for environmental groups and downwind states; they warned that halting the Good Neighbor Plan could lead to continued ozone pollution, adversely affecting public health and the environment. For its part, the EPA maintained that the plan was crucial for achieving national air quality standards and protecting downwind states from the harmful effects of upwind pollution.
Supreme Court blocks EPA smog control plan - The Supreme Court dealt another setback to the Biden administration’s environmental agenda with a 5-4 ruling freezing further implementation of EPA’s latest crackdown on smog-forming pollution that crosses state lines. Led by Neil Gorsuch, most justices in the court’s conservative wing agreed with Republican states and a variety of industries that argued the “good neighbor” rule no longer worked after lower courts froze implementation of new industrial pollution control requirements in 12 of the 23 states originally covered. EPA’s response did not address that concern “so much as sidestep it,” Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion. Dissenting was Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by the court’s three liberal members. In her rebuttal, Barrett wrote that “EPA would have promulgated the same plan even if fewer States were covered.” She also questioned the court’s rationale for taking the case under its “emergency docket,” which does not require a full round of briefs. Almost two months into this year’s summertime ozone season, the high court’s decision now blocks EPA from enforcing stricter curbs on power plants and other industries in the 11 other states while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit weighs a separate round of legal challenges. The D.C. Circuit had earlier denied stay requests. In a potentially ominous sign for EPA, however, Gorsuch wrote that the challengers are “likely to succeed on a claim that the Good Neighbor Plan is ‘arbitrary” or “capricious.’” The court’s decision, issued Thursday, arrived more than four months after the justices had held oral arguments on the stay requests from Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia, as well as representatives from the power sector, paper industry and other businesses. In a statement, EPA spokesperson Tim Carroll reiterated the agency’s belief that the plan is “firmly grounded” in its Clean Air Act authority and voiced dismay about the broader ramifications. While the freeze is in effect, Americans will be exposed to higher levels of ground-level ozone, “resulting in costly public health impacts that can be especially harmful to children and older adults and disproportionately affect people of color, families with low incomes, and other vulnerable populations,” the spokesperson said.
US pledges to be a climate finance leader but defends gas expansion - The US will “continue to be a leader” in climate finance, the White House’s top climate official has promised, though without specifying how much it would provide to poor countries.John Podesta, senior adviser to Joe Biden on international climate policy, also defended the large-scale US expansion of gas production, saying the world was fortunate America was strengthening its supply, given the demand for non-Russian sources after the invasion of Ukraine.“The US is in a position to be a leader in the effort [to supply climate finance to the poorer world],” he said in an interview on Monday. “We intend to continue the leadership and be very aggressive in the negotiations during the course of this year.”He pointed to the chasm on the issue between Biden and Donald Trump, his challenger for president this November, who is expected to rein back on US climate commitments if elected.“Obviously, there’s a difference of views reflected in the two principal candidates running for president,” said Podesta, who took over as chief adviser on the climate after John Kerry stepped down earlier this year. “President Biden is committed to not only doing what we need to do to cut our own emissions in half, but also support the world as it’s moving towards a more sustainable pathway.”He would not say whether the US would commit greater sums to climate finance, but said it was on track to meet Biden’s commitment to provide $11bn, a target that campaigners and developing countries have said is woefully inadequate given the size of the US economy and its responsibility for past emissions, but is many times greater than the $1.5bn on offer under Trump in his previous term.Podesta defended the huge US expansion of oil and gas production, which has come in spite of its climate targets, and the recent US decision to slap tariffs on many green goods from China, including electric vehicles.“The US is now the number one producer of oil and gas in the world, the number one exporter of natural gas, and that’s a good thing, because following the illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the need that Europe had to rely on different sources rather than Russia fossils, it was important that the US could step up and supply a good deal of that need,” he said. “But over time, the science is clear, we’ve got to transition away and begin to replace those resources with both zero carbon electricity and renewable resources.”
Biden Administration To Hold Offshore Wind Auction in Central Atlantic -- The U.S. Department of the Interior will hold next month an offshore wind lease sale in the Central Atlantic as the Biden Administration continues to pursue advancing renewable energy installations, the Interior said on Friday.The areas, which will be auctioned on August 14, 2024, by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, could generate up to 6.3 gigawatts (GW) of clean, renewable energy and power up to 2.2 million American homes, the administration said. The Final Sale Notice includes one area offshore the states of Delaware and Maryland, and one area offshore the Commonwealth of Virginia. A total of 17 companies qualified to participate in the August lease sale, the Interior Department said. “We are excited to announce this sale and underscore our commitment to explore additional areas in the Central Atlantic for potential offshore wind energy development,” BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein said in a statement.“BOEM will continue to work with all ocean users to ensure offshore wind energy proceeds in an environmentally responsible manner.” BOEM has held four offshore wind lease sales so far, including offshore New York, New Jersey, and the Carolinas, and the first-ever sales offshore the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts. The Biden Administration has approved the first eight commercial-scale offshore wind energy projects in the U.S. as part of its efforts to boost offshore wind and other forms of renewable energy to make the grid greener and cut emissions. The Administration plans a zero-emission grid by 2035.
Sorry Green Energy Fans, Net Zero Is A Very Unlikely Outcome - Let’s discuss the Kyoto Protocol climate objectives and dozens of reasons why a net zero by the 2050 target has virtually no chance. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted on December 11, 1997. There are 192 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The ultimate objective of the convention is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human induced) interference with the climate system.The current goal is net zero carbon emission by 2050. The Fraser Institute reports that we are Halfway Between Kyoto and 2050 with virtually no progress, despite all the hoopla. That article is 44 pages long and worth a read from start to finish. I post some key ideas below.The goal of reaching net zero global anthropogenic CO2 emissions is to be achieved by an energy transition whose speed, scale, and modalities (technical, economic, social, and political) would be historically unprecedented.What is particularly clear is that (in the absence of an unprecedented and prolonged global economic downturn) the world will remain far from reducing its energy-related CO2 emissions by 45 percent from the 2010 level by 2030: for that we would have to cut emissions by nearly 16 billion tons between 2023 and 2030—or eliminate nearly as much fossil carbon as the combined emissions of the two largest energy consumers, China and the USA.On the face of it, and even without performing any informed technical and economic analyses, this seems to be an impossible task given that:
- We have only a single generation (about 25 years) to do it;
- We have not even reached the peak of global consumption of fossil carbon;
- The peak will not be followed by precipitous declines;
- We still have not deployed any zero-carbon large-scale commercial processes to
produce essential materials; and - The electrification has, at the end of 2022, converted only about 2 percent of
passenger vehicles (more than 40 million) to different varieties of battery-powered cars and that decarbonization is yet to affect heavy road transport, shipping, and flying (IEA, 2023c).
Renewable generation also needs expanded high-voltage transmission lines (overhead wires and undersea cables from offshore wind sites) to bring the electricity from the windiest and sunniest places to often distant cities and industrial areas.Moreover, there are many final energy conversions (ranging from heavy ocean shipping and long-distance commercial aviation to chemical industry dependent on fossil carbon feedstocks) that cannot be readily electrified. Further, we would need substantial quantities of solid and liquid fossil carbon even in the zero-carbon world for paving (asphalt) and for industrial and commercial lubricants. Producing what I have called the four pillars of modern civilization—cement, primary iron, plastics, and ammonia—now depends on fossil fuels, and replacing them with alternatives will require the development of new mass-scale industries and distribution networks ranging from green hydrogen (made by electrolysis of water by green electricity) and ethanol to new synthetic fuels (Smil, 2022a).If more complex innovations are cheaper than the established ways, or if their higher costs are outweighed by higher quality, efficiency, and convenience, then the transitions can proceed rapidly. Examples include black versus color television, reciprocating engines versus jet engines in long-distance commercial aviation, landlines versus mobile phones, and high-efficiency natural gas furnaces versus coal stoves.In contrast, renewable conversions start with the inherent disadvantages of having low power density and greater intermittency, and hence their full costs (with service comparable to the on-demand supply and reliability of fossil fuel converters) are considerably higher than the marginal cost of purchasing and installing new PV panels or wind turbines (Smil, 2015; Sorensen, 2015).The cost differences have been narrowing but the latest comparisons of the levelized costs of electricity generation in the US indicate that the overall cost of solar PV (with a capacity factor of 28 percent) entering service in 2027 will be only 9 percent lower than the cost of combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT, capacity factor 85 percent), and that onshore wind will have the same overall cost but offshore wind plus battery storage will be still more than three times as expensive (US EIA, 2022).
In Wyoming, climate change denial and funding for climate-related projects show different stories | Wyoming Public Media -Climate change denial and anti-federal government sentiment are popular talking points in Wyoming as of late. However, data on federal dollars earmarked for climate-related projects in the state show another story.A new report shows the federal government awarded over a hundred billion dollars to climate-related projects last year. Wyoming is top of the list for most money received per capita at about $2 billion.“Well over $3,000 per resident, when you divide that number amongst all the folks living in Wyoming,” said Annabelle Rosser, a policy analyst with Atlas Public Policy – a data compiling group that put together the report.Most of the money is going to the nuclear power plant project in Kemmerer that just broke ground, but also 80 other projects, including carbon storage and rooftop solar programs.“Wyoming has all these really significant investments in a clean energy economy,” Rosser said. “Maybe despite an uptick in climate denialism.”At the beginning of this year’s legislative session, the far-right Wyoming Freedom Caucus brought in climate change denialists to speak. While their talking points are largely disputed by the science community, the rhetoric continues to re-surface.Also, anti-federal government sentiment is huge in Wyoming. The state is currently involved in at least 58 lawsuits against the feds. Just last week,Gov. Mark Gordon announced the state is challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule. At recent lawmaker meetings, the common theme is keeping the federal government out of Wyoming’s dealings.“Despite that rhetoric, a lot of states and companies within those states, they're often not interested in turning down money,” Rosser said.That could be in part because some view the funding as less about climate change and more about economic development – like revitalizing downtowns and creating jobs.“Without the federal funding support you wouldn't have the construction jobs, you also just wouldn't have the industry in the technology development,” Rosser said.
Ron DeSantis signs bill banning balloon releases in Florida - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill Monday that bans people from intentionally releasing balloons into the air in a new conservation effort.The bill intends to minimize the number of balloons flying over the ocean and washing ashore.According to the legislation, starting July 1, people who are caught intentionally releasing balloons could face a $150 fine.Children 6 years or younger are exempt from the penalties, but groups at memorials or parties could be fined, the Tampa Bay Times reported.The legislation was sponsored by state Rep. Linda Chaney (R), who said she supported the measure for ocean conservation reasons.“Our beaches are the greatest asset that Florida has, and not releasing a balloon is an easy way to protect our waterways and our wildlife,” she said, per the Times. “A released balloon is damaging and there’s nothing good about it.”
Greenwashing Kamala Harris: How The Veep Casts Herself As An Environmental Justice Crusader - Vice President Kamala Harris has long cast herself as a fearless pioneer of efforts to fight for social and environmental justice. “When I was elected DA of San Francisco,” Harris told a gathering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta last year, “I started the first environmental justice unit of any DA’s office in the country.”In her telling, the San Francisco District Attorney formed the special environmental justice unit in the early 2000s especially to protect the long-neglected community of Bayview Hunters Point, a predominantly African American and impoverished part of the city, which had become “a dumping ground for people from other places.” In dozens of speeches and interviews in recent years, Harris has bragged that she went “after polluters” and protected minority communities in San Francisco in novel ways as a local prosecutor. The narrative has become a bedrock of Harris’ political identity. She featured her DA environmental justice crimes unit in her first statewide television advertisement and she rarely missed an opportunity to tout the history during her presidential bid, during which she promised similar initiatives if elected.But records from the San Francisco District Attorney’s office and interviews with local environmental advocates point to a different, far less ambitious record. “We’re unaware of any major or semi-major environmental justice work done by Harris in Bayview Hunters Point, including on the Hunters Point Shipyard Superfund site,” said Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, a progressive watchdog group that seeks to “to promote environmental, social, economic and climate justice.” Steve Castleman, an attorney with UC Berkeley’s Environmental Law Clinic, who has worked on urban pollution issues in the Bay Area, also noted that he did not know of any significant Harris environmental justice action as DA.Far from targeting powerful corporate interests, Harris’ environmental justice unit appears to have filed only a few lawsuits, all against small-time defendants. The targets included a young man who conducted illegal smog checks at a small auto body shop in the city and a left-leaning community newspaper accused of illegally dumping leftover ink in an abandoned lot. Another defendant charged by the unit was a small construction company accused of using adulterated concrete. The major industrial polluters of San Francisco were left untouched under Harris’ watch during her two terms that ended in 2010.
Casar leads congressional effort for Texas grid expansion -- Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) on Monday led 22 members of Congress in requesting that the Department of Energy add Texas to the areas serviced by proposed federal corridors for electrical transmission. In May, the department announced 10 proposed National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETCs) that, if implemented, could make federal funds available to expand grid capability in those areas. However, Texas, which relies on the self-contained Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), was not among the proposed sites. “The United States needs a 21st-century electric grid [and] you can’t have a 21st-centutry electric grid with a giant hole in the middle of it in the shape of Texas,” Casar told The Hill in an interview. “The earlier list of corridors selected continues to exclude Texas, and that needs to change. That’s why we’re asking the Department of Energy in their next list to include adding transmission in and around the state of Texas.” Casar is a longtime advocate of integrating ERCOT into the national grid, and co-sponsored a bill to that effect with Ocasio-Cortez. In the interview, he pointed to recent research from MIT suggesting that such a law could have prevented 80 percent of the blackouts caused in 2021, when extreme winter weather hit Texas. He cited both that weather and the recent extreme heat that has enveloped much of the U.S. as arguments in favor of the grid expansion. “Texas is the energy capital of the country — when there are extreme temperatures around Texas, Texas should be able to export its energy to reduce blackouts, and when there’s extreme heat in Texas we should be able to import power so we don’t have blackouts,” he said. “By helping each other out, we’re all better off instead of having Texas as this island.” TAGS DELIA RAMIREZ
How politics adds to Ohio’s electricity problems - Ohio’s largest utility, American Electric Power, already has agreements with Big Tech data centers that will more than double the area’s peak demand by the end of the decade. And another 30,000 megawatts of potential data center demand — six times the existing peak use level — is on the table. “Right now, in our queue, demand is the equivalent of three New York Cities,” AEP Ohio President Marc Reitter said in an interview. For central Ohio and data center hot spots, the booming technology sector is both economic gold and a power grid dilemma, promising jobs and an expanded tax base but requiring big additions to electricity infrastructure. Interest from technology companies grew to a point last year that AEP put a moratorium on new customer contracts, and last month the utility sought to require them to provide financial guarantees as a prerequisite for service.But the potential surge in power demand also shines a light on state energy policy — or the lack of it — since bribery-tainted H.B. 6 was signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019.After a political tussle in the state General Assembly that has gone on for two years, the GOP-led Ohio House on Wednesday passed by a vote of 50-45 an energy efficiency bill aimed at easing electricity costs and reducing peak demand.H.B. 79, a measure that explicitly provides Ohio utilities the ability to run energy efficiency programs, has taken a circuitous route to passage. After a 14-3 committee vote to send it to the floor, House Speaker Jason Stephens kept it off the calendar despite bipartisan support. AEP, along with Duke Energy, Dayton Power & Light and businesses including Nestle and Trane Technologies, have supported the bill — a rare instance when utilities and environmental advocates have been on the same side of an energy issue in Ohio. “For once, we have them all singing off the same song sheet,” said Republican state Rep. Bill Seitz, a colorful Cincinnati-area lawmaker who has led the charge to pass H.B. 79. Seitz was chief critic of Ohio’s previous energy efficiency mandate and co-sponsored legislation to repeal it. But he helped craft the current bill, which includes opt-outs for homeowners and sets the monthly fee on utility bills at $1.50. “When demand is high and supply is low, prices go up — you don’t have to be Milton Friedman to figure that out,” he said during the floor debate. “Or you have scarcity and brownouts and blackouts.” During the floor debate, legislators pointed to warnings by regional grid operator PJM Interconnection that the failure to deal with diverging electricity supply and demand could lead to energy shortages. That could send wholesale electricity prices skyrocketing, Ohio officials have warned. To be sure, energy efficiency alone won’t come near addressing the potential new power demand facing AEP and other utilities in Ohio. The bill’s proponents say it’s a first step toward reducing electricity usage. “The idea is to focus on things like smart thermostats and other technology controls that help people reduce energy usage, and especially at peak times,” said Robert Kelter, a senior attorney for the Environmental Law & Policy Center. The bill is now before the state Senate.Some consumer and environmental advocates, however, point to opposition from the Ohio chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group affiliated with petrochemical billionaire Charles Koch and the late David Koch, which as recently as last month issued a “key vote alert” urging House members to vote against it.In 2023 and again last month as the House neared a potential vote on H.B. 79, AFP wrote to lawmakers saying the bill would create a new mandate raising energy prices and eliminating consumer choice.“The legislature has packaged this bill as an energy efficiency program, when in reality it will create a new and burdensome mandate for consumers,” AFP-Ohio State Director Donovan O’Neil said in the letter.On the House floor, critics said $1.50 a month would be too much for lower-income Ohioans to pay.“This is a huge energy tax increase on the people of Ohio,” said state Rep. Scott Wiggam (R).State Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney (D), a co-sponsor of H.B. 79, has heard the criticism from conservative opponents and declined to comment on why Republican leadership took two years to call the bill for a vote.“Once people understand that this a benefit to ratepayers, we will be successful,” she said in an interview before the vote.“This is something that can really have an impact on consumers, lowering energy bills, and allow us to be more responsible stewards of the planet that we live on,” she said. In addition to helping address a looming supply crunch, H.B. 79 would also address a provision in H.B. 6 that eliminated Ohio’s energy efficiency standard.Energy efficiency was a partisan fight in Ohio for years before H.B. 6. The efficiency standard, enacted by a near-unanimous vote of lawmakers in 2008 required utilities to achieve annual percentage reductions in customer energy use cumulatively totaling 22.5 percent by 2025.A measure signed into law in 2014 froze the efficiency standard for two years and allowed large industrial power users to opt out of participating in utility programs. Two years later, Republican Gov. John Kasich vetoed a bill to eliminate the efficiency standard altogether, saying the measure would have harmed consumers.But efficiency law opponents got their way in 2019 when a provision to eliminate the energy savings standard was included in H.B. 6., the legislation at the center of the largest public corruption case in Ohio’s history.
Tax cuts, interest-free loans for natural gas pipelines pass Ohio House - cleveland.com – The Ohio House voted Wednesday to create a program providing state-funded, interest-free loans and a robust tax cut to subsidize development of natural gas pipelines in areas deemed to have insufficient gas infrastructure. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration. Should it become law, local governments could tap into the $20 million fund for zero-interest loans to buy easements for land that will eventually host a pipeline. And that pipeline’s developer could exempt between 25% to 75% of the pipeline’s value from its property tax bill, producing savings on the scale of millions.
Ohio House Passes Bill to Encourage New NatGas Pipes w/$20M Fund - Marcellus Drilling News -- A bill proposed by two Republican state lawmakers in Ohio, House Bill (HB) 349, makes it easier to site and build natural gas pipelines to areas of the state where pipelines currently don’t exist (see Ohio Bill Encourages New NatGas Pipelines to Spread Across State). The bill will create new jobs by running pipelines to industrial parks and businesses not currently serviced by natgas. The aim is to stimulate new jobs and opportunities in Buckeye State, a smart strategy. Good news: HR 349 was just passed by the full Ohio House and now moves on to the Senate.
OH Injection Well Owner Wins Case Against ODNR, Potential Restart - Marcellus Drilling News - We’re picking up the thread of a story we last reported on in 2021. In July 2019, MDN told you about New Jersey-based Omni Energy Group and their application to build two new injection wells near St. Clairsville (see Belmont County Injection Well Plan Stirs Opposition from Coal Co.). Omni eventually built the wells, and at least one went into service. However, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) lowered the injection pressure allowed at the well AFTER approving a higher pressure, effectively shutting it down. Two days ago Omni won an important court victory in this long-running saga.
Ohio Fracking Waste Well Operator Gets Chance to Resume Service -- Bloomberg Law
- Appeals court says judge applied wrong standard to case
- Suit concerns official’s decision on injection well pressure
A Ohio judge must take another crack at her ruling that upheld a state official’s decision to effectively shut down a fracking waste injection well, as a state appeals court panel ruled that she used the wrong legal standard. The ruling from the Ohio Court of Appeals, 10th District gives plaintiff Omni Energy Group LLC another chance to argue that state Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management head Eric Vendel was wrong to lower the pressure under which the well could operate. Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Julie M. Lynch had to determine that the ...
Boys & Girls Club in Youngstown evacuated after gas line hit - The Vindicator — The Boys & Girls Club of Youngstown and residents at some nearby homes were evacuated Wednesday after city workers digging holes in the ground at the club hit a PVC pipe carrying natural gas. Youngstown Fire Department Battalion Chief Jim Drummond said when the Parks and Recreation Department workers hit the line, it made a hissing sound and created a white cloud, alerting them to the gas release. A 911 call about 10:30 a.m. brought firefighters to the club on Oak Hill Avenue on the South Side, and the leak was stopped after about 20 to 25 minutes, Drummond said. The workers were using a post hole digger to prepare for planting trees to beautify the area, Drummond said. The club has a producing gas well behind its building. The gas travels to a tank near the club, but gas also is piped into the building, Drummond said. The gas well is one of about a dozen in the city. Such wells are sometimes called Clinton wells because of the name of the rock formation from which the gas is collected. The fire department evacuated the club because of the escaping gas, and the participants in the club’s summer camp were sent home early, Drummond said. Some nearby homes also were evacuated. Enbridge Gas Ohio, the area’s natural gas company, checked the building and gave it an “all clear” by about 11:30 a.m., Drummond said. The hole that hit the line was close to an oil storage tank. The fire department also was called to the club earlier Wednesday morning for a smoke smell. Drummond said that seemed to be caused by a belt that overheated on an air handler that is part of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. A company was called out to repair it, he said.
CST Buys Horiz. Directional Drilling Co. Precise Boring of Ohio - Marcellus Drilling News - Precise Boring of Ohio, founded 25 years ago, specializes in Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) — drilling sideways underground and installing pipelines through the holes it drills. Specifically, Precise (headquartered in Fairfield County, OH) works on installing shale and other types of pipelines, including water and sewer pipes. Precise is actively working for the Marcellus/Utica industry in Ohio. This morning, CST Utilities, an Ohio-based infrastructure service company providing a range of excavation, underground, and maintenance services to public utilities (electric, natural gas, water), telecom providers, and other businesses, announced it has bought Precise and will operate it as a standalone subsidiary.
Magnum Hunter Resources Provides Operational Update on Its Marcellus and Utica Shale Plays -Over the next 30 days, the Magnum Hunter Resources anticipates production flowing to sales from 8 gross (7 net) wells in the Marcellus and Utica Shale Plays via the Company's majority owned Eureka Hunter Pipeline System. Of these wells, the Company anticipates the three WVDNR Pad wells located in Wetzel County, West Virginia, in which the Company owns a 100% working interest, will begin flowing to production sales over the next 17-20 days. The Stalder Pad wells, the Stalder #2MH and Stalder #3UH, will be turned into production over the next 10-12 days following the finalization of fracture stimulation of the Stalder Marcellus well which is nearing completion. In addition, the pipeline segment at the Ormet Pad is in the final stages of installation, and the Company anticipates the three wells on this pad to flow to production over the next 45 days. Following the completion of the WVDNR Pad wells, Stone Energy (under its joint venture with the Company) will then commence the completion of 4 gross (2 net to the Company) wells, already drilled and cased, located in Wetzel County, West Virginia, over the next couple of weeks with production flowing to sales anticipated in the next 60 days. The Company anticipates incremental production from the WVDNR, Stalder and Ormet Pad locations will be in the range of 6,000 - 8,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day net to the Company. On the WVDNR Pad located in Wetzel County, West Virginia, the Company has drilled and completed the fracture stimulation of the three 100% owned Marcellus Shale wells, the WVDNR #1207, #1208 and #1209. The wells were drilled and cased to an average vertical depth of 7,500 feet with a 4,000 foot average horizontal lateral. The Company is currently cleaning up the location and anticipates production from the wells to begin flowing to sales over the next 17-20 days.As previously reported, the Company drilled and completed three ~100% owned wells located on the Ormet Pad in Monroe County, Ohio. The wells were drilled and cased to an average vertical depth of 5,900 feet with a 3,900 foot average horizontal lateral. The Ormet wells tested at a combined rate of 11,669 Mcf of natural gas and 1,788 Bbl of condensate per day or 3,733 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Eureka Hunter is finalizing the connection of its pipeline segment from the Ormet Pad to its mainline, and the Company anticipates production from these wells to flow to sales over the next 45 days.The Company's first Marcellus Shale well drilled on the Stalder Pad, the Stalder #2MH, has been drilled and cased, and the Company is currently fracture stimulating the remaining four stages of the well, which the Company expects to complete in the next couple of days. The Stalder #2MH was drilled and cased to a true vertical depth of 6,070 feet with a 5,474 foot horizontal lateral. The Company's first dry gas Utica Shale well, the Stalder #3UH, also located on the Stalder Pad in Monroe County, Ohio, is currently shut-in due to the fracture stimulation of the Stalder #2MH (the Marcellus well). Production from both Stalder wells will begin flowing to sales into the Eureka Hunter Pipeline over the next 10-12 days.On the Farley Pad (100% owned wells) located in Washington County, Ohio, the Company has drilled and cased the Farley #1306H well in the Utica Shale to a true vertical depth of 7,850 feet with a 6,313 foot horizontal lateral. The Company has also completed the drilling of another Utica Shale well on the Farley Pad, the Farley #1304H, and is currently at total measured depth of 14,250 feet and expects to begin run casing in the next 3-5 days. The Farley #1304H was drilled to a true vertical depth of 7,914 feet with a 5,400 foot horizontal lateral. Following the drilling of the Farley #1304H, the Company will begin fracture stimulation of these two new Farley Utica wells later this month and expects to report initial production test rates in early-summer 2014 following an approximate 30-day resting period. The Company is in the advanced stages of completing a new take-away capacity agreement with a third-party midstream company and expects to be ready to flow production of all three wells on the Farley Pad to sales via a temporary sales line in August 2014.On the Stewart Winland Pad located in Tyler County, West Virginia, the Company has drilled and cased two Marcellus Shale wells, the Stewart Winland #1301 and #1302. The wells were drilled and cased to an average true vertical depth of 6,155 feet with a 5,750 foot average horizontal lateral. The Company is currently drilling the lateral portion of the third Marcellus Shale well, the Stewart Winland #1303, to a true vertical depth of 6,155 feet with a 5,800 foot horizontal lateral. Following the completion of this third Marcellus well, the Company will walk the robotic drilling rig over to the next location and drill the first horizontal Utica Shale well ever drilled in the State of West Virginia. The Company expects to report initial production test rates from these four new 100% owned wells on the Stewart Winland Pad during mid-summer 2014.Production results from the group of wells described above are anticipated to almost double the Company's current overall daily production volumes.
Shell Files Application for Fed Title V Air Permit for PA Cracker - Marcellus Drilling News - In March, MDN told you that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) told Shell to file for a Title V air permit for its ethane cracker in Monaca no later than June 21 of this year or risk being shut down (see Shell PA Cracker Must File for Full Title V Air Permit, or Else). Just coming to light now is that Shell did file its Title V application with the DEP on June 19 (two days to spare!). The DEP is currently reviewing the application for completeness to ensure nothing important is missing. After the application has been determined to be administratively complete, the DEP will post it on its Southwest Regional Community Information webpage for the facility.
Gas Producers Increasingly Dominating in New Shale Top Operators List | Hart Energy -Seven of the top 10 privately held shale producers in the country are primarily focused on natural gas, demonstrating the increasing dominance of gas players in the world of private operators.As more private oil producers are gobbled up by giant publics, such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the gas players are moving up the ranks of the top operators, according to the list of the top 100 private producers compiled by Enverus in an exclusive partnership with Oil and Gas Investor (OGI). Aethon Energy and Ascent Resources are neck-and-neck as the top privately held natural gas producers in the U.S. They lead both the alphabet and the gas world as the top private producers in their respective basins.Haynesville Shale-focused Aethon leads the way at 2.52 Bcf/d followed closely by Utica Shale-centric Ascent at 2.43 Bcf/d.Continental Resources, which dominates the private production list overall thanks to its heavy crude volumes, still ranks third in natural gas at 2.12 Bcf/d.Then comes Jeffery Hildebrand’s Hilcorp Energy at 1.55 Bcf/d. Rounding out the top five is Tokyo Gas’ TG Natural Resources, which recently grew in the Haynesville through the acquisition of Rockcliff Energy. Other top players include the Utica’s Encino Energy, which also cracked the top 20 for crude oil; the Delaware Basin’s Mewbourne Oil, which produces lots of associated gas; Trinity Operating, which operates in the Eagle Ford, Haynesville and Midcontinent; Barnett Shale leader BKV Corp.; and the Eagle Ford’s Lewis Energy Group, which rounds out the top 10.
4 M-U Drillers in Top 10 (of Top 100) Private Oil & Gas Producers | Marcellus Drilling News - Who doesn’t love a good Top 10 (or, in this case, Top 100) list? Yesterday, Hart Energy published a list of the Top 100 private oil and gas producers in the Lower 48 states. The list is based on information provided by Enverus and Oil and Gas Investor. The article’s point was to call attention to the dramatic change in the list given the consolidation (mergers and acquisitions) over the past 18 months — changes which are “reshaping the landscape,” according to Hart Energy. When perusing the list, the first thing we noticed is that four of the Top 10 in the list of Top 100 are major gas and oil producers operating in the Marcellus/Utica. Ascent Resources | Banpu | Encino Energy | Hilcorp Energy
Report: Mountain Valley Pipeline testing released water again - The Allegheny Front - Testing equipment on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) experienced a rupture in southwest Virginia this month, days before it asked for and received permission to begin carrying natural gas.The June 4 rupture involved an 8-inch connecting hose. According to a report Equitrans filed to Virginia’s DEQ, the release lasted for 15 minutes until a valve was closed, shutting it off.The rupture happened during hydrostatic testing of the pipeline, where water is pumped through it at high pressure to demonstrate its integrity. The hose was used to release water from the pipeline section under inspection, following the testing, when the hose failed. Equitrans Midstream, the pipeline’s builder, reported the incident to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and the Virginia Department of Health’s Office of Drinking Water.Residents and community groups have been concerned about the project’s safety since a May 1 rupture released a large volume of water and badly damaged a section of the 42-inch main pipe.They also have expressed anger that Equitrans Midstream didn’t let them know when the pressure testing took place or about the unintentional releases of water, which in some cases caused property damage. A landowner in Bent Mountain, Virginia, reported the May 1 incident. The June 4 rupture, at Elliston, Virginia, took place 10 days before the pipeline began operating. Neither the company nor its regulators have shared the details of a laboratory analysis of the pipe that was damaged on May 1. They also did not elaborate on what happened on June 4 and how much water was released.The DEQ report categorizes the incident as an “unauthorized discharge of pollutant(s)” and identifies the pollutant as non-potable water. The incident may have affected water quality in the Roanoke River, which supplies drinking water to three municipalities in the area.
With Mountain Valley Pipeline complete, focus turns to Southgate project | WV News | wvnews.com — From its origin point in Wetzel County, West Virginia, natural gas is now being transported through the Mountain Valley Pipeline to markets in the Mid- and South Atlantic regions.Another project in the works from the developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline aims to take the state’s energy exports even farther south, via an additional auxiliary pipeline called MVP Southgate.
An extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline might be the next big energy fight - The Allegheny Front - The Mountain Valley Pipeline may be finished, but the debate continues on what could power the southeast for decades to come. One of the pipeline’s biggest potential customers is Duke Energy, which plans to build five natural gas power plants in North and South Carolina over the next 10 years, replacing coal plants that are growing old. That requires an additional pipeline called MVP Southgate, which would run from the Mountain Valley Pipeline terminus in southern Virginia into North Carolina. The pipeline transports gas from northern West Virginia, including gas from southwestern Pennsylvania.“New natural gas electric generation is required in the Carolinas to keep the companies on track to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050,” wrote Nelson Peeler, Duke Energy Carolinas senior vice president for transmission and fuel supply and policy, in a July 2022 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “Specifically, new natural gas generation is consistent with least cost and reliability objectives to support the retirement of aging coal facilities.”Virginia and North Carolina have not granted the necessary permits. Federal regulators allowed the pipeline’s builder an extra three years to complete it.The groups and landowners who opposed the Mountain Valley Pipeline have said they’ll shift their focus to MVP Southgate.“Appalachian Voices will continue to support the communities along the route in any way that we can including monitoring, advocating for emergency management funding and holding the company and agencies accountable,” said Jessica Sims, Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices.Duke’s gas plants may have difficulty complying with new federal rules on power plant emissions, should those survive legal challenges.Notably, the West Virginia Coal Association opposed the Mountain Valley Pipeline because of its potential to displace coal at Duke Energy plants.In a statement last week marking the completion of the pipeline, builder Equitrans Midstream noted the reduction in carbon emissions.“When used as a replacement fuel for coal-fired electricity generation, natural gas provides reliable power while also reducing carbon emissions by nearly half, helping to meet national and state economic and environmental goals,” the company said.Duke’s commitment to gas, however, remains controversial because of the potential of the gas plants to operate for decades and the release of methane in the production and transportation of gas. Methane is a far more potent heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide.Environmental groups and many Democrats have said Duke should rely less on gas and more on solar, wind and battery storage.Congressional legislation that fast-tracked the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline last year also does not do the same thing for the MVP Southgate project.And one of the pipeline’s biggest supporters, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, is leaving the Senate at the end of the year.
Radical Left Signals New Focus to Block MVP Southgate Project- Marcellus Drilling News -They lost, and we won for the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. “They” means the radical environmental left (nutters who irrationally hate all fossil energy, including natural gas), and “us” means those who support the common sense use of fossil energy and projects like MVP. According to the left, the next battleground is to block the construction of an extension of MVP called Southgate. The left will always tell you what they are planning. You only have to listen and have the courage to believe them.
A proposed gas buildout in North Carolina puts our communities and land at risk! > Appalachian Voices -- Corporations like Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, Mountain Valley Pipeline and Williams Companies want to build massive and expensive methane gas pipelines and gas-fired power plants for profit at the expense of our land and environment. Across North and South Carolina, Duke Energy has proposed building nearly 9 gigawatts of new gas power plants by 2035. Experts say this is one of the largest planned expansions of new gas plants in the country. Ironically, Duke has proposed this investment in new gas plants as part of this year’s Carbon Plan — a plan that is intended to reduce the state’s carbon emissions.This buildout of methane gas would mean Duke entirely failing to meet the timeline for cutting pollution set by bipartisan state law. Duke is moving in the wrong direction— 9 gigawatts is almost three times as much gas as it proposed in its last Carbon Plan. In addition to Duke’s plans, Williams Companies wants to build a 54-mile pipeline and associated compressor stations through North Carolina along its Transco system. This pipeline will carry a massive amount of fracked gas — the emissions from this pipeline would be equal to adding 6.5 million cars to our roads!
- Coal plant replacement to methane gas plant (Duke Energy): Conversion of a coal-fired power plant on Hyco Lake in Person County, known as the Roxboro Steam Station, to an expensive methane gas power plant that will be paid for by customers.
- MVP Southgate (Equitrans Midstream Partners): An extension of Mountain Valley Pipeline to bring gas from Virginia into North Carolina. Equitrans cannot begin construction until it receives permits that it is missing. PSNC Energy (a Dominion Energy subsidiary) and Duke Energy would buy the pipeline’s gas.
- T15 Reliability Project (Dominion Energy): A 45-mile pipeline from Eden (the terminus of the proposed MVP Southgate) to Hyco Lake. Would be used to transport gas to the proposed Hyco Lake methane gas power plant.
- Moriah Energy Center (Dominion Energy): A liquified natural gas storage facility on 480 acres of land in southeastern Person County previously zoned as a rural conservation district.
- Transco’s Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (Williams Companies): A nearly 55-mile pipeline through Virginia and North Carolina with additional compressor units to expand existing capacity. This would be the largest pipeline proposed in this area in the last 10 years.
Everyone in North Carolina would bear the burden of financing Duke’s proposed gas projects through higher utility bills. Expensive methane gas has been a driver of high electricity bills in recent years. In fact, increases in fuel prices, such as methane gas, account for 67% of the increase in residential electricity rates in Duke Energy Carolinas territory since 2017. Fuel prices are passed on to customers, so new gas plants put customers at risk for high energy bills driven by spikes in gas prices. Duke’s latest projections indicate rate increases that are 74% higher than previously forecasted for Duke Energy Carolinas’ network, and 39% more for Duke Energy Progress’ network by 2033. This is on top of a14.6% rate hike across three years that the North Carolina Utilities Commission approved in late 2023. Duke’s methane gas expansion plans will hit residents hard — especially low-income households that tend to spend a higher portion of their income on energy bills. The costs of this gas buildout are especially unnecessary considering how affordable renewable energy sources have become. One study shows that clean, renewable energy sources are cheaper than other proposed gas plants when taking full advantage of the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. Another report found that Duke could save hundreds of millions of dollars by 2030 if it focused more on solar and battery storage.
- Gas reliability concerns: Across the Eastern U.S., methane gas plant failures accounted for 63% of lost power during Winter Storm Elliot, while solar and wind were responsible for only 1% and 4%, respectively. This is not an anomaly — during five recent extreme winter weather events across the past 12 years, gas plants accounted for the majority of failed capacity.
- Community health concerns: Generating electricity from methane gas produces pollutants called nitrogen oxides. Exposure to high concentrations of nitrogen oxides cancause asthma, respiratory infections and heart damage. Additionally, nitrogen oxides react with other airborne chemicals to form particulate matter and ozone. Ozone exposure can cause various respiratory complications, while particulate matter affects the lungs and the heart, potentially leading to heart attacks, impaired lung function and premature death.
- Pipelines and gas infrastructure: Methane gas power plants also require pipelines and compressor stations to transport the gas, which introduce various public health hazards, including the contamination of local drinking water, air pollution, degradation of soil quality resulting in reduced crop yields, and the threat of pipeline explosions and fires. Additionally, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is used to extract methane gas from underground. This process also causes air pollution and water contamination, leading to negative health effects. Counties across the U.S. with higher concentrations of socially vulnerable communities (such as Native communities, people of color, rural communities and people with low incomes) have significantly higher pipeline densitiesthan counties with fewer socially vulnerable residents.
Gas Flows to Sabine Pass LNG Export Plant Drop to 11-Month Low - Marcellus Drilling News -The Sabine Pass LNG terminal, owned and operated by Cheniere Energy, is spread over an 853-acre site in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. The facility is the largest LNG terminal in the world, with a total send-out capacity of 4.1 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) and a storage capacity of 16.8 Bcf. The facility’s “nameplate” capacity, with six trains operating, is roughly 30 mtpa (million tons per annum). Around 330 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of M-U molecules flow to the Sabine Pass facility, getting there by various interstate pipelines. Last Friday, flows to the facility dropped to 3.4 Bcf/d.
Natural Gas Markets Await End of Sabine Pass LNG Terminal Maintenance --Cheniere Energy Inc. could wrap up a maintenance blitz at its Sabine Pass LNG export terminal next week. The work went on longer than initially expected but was still on pace to shed far fewer volumes than last year. Sabine Pass LNG export volumes (graphic). The 4.6 Bcf/d Louisiana facility has conducted extensive maintenance in June for the last several years. The terminal accounts for a third of U.S. liquefied natural gas exports.This year, Cheniere management said it aimed to minimize the impacts of the work with a planned shorter June maintenance schedule than last year. Work at the LNG terminal kicked off on June 3 and was scheduled to run until June 16, but analysts were forced to readjust estimates after a mid-month jump in feed gas volumes turned out to be false hope.
Venture Global’s 20 MMty CP2 LNG Export in Louisiana Project Finally Gains FERC Approval -Venture Global LNG Inc.’s CP2 export facility has received the final federal approval, ending a more than 10-month wait for authorization. NGI's chart of US and Mexico LNG export facilities. In a 2-1 decision, FERC on Thursday approved the Virginia-based developer’s plans to build a 20 million metric tons/year (mmty) terminal in Cameron Parish, LA. The project, which is sited near Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass liquefied natural gas facility, gained the status as the longest pending project before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as the potential environmental impacts were scrutinized.
Argent LNG Selects Worley for Port Fourchon LNG Export Project Design – Argent LNG LLC is moving forward with the FERC pre-filing process for its 20 million metric tons/year proposed LNG export facility in Louisiana after selecting an engineering, procurement and construction firm. Argent LNG tapped Australia-based Worley to handle early design and engineering work for a liquefied natural gas terminal at the Port of Fourchon southwest of New Orleans. The firm also disclosed it has signed a long-term lease for a 144-acre project site at the port. Chiyoda Corp. disclosed it has revised down its estimates for income from the Golden Pass LNG project as a result of Zachry Industrial Inc.’s bankruptcy. The Japanese firm informed shareholders it has been working on a restructured contract with Golden Pass and its other joint venture partners since April, but it won’t fully update its financial results until after Zachry leaves the partnership. A unit of Shell plc and units of Energy Transfer LP have delivered their proposed orders to the administrative court handling a case to determine how information about Venture Global LNG Inc.’s Calcasieu Pass (CP) project will be shared. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission referred the case to an administrative judge earlier in the month after CP contract holders requested non-public information about the project. Shell’s lawyers said the company has been working with counsel for Venture Global and other participants in the case, but it “has not yet been able to sufficiently clarify all points in the different proposed protective agreements” from each party. FERC previously agreed that the CP offtakers and other interveners required more information to respond to Venture Global’s request for an extension of the project’s commissioning timeline.
Plaquemines Export Project Receives Feed Gas as Testing Continues – Chiyoda Corp. has asked a federal bankruptcy court to restart construction on the Golden Pass LNG export project in Texas, which has come to a near standstill since lead contractor Zachry Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy last month. NGI's North American LNG Export Flow Tracker/ Chiyoda, along with McDermott International Inc. affiliate CB&I LLC, want to exercise their rights to resume work under a joint venture they have with Zachry, which laid off 4,400 people at the site. Zachry cited cost overruns at the 18 million metric tons/year Golden Pass project in its bankruptcy filing. As the lead contractor in charge of staffing construction activities, Zachry’s financial issues and ongoing bankruptcy proceedings have prevented the remaining contractors from resuming large-scale construction. Golden Pass has also asked the bankruptcy court to reject Zachry's interest in the engineering, procurement and construction contract, noting that it threatens the construction progress.
Kimmeridge Taking Reins of Louisiana’s Commonwealth LNG Export Project with 90% Ownership --A 90% interest in Commonwealth LNG, which is developing a proposed 9.3 million metric ton/year (mmty) natural gas export project in Louisiana, has been acquired by a unit of Kimmeridge Energy Management Co. Image of Commonwealth LNG export facility Expand Eagle Ford Shale-focused Kimmeridge Texas Gas LLC (KTG), the infrastructure fund’s natural gas production firm, is boosting its equity ownership and will take the reins. The project partners expect to reach a final investment decision (FID) by the middle of 2025. "We are excited to take a controlling interest in Commonwealth LNG as we integrate our business from wellhead to water,” and help to complete the liquefied natural gas export facility, Kimmeridge Managing Partner Ben Dell said.
Aramco Poised to Expand U.S. LNG Assets With Deal for Stake in Port Arthur Export Project --State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., better known as Aramco, confirmed Wednesday that it’s working to finalize an agreement to take a 25% equity stake in the second phase of Sempra Infrastructure’s Port Arthur LNG export project in Southeast Texas. Aramco, which has been working to expand its assets in the global natural gas market, said it signed a non-binding agreement for the equity stake and the purchase of 5 million metric tons/year (mmty) of liquefied natural gas from the Port Arthur LNG expansion project for a term of 20 years. “As a potential strategic partner in the Port Arthur LNG Phase 2 project, Aramco is well placed to grow its gas portfolio with the aim of meeting the world's growing need for lower-carbon sources of energy,” said Aramco Upstream President Nasir K. Al-Naimi. “This agreement is a major step in Aramco's strategy to become a leading global LNG player."
US natgas prices climb 4% on forecasts for more heat, demand this week (Reuters) -U.S. natural gas futures climbed about 4% on Monday on forecasts for more hot weather and cooling demand. The price increase came despite a slow increase in output and forecasts for less hot weather and lower cooling demand next week than previously expected. Front-month gas futures for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 10.6 cents, or 3.9%, to settle at $2.811 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). On Friday, the contract closed at its lowest level since June 4 for a second day in a row. Recent declines in the July contract boosted the premium of futures for August over July to a record high - currently about 14 cents per mmBtu - for a second day in a row. Financial firm LSEG said gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states rose to an average of 98.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in June, up from a 25-month low of 98.1 bcfd in May. That compares with a monthly record high of 105.5 bcfd in December 2023. Analysts said the production increase, which started in late May, was a sign that some drillers were slowly boosting output after a 47% jump in futures prices in April and May. Prices were also up about 5% so far in June. On a daily basis, output hit a 10-week high of 99.6 bcfd on Sunday. So far in June, CEOs at EQT and Chesapeake Energy said their companies have started to boost output. Overall, however, U.S. gas production was still down around 7% so far in 2024 after several energy firms, including EQT and Chesapeake, delayed well completions and cut drilling activities after prices fell to 3-1/2-year lows in February and March. Meteorologists projected weather across the Lower 48 states would remain hotter than normal through at least July 9 - just not as hot as previously forecast. LSEG forecast that heat would boost the amount of gas power generators burn to keep air conditioners humming. With less heat expected next week, LSEG forecast average gas demand in the Lower 48, including exports, will slide from 104.5 bcfd this week to 102.3 bcfd next week. The forecast for this week was higher than LSEG's outlook on Friday, while its forecast for next week was lower.
US natgas prices fall over 5% on rising output, high storage levels (Reuters) -U.S. natural gas futures fell over 5% to a three-week low on Wednesday on signs producers were slowly boosting output to meet rising summer demand and as the amount of gas in storage remains well above normal levels. Analysts forecast there was about 20% more gas in storage than normal at this time of year. The futures decline came despite forecasts for a brutal heat wave to keep baking much of the country through at least mid July, forcing power generators to keep burning lots of gas to keep air conditioners humming. On their last day as the front-month, gas futures NGc1 for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange were down 13.9 cents, or 4.6%, to settle at $2.628 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). Futures for August NGQ24, which will soon be the front-month, were down over 4% and settled at $2.745 per mmBtu. In Texas, the power grid operator for most of the state projected peak demand would break the record for the month of June on Thursday as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners to escape the heat. Spot power and gas prices in Texas also soared, but only to levels that were the highest in weeks and months. Financial firm LSEG said gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states had risen to an average 98.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in June, up from a 25-month low of 98.1 bcfd in May. That compares with a monthly record high of 105.5 bcfd in December 2023. On a daily basis, however, output was on track to drop by about 2.8 bcfd over the past two days to a preliminary two-week low of 97.6 bcfd on Wednesday, down from an 11-week high of 100.4 bcfd on Monday. Analysts said the production increase which started in late May was a sign that some drillers were slowly boosting output after a 47% jump in futures prices in April and May. Prices were also up about 4% so far in June. So far this month, CEOs at EQT and Chesapeake Energy have said their companies have started to boost output. Meteorologists projected weather across the Lower 48 states would remain hotter than normal through at least July 11. But with less heat forecast next week, LSEG forecast average gas demand in the Lower 48, including exports, will slide from 103.0 bcfd this week to 100.2 bcfd next week. Those forecasts were similar to LSEG's outlook on Tuesday. Gas flows to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants have eased to 12.8 bcfd so far in June, down from 12.9 bcfd in May and a monthly record high of 14.7 bcfd in December 2023. On a daily basis, LNG feedgas was on track to rise to 11.9 bcfd on Wednesday, up from a nine-week low of 11.7 bcfd on Tuesday. That is due to plant and pipeline maintenance at several facilities, including Freeport LNG and Cheniere Energy's LNG.N Corpus Christi in Texas and Cameron LNG, Cheniere's Sabine Pass and Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass in Louisiana.
US natgas prices slip 2% on rising output, lower demand (Reuters) -U.S. natural gas futures slid about 2% on Thursday on arise in output and forecasts for less demand next week than previously expected. That price decline came even though last week's storage build was smaller than usual for this time of year for a seventh week in a row and the heat wave blanketing much of the countrywill likely remain in place through at least mid-July. That heat should force power generators to continue burning lots of gas to keep air conditioners humming. Traders said recent storage builds have been smaller than usual because several producers cut output earlier in the year after futures prices dropped to 3-1/2-year lows in February and March. Higher prices in recent weeks, however, have prompted some producers, including EQT and Chesapeake Energy, to return to the well pad. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said utilities added 52 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage during the week ended June 21. That was close to the 51-bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an increase of 81 bcf in the same week last year and a five-year (2019-2023) average rise of 85 bcf for this time of year. Even though storage builds have been smaller than average in recent weeks, the amount of gas in storage was still around 21% higher than usual for this time of year. On their first day as the front-month, gas futures for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 6.0 cents, or 2.2%, to settle at $2.685 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). In Texas, the power grid operator for most of the state projected peak demand would break the record for the month of June on Thursday as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners to escape the heat. Meteorologists projected weather across the Lower 48 states would remain hotter than normal through at least July 12. But with less heat forecast next week, LSEG forecast average gas demand in the Lower 48, including exports, will slide from 102.9 bcfd this week to 99.9 bcfd next week. The forecast for next week was lower than LSEG's outlook on Wednesday. Gas flows to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants eased to 12.8 bcfd so far in June, down from 12.9 bcfd in May and a monthly record high of 14.7 bcfd in December 2023. Feedgas to the 2.1-bcfd Freeport, one of the most watched U.S. LNG plants because it has a history of swaying global gas prices when it shuts, was on track to rise to 1.9 bcfd on Thursday after dropping to a seven-week low of 1.5 bcfd on Tuesday. Freeport told Texas environmental regulators that the second of three liquefaction trains tripped on Tuesday due to an issue with a power feed. In other LNG news, Venture Global's Plaquemines export plant under construction in Louisiana started to take in pipeline gas on Wednesday, signaling the plant was on track to produce its first LNG later this year as expected. Separately, U.S. energy regulators approved Venture Global's request to build the CP2 LNG export plant in Louisiana.
No-contact recommendation for Flint River continues after oil spill - -- The search for the source of a small oil spill into the Flint River continued on Wednesday, June 26, and the Genesee County Health Department continued to recommend staying away from the river in the area. Lt. Nicholas Preece of the Genesee County Sheriff’s Department said investigators believe the leak into the river, which occurred at an outfall on James P. Cole Boulevard between Merrill and East Wood streets, appears to be no longer flowing.
Martin Midstream Partners recovers 1,250 barrels of oil from Arkansas spill (Reuters) -Martin Midstream Partners MMLP.O said on Monday it had recovered around 1,250 barrels of crude oil following a pipeline spill that occurred earlier this month.The company became aware of the spill on June 15 and is working with the Environmental Protection Agency and several state agencies to respond to the spill, Martin said in a statement.The spill, which totaled some 2,000 barrels of oil, originated from a transfer pipeline that connects Martin Midstream's Sandyland Terminal to the 7,500 barrels per day naphthenic lube refinery in Smackover, Arkansas.The spill traveled around two miles from the pipeline, according to the EPA, and clean-up efforts involve removing oil from two creeks to prevent the sheen from leaking into Ouachita River.
Biodiversity loss from 2010 oil spill worse than predicted -- A new peer-reviewed study from researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington; the University of Nevada, Reno; Mokwon University in Daejeon, Korea; and Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi shows the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill of 2010 affected wildlife and their habitat much more than previously understood. The work is published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin. "Overall, we found the area of deep-sea floor affected by the DWH spill was significantly larger than previously thought," said Masoud Rostami, an author of the study and assistant professor of instruction in UTA's Division of Data Science. In recent decades, deep-water ecosystems in lakes, oceans, and seas around the world have faced pressures from offshore oil and gas production, including frequent contamination from oil and other pollutants. The DWH oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that started on April 20, 2010, was the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history, releasing nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil and hydrocarbon gases over 87 days, with 3.2 million barrels of oil remaining in the water after cleanup efforts. This spill greatly exceeded the amount of natural discharge of oil that seeps in the Gulf each year, and up to 35% of the pollutants were trapped below the surface, severely impacting the lives and habitats of the plants, animals, and microorganisms (like bacteria and fungi) that live deep in the ocean. For this study, the researchers focused on the harpacticoid copepods, a type of crustacean that lives near the bottom of the ocean, to better understand the DWH spill's effects on the deep-sea ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico. Copepods are good for this type of study because they live in several different deep-sea habitats and are known to be sensitive to pollution. Researchers found that the spill affected biodiversity over an area of 1,100 square miles—a area nearly nine times larger than earlier studies on DWH. Using advanced methodologies, including remote sensing, multivariate statistical analysis, and machine-learning approaches, the team detected subtle changes in the deep-sea copepod community composition. "This study demonstrates that harpacticoid copepod diversity dramatically declined because of DWH oil pollution," said Rostami.
US offer $850m funding to curb oil sector methane emissions - The US Department of Energy (DOE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are seeking applications for $850m in funding aimed at reducing methane emissions in the oil and gas sectors.The funding, which aims to help measure, monitor, quantify and reduce methane emissions from the country’s oil and gas sectors, forms part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and aligns with the administration’s efforts to significantly cut methane emissions.Due to be made available through the administration’s climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the funding seeks to address air pollution, generate employment, and enhance the efficiency of oil and gas operations.These efforts contribute to the nation’s pursuit of President Biden’s climate and clean air objectives.The grants are particularly designed to assist small oil and gas operators in adopting innovative technologies for methane emission reduction. Additionally, they aim to foster partnerships that improve emissions measurement and provide transparent data to communities affected by these emissions. The funding also helps small operators curb methane leaks, expedite repairs on low-producing wells, and enhance access to empirical data and monitoring participation.Eligible applicants include industry stakeholders, academic institutions, non-governmental organisations, Native American tribes, and state and local governments.The deadline for grant applications is 26 August 2024.US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M Granholm said: “As we continue to accelerate the nation’s clean energy transition, we are taking steps now to drastically reduce harmful emissions from America’s largest source of industrial methane – the oil and gas sector.”
Bidenistas at DOE, EPA Announce $850 Million in Methane Bribes -- Last Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that applications are open for $850 million in federal funding “for projects that will help monitor, measure, quantify and reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sectors as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.” The funding, to be taken from the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), aims to force small operators to significantly reduce methane emissions from oil and natural gas operations. Essentially, it is a massive bribe to vote for Biden in November. Companies that get in on the gravy train will vote for (and donate to) the Democrat Party. That’s how it works in the disgusting swamp called D.C.Continue reading
Democrat probes 18 oil companies after FTC collusion accusations -Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is probing 18 oil and gas companies after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused the former CEO of firm Pioneer Natural Resources of colluding with foreign oil producers last month. Whitehouse, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, asked the companies for copies of any communications with the foreign oil powers, known collectively as OPEC, related to oil production or prices. The senator particularly cited FTC’s accusation that Pioneer’s Scott Sheffield “sought to align oil production across the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico” with that of OPEC and its allies. Pioneer was not among the firms he reached out to, but ExxonMobil, with which Pioneer is slated to merge, was. “In view of the findings against Sheffield, I seek to understand whether other oil producers operating in the United States may also have been coordinating with OPEC and OPEC+ representatives,” Whitehouse wrote. Lawyers for Sheffield say he was “unjustly smeared” by the antitrust agency. Democrats have repeatedly accused fossil fuel companies of price gouging, which the industry has denied. This latest line of inquiry from Whitehouse comes after he recently accused major oil firms and lobby groups of promoting disinformation about climate change.
Private Oil Producers Dwindle Amid Consolidation in New Top Operators List | Hart Energy (table) The species of the large, privately-held crude oil producer in the U.S. is rapidly becoming endangered, but they’re not extinct just yet. Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources and Delaware Basin leader Mewbourne Oil lead the way as the top two private crude producers in the shale industry, but the next two are largely being bought up.After that, there are several fast-growing producers that have surged into the top 10—including Surge Energy—according to the list of the top 100 private producers compiled by Enverus in an exclusive partnership with Oil and Gas Investor (OGI). Continental went private in late 2022 and now dominates the statistics for private producers. Meanwhile, the Permian’s Mewbourne Oil has continued to rapidly grow in recent years to take advantage of prime Permian acreage and healthy crude pricing.But Diamondback Energy is acquiring the third-ranked crude producer, Endeavor Energy Resources, for $26 billion to turn Diamondback into the industry’s top pure-play producer in the Permian. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.Likewise, Occidental Petroleum is scooping up CrownQuest Operating’s CrownRock for $12 billion to further solidify its massive Permian position.Now ranked fifth and poised to jump higher is Grayson Mill Operating with 93,414 bbl/d, which is still well behind the 220,403 bbl/d of Mewbourne. Grayson Mill has focused on growing into a major Bakken Shale player.The rest of the top 10 includes California’s Aera Energy, Permian-centric Birch Resources, Oklahoma’s GBK Corp. and its Kaiser-Francis Oil Co., the Midland Basin’s Surge Energy, and the Eagle Ford Shale’s Verdun Oil.The rest of the top 20 count more producers from the Permian, but also the Uinta Basin’s XCL Resources and the Utica Shale’s Encino Energy. While the Utica is mostly gassy, Encino also is developing a liquids-rich oil play within the formation.
Industry Consolidation Reshapes List of Top 100 Private Producers in the Lower 48 -- (tables) The historic consolidation trend across the U.S. E&P sector during the last 18 months is reshaping the landscape beyond the nameplate megamergers such as Exxon Mobil’s acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources. Private family companies founded by original wildcatters such as Endeavor Energy Resources and CrownQuest are coming off the market to join the likes of Diamondback Energy and Occidental Petroleum. Among the net effects of $200 billion in M&A, a number of private companies have fallen off the list of Top 100 private companies compiled by Enverus in an exclusive partnership with Oil and Gas Investor (OGI). A slew of newcomers to the Top 100 have taken their places.
Texas, California cities threatened by worsening fires amid oil wells --More frequent and destructive fires are combining with booming oil production to put towns across the American West at risk, a new study has found.These trends are made more dangerous by both rising temperatures and the sprawl of Western towns — driven by rising populations — into the increasingly fire-prone wildlands that surround them, the study in the journal One Earth found.As more than 350,000 houses have been built each year in this wildland-urban interface (WUI), these outlying areas have also become the sites of tens of thousands of new oil and gas wells — sites that both contribute to, and are put at risk by, a new age of destructive fire.The study found that about 3 million people currently live within about a half mile (1 km) of highly wildfire-threatened wells, and more than 10 million people live near wells that face moderate risk — a disproportionate number of whom are lower-income and people of color. Oil and gas pollution already causes significant health risks to nearby communities — andparticularly children. But the One Earth researchers warned that fires risks are making these situations worse and that it adds to the potential for explosions and wildfire-fueling leaks.One principal center of this collision is Texas, a site of record oil production that was hit in February by the largest wildfire in state history.Another is California, where 1,200 people just evacuated from fires in Los Angeles, a city still dotted by thousands of wells, including new ones.Despite that new drilling, California’s oil industry is in a period of lengthy decline, which helps counter the rising risk from sprawling towns and the worsening wildfires. About 100,000 wells in the state were at high risk from wildfire in 2017, a number that researchers projected would hold steady throughout the rest of the century.But in other parts of the country, the picture is marked by increasing risk: Researchers found that the number of wells at risk of destructive fire would nearly double by the end of the century, from just under 120,000 today to about 205,000 by the end of the 2080s.That rise is driven by Utah and Texas.The Lone Star State, the nation’s biggest oil and gas producer, had about 10,000 wells at high risk for fire in 2017 — a number that is expected to boom to 76,000 by the end of the century.In Utah, while fewer than 2,000 wells are currently at risk from fire, that number is expected to rise to 12,000 by the mid part of this century and to 18,000 by the end of it.The fact that a fire happens around oil and gas development doesn’t necessarily mean the wells will catch fire. After the record February fire in Texas, several oil companies told industry news site Rigzone that their operations had suffered no disruptions.That is something the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s oil and gas regulator, credited to careful preparation on the front end. After the fires, the agency sent out a picture depicting a blackened prairie surrounding an untouched Carson County well pad — an argument for “mowing grass and treating weeds to keep fuels for fires” away from drilling sites.But the February fires had been big enough to cut off access for worker or fire crews to many wells, said Ed Longanecker, the head of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, a state trade association.“Given the sheer magnitude of the wildfires, some disruptions will likely occur,” Longanecker told Rigzone. In the case of those fires, the oil industry was a cause as well as a potential victim: A Texas legislative committee found that the Panhandle fires had been caused in part by faulty electric equipment installed by an oil company. Witnesses told the committee that “irresponsible oil and natural gas operators … were among the most common culprits contributing to wildfires.” Because pumpjacks run on electricity, they require a network of transmission lines that, if improperly maintained, can spark fires. And as wells decline — and fracked wells decline fast — and are ultimately abandoned, witnesses said that operators often lost economic incentives to maintain that infrastructure or to remove and shut off that wiring. One Texas Railroad Commission inspector told the Legislature that 32,000 such orphaned wells existed in the Panhandle alone, in what the report described as “a minefield of potential fire ignition sources.” These abandoned wells can also be persistent sources of plumes of flammable — and planet-heating — methane, the One Earth researchers found.
Oil industry group drops ballot initiative to drill near California homes - — An oil industry group is withdrawing its ballot challenge to a California law that bans drilling within 3,200 feet of homes, businesses and schools, the group announced Wednesday. The California Independent Petroleum Association said it would remove the measure from the ballot by Thursday’s deadline to submit or withdraw initiatives. The organization said it plans to sue over the law instead. “While CIPA is confident in its ability to be successful at the ballot box, we also recognize the likelihood of the Legislature simply introducing other similar bills,” the group said in an announcement. “Therefore, judicial intervention is necessary to truly resolve this matter.” The decision means the 2022 law — which was on pause pending a keep-or-overturn decision from the state’s voters — will take effect after the initiative is withdrawn.
Will California’s Largest Oil Well Owner Get a Pass on Paying to Clean Up Its Mess? = In recent years, California has passed new laws to tackle the enormously expensive remediation of old oil wells, which pose hazards for human health and the climate. But as two of the state’s largest oil well operators race toward a corporate merger, the challenge of holding companies accountable for their mess is coming into view. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed one of the state’s toughest regulations last fall: a law requiring companies that buy or acquire another operator’s oil wells to put up the money to plug them once they run dry. But California Resources Corporation — which plans to acquire Aera Energy — is refusing to say whether it has complied, or will comply. California Resources Corporation did not respond to inquiries for this story. In emails with the regulator, the company stated there would be “no change in the organizational structure” of Aera, which operates the wells California Resources Corporation wants to acquire. The law states that the acquisition cannot be completed until the state calculates the size of the bond that the operator must secure. The law is also clear that operators such as California Resources Corporation must ask the state to begin calculating the size of the bond, which the company does not appear to have done, said Ann Alexander, director of Energy Solutions, Nature at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which advocated for the law. Given that the proposed merger is set for a June 26 shareholders vote — one of the main conditions for the transaction — it is “quite unlikely” California Resources Corporation has requested bond estimates from the state, Alexander said. “There are a really large number of wells here,” Alexander said. Estimating the bond amounts for the thousands of wells is “a process that’s going to take a significant amount of time” — likely a few months. Meanwhile, the California Geologic Energy Management Division, the state agency that oversees the 100,000 or so active and idle wells that dot California’s landscape, declined to say whether the company requested a bond amount or communicated about the bonding requirements at all. Insufficient bonds could ultimately cost taxpayers billions when it comes time to plug the roughly 37,000 wells that will be in the company’s portfolio after the planned merger. The bonding requirement law mandates that before any acquisition of wells, a company must put up enough money to ensure that low-producing oil wells are plugged. Plugging the wells is necessary to prevent climate-warming methane gas from escaping into the atmosphere. Fossil fuels such as methane are the main driver of the ongoing climate crisis. Aera Energy equipment in the Belridge Oil Field in Kern County. In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, California Resources Corporation estimated that after acquiring Aera, its long-term financial obligations for plugging its old wells and decommissioning related equipment would amount to $1 billion. But that’s likely billions less than it will actually cost. The Sierra Club last year estimated that the cost to clean up just the portion of California Resources Corporation’s and Aera’s wells that are no longer in production would cost $3.5 billion. If the active wells were included too, the cost would be billions more. “It’s quite frustrating to those of us who have worked very hard to try and help California dig out of the colossal mess that it is in” with unplugged wells, said Alexander. The law arrived last year as Assembly Bill 1167, introduced by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), who saw it as a way to put the financial burden of ending the lives of old oil wells on the operators, not the taxpayers.
Interior nixes Trump’s Alaska land orders, mine road - The Biden administration is dealing Alaska and its congressional delegation a significant blow, rejecting a pivotal mining road and proposing to revoke Trump-era orders that would have opened up 28 million acres of federal land to energy development and mining. The Bureau of Land Management is set Friday to issue a final environmental impact statement that recommends Interior Secretary Deb Haaland nix five public land orders issued in the closing weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency that would have lifted a mining and drilling ban on the 28 million acres that has been in place more than five decades. “Today, my administration is stopping a 211-mile road from carving up a pristine area that Alaska Native communities rely on, in addition to steps we are taking to maintain protections on 28 million acres in Alaska from mining and drilling,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “These natural wonders demand our protection.” The move continues Biden’s efforts to undo Trump administration efforts and broaden protection of public lands, particularly in Alaska. Both decisions are expected to spark a wave of lawsuits and pushback from Alaska’s congressional delegation. Haaland, who has the option to approve or reject — in full or in part — the public land orders signed in January 2021 by then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, indicated in a statement Friday she’ll leave the protections in place. Meanwhile, the Interior Department released a record of decision Friday that bars the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority from securing a right of way to cross federally managed lands to build. Proponents have argued the road is crucial for tapping into large reserves of critical minerals in the remote Ambler mining district. But the administration has emphasized there are no mines in the area and no proposals pending, echoing the findings in its analysis of the road in April that found it would cause irreversible damage to permafrost and habitat for already-declining Western Arctic caribou herd and cut through lands and waters critical to subsistence hunting and fishing in north-central Alaska. The moves pleased Alaska Native tribes that have long argued that building the road and lifting the land protections would threaten productive hunting and fishing grounds critical to their subsistence way of life. “These lands currently sustain our communities and have supported our people for generations,” said Eugene Paul, who chairs the Bering Sea Interior Tribal Commission, in a statement. “It is our obligation to do what is in our power to protect them.” That’s particularly true of the 28 million acres, which cover an enormous area of the state that includes portions of the Bay, Bering Sea-Western Interior, East Alaska, Kobuk-Seward Peninsula and Ring of Fire planning areas. “The Department of the Interior takes seriously our obligations to manage America’s public lands for the benefit of all people. In Alaska, that includes ensuring that we consider the impacts of proposed actions on Alaska Native and rural subsistence users,” Haaland said in a statement. “Guided by feedback from Tribal Nations, Native Corporations and the best-available science, the steps we are taking today ensure these important areas remain intact for generations to come.” But it angered Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has pressed Haaland for more than two years to advance the Trump-era public land orders and finalize approval of the Ambler Road. “Nine years in federal permitting. Access to critical and strategic minerals that are essential for everything from clean energy to national security. A rare opportunity for development in rural Alaska under the highest standards, so we don’t have to import from unstable nations that have no protections for people or the environment,” Murkowski said in a statement. “Somehow, none of that mattered to the Biden administration on the Ambler project. They have ignored federal law, our national vulnerabilities, and Alaska’s strong record of responsible development, all in the name of election year politics.”
Western Canada’s Asian Natural Gas Exports to Expand as Cedar LNG Sanctions BC Project -In a long awaited announcement Tuesday, the Haisla Nation and Pembina Pipeline Corp. agreed to move forward with Cedar LNG Partners LP’s 3.3 million metric ton/year (mmty) export project on Canada’s west coast. Map showing Cedar LNG. Late 2028 is the target to begin natural gas exports from the floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project in British Columbia (BC). Built on Haisla territory, Cedar would be powered with renewable electricity provided by BC Hydro. As designed, it would be one of the lowest emitting LNG projects in the world. The Haisla Nation, with 50.1% ownership, and Pembina, with a 49.9% stake, “have made history as the world’s first Indigenous community to develop an LNG facility as majority owners," Haisla Chief Councillor Crystal Smith said.
Biden LNG Permit Pause Clouding Outlook for Mexico Export Projects -- The Biden administration’s pause on new approvals for LNG exports to non-free trade agreement (FTA) countries is casting doubt over the future of liquefaction projects in Mexico that would rely on U.S. feed gas. NGI's Sur de Texas Tuxpan natural gas pipeline. The prospect of bypassing the Panama canal and shipping U.S. sourced natural gas to the Asia-Pacific market by way of Mexico’s Pacific Coast has triggered proposals for a dozen or so liquefaction projects in Mexico in recent years. These include Sempra’s 3.25 million metric tons/year (mmty) Energía Costa Azul (ECA) Phase 1 project, which is under construction and set to begin exporting cargoes in summer 2025. Other advanced projects include New Fortress Energy Inc.’s (NFE) Altamira Fast LNG (FLNG) 1, which the company said will begin commercial operations in July.
Pemex refinery still not ready for commercial production, say sources - Pemex’s Olmeca oil refinery is unlikely to produce commercial quantities of fuels by the end of this year, despite the project being a showpiece development for current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.The newest facility for Petróleos Mexicanos, the Mexican state-owned petroleum company, has already suffered a series of delays, and a doubling of construction costs, as the country moves towards energy independence.According to Reuters, citing unnamed sources familiar with operations, it would now not be impossible for the refinery to meet previously stated targets, namely reaching full production capacity in the coming weeks.Reuters stated that neither Pemex nor the president’s office responded to requests for comment.The sources said several engineers were working on individual parts of the refinery, which still need to be fully linked and integrated.Another source said that operationally “the refinery is fine so far, but the problem is the expectations that have been created”.Another source said that even if all goes to plan, the first of two production lines would be ready between October and November, at the earliest.The cost of the refinery is now estimated at close to $17bn (308.18bn pesos).President Obrador inaugurated the 340,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in July 2022, stating at the time that it was a crucial step towards Mexico’s energy independence. When fully operational, it will increase the country’s refining capacity by almost 20%.
Petrobras and Ecopetrol begin drilling at Uchuva-2 well offshore Colombia --Petrobras, in partnership with Ecopetrol, has initiated the drilling of the Uchuva-2 appraisal well in the Tayrona block offshore Colombia.This operation aims to assess the extent of the natural gas discovery made in the Uchuva-1 exploration well in July 2022.The Uchuva-1 exploratory well, situated in deep waters at 837m, lies approximately 32km from the coastline and 76km from the city of Santa Marta.Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras holds a 44.4% operatorship stake in the Tayrona block while Colombian petroleum company Ecopetrol owns the majority 55.6% interest.Ecopetrol’s projections indicate that the Tayrona block could commence gas production by 2026.
UK court says oil project must take account of full environmental impact - A British local council must consider the full impact of developing new drilling wells, in what could become a landmark case. The case was brought against Surrey County Council, southern England, by local resident Sarah Finch, on behalf of campaigners. She challenged an earlier Court of Appeal ruling dismissing her case, and emerged victorious on Friday.According to several local news sources, the UK’s Supreme Court concluded that the environmental impact of emissions from burning fossil fuels must be considered in planning applications for new projects.This a departure from previous guidance, which required an assessment of the impacts of the emissions produced in extracting fossil fuels, such as building wells and related infrastructure.The assumption has always been that only the impacts from constructing the wells should be considered.The case, which has taken several years to resolve, hinged around an oil drilling project at Horse Hill, Surrey, granted planning permission by the council in 2019.The council said it believed it had followed planning law and had done nothing wrong.Also, the court did not rule that the council should reject the proposal for new oil wells.However, the judges – voting three to two in favour of allowing her appeal – argued the council should have considered the downstream emissions.The implications of the ruling will now have to be considered by companies looking to develop new energy projects.Finch said she was “absolutely over the moon to have won this important case”, while speaking to reporters in London.Horse Hill oil well in Surrey was given planning permission to expand its operations in 2019, a decision that was challenged by Finch, on behalf of Weald Action Group, an umbrella organisation campaigning against all forms of extreme extraction from the Weald and the Isle of Wight.The Surrey Weald lies to the south of London, stretching into neighbouring counties East Sussex, West Sussex, Kent, and Hampshire, and already has a small but long-standing history of oil and gas production.According to a UK Government assessment from 2013, there could be shale oil resources of up to 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the region.Summing up the case, Lord Leggatt said it was “inevitable” that oil from the site will be burned, and the resulting greenhouse emissions were “straightforwardly results of the project”, which should be considered.The six wells at Horse Hill are expected to produce more than three million tonnes of crude oil over the next 20 years.In response, Stephen Sanderson, head of UK Oil and Gas, the company behind Horse Hill, said the ruling was “perplexing”, while adding that the company’s focus over the past few years “has shifted away from oil and gas and firmly towards hydrogen storage”. UK Oil and Gas PLC said it will now work with the council to amend its planning application.
Egyptian Energy Crisis Seen Diverting More Israeli Natural Gas from Global LNG Market - Egypt’s plans to become a regional natural gas export hub are on hold as dwindling domestic production and extreme heat increase its dependance on Israeli pipeline and LNG cargoes to meet surging power demand. Egypt LNG natural gas exports graph. Rolling power cuts in Cairo have occurred since April as the government moves to conserve fuel while searing summer temperatures bake the capital. In some regions of the country, temperatures exceeded 116 degrees, the highest on record in 18 years according to the Egyptian Meteorological Authority. Egypt last imported liquefied natural gas in 2018, before rising Israeli production helped feed the country’s plans to increase utilization at its terminals and become a net gas exporter. However, after Egypt helped supply much needed cargoes to Europe in 2022, exports were halted during last summer.
TTF, JKM Steady Amid Hot Weather, Mixed Supply Outlook — Global natural gas prices continued to trade sideways on Monday as ample supplies were available and forecasts were largely unchanged. European and Asian benchmarks were trading in a narrow range. The Title Transfer Facility (TTF) in Europe rebounded on Monday, but picked up little and finished near $11/MMBtu. In Asia, Japan-Korea Marker (JKM) prices were stable at around $12. In the United States, Henry Hub continued to hover below the $3 mark.
Next Wave of LNG Supply Squeezing Long-Term Contract Prices -Global natural gas buyers are still signing long-term LNG contracts despite cooling market volatility and lower prices. Bar chart showing global LNG imports by contract type in 2023. But, with liquefied natural gas exporters still looking to ink deals for the massive capacity additions they’re developing through the end of the decade, the terms of contracts this year could portend a continued market shift to affordability over security. “It’s central to everything right now, as price expectations in the market are moving from what were historically closer to oil parity compared to LNG to pricing that’s closer to coal plus carbon parity,” Columbia University’s Ira Joseph, a global fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy, told NGI.
LNG Sellers Counting on Asian Buyers to Soak Up Excess Supplies This Decade and Beyond Asia’s emerging economies and growing population are expected to sustain growth in the global LNG market and help absorb excess supplies hitting the water later this decade as new export projects come online. NGI chart showing global natural gas futures settles. Europe is on a trajectory to cut natural gas demand as industrial consumption falls and more renewables are expected to come online, leaving suppliers to focus on fulfilling nascent demand in Asia in the coming decades. The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) expects the Asia-Pacific region to account for more than 52% of the 700 billion cubic meter (Bcm) increase in global natural gas demand expected by 2050. India, China and Southeast Asia are expected to underpin growth in the region.
Heat Waves Challenge Asian Power Grids and Price Sensitive Buyers Searching for LNG -Spiking natural gas consumption across South and Southeast Asia continues as dwindling domestic production and increasing power demand continue to drive global LNG market interest. Asia Spot market natural gas and LNG prices. The region has experienced extreme hot weather since April, with temperatures nearing or surpassing record highs in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The heat wave, along with a two-week outage at the Wheatstone liquefied natural gas export plant in Australia that was resolved over the weekend, has pushed prices for Asian spot cargoes above $12/MMBtu this month. However, EnergyAspects expects prices to fall next month as the weather cools.
Record High Temperatures Keep Indian Power Demand, LNG Imports Elevated -- A sustained heat wave over India since mid-spring has created a surge in natural gas-fired power generation, pushing LNG imports in May to the highest level in almost four years. Graph of India's natural gas production and imports. Liquified natural gas imports to India reached 2.46 million metric tons (mmt) in May, according to Kpler, as India’s gas inventories fell and buyers rushed to secure the super-chilled fuel. Lower global spot prices in May combined with high temperatures just as India’s government triggered policies to mitigate power outages across the country, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis Analyst Purva Jain told NGI.
India’s ONGG to build LNG plant in Madhya Pradesh with Indian Oil - State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) have signed a deal to establish a small-scale LNG plant near the Hatta gas field, “significantly reducing carbon emissions and aligning with India’s climate change mitigation goals”.The memorandum of understanding agreement was signed on 17 June. Speaking in a published statement, ONGC, which is currently exploring for hydrocarbons across India, said the discovery at Hatta “represents the culmination of five decades of sustained exploration efforts”. The company has has already submitted a field development plan to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, “to monetise its assets in the Hatta area”, it added. India has sedimentary basins spanning 3.4 million square kilometres, categorised into three groups. Sites under Category I are already involved in the extraction of hydrocarbons, while those under Category II possess resources but have not yet commenced commercial production. Category III comprises sites with potential resources awaiting discovery, local media agency Mint News reported. The new agreement aims to increase domestic LNG production and lower its dependence on imports. India’s LNG imports amounted to $13.4bn (Rs1.12trn) in fiscal year 2024 (FY2024). According to the news agency, India has imported LNG worth $2.2bn during the current fiscal year (April 2024–May 2025), down from $3.2bn in the same period in FY2023. ONGC claims the Hatta LNG plant will change the Vindhyan Basin’s standing, moving it from Category II to Category I. “The plant will utilise cutting-edge technology to produce LNG, a cleaner alternative to traditional fossil fuels, significantly reducing carbon emissions and aligning with India’s climate change mitigation goals,” the company added in the statement. For FY2024, ONGC estimates its largest-ever combined net income of Rs57,101 crore. The publicly owned energy company saw a 2.4% rise in its crude oil output in the January-March quarter of FY2024 compared with the previous quarter, while gas production decreased by 3%. The company produces more than 1.26 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), according to its website, contributing around 71% of India’s domestic production and has around 15% of India’s total refining capacity.
Siemens to build two gas-fired power plants in Saudi Arabia -- Siemens Energy has entered a long-term maintenance contract for two gas-fired power plants in Saudi Arabia, worth $1.5bn (SR5.63bn).The contract will last for 25 years, with Siemens also supplying power plant technologies that will provide almost 4GW to the country, said a statement released on Tuesday. The power plants, known as Taiba 2 and Qassim 2, will be built in the western and central regions of Saudi Arabia over the next few years.Siemens Energy’s gas turbines will be installed, generating 2GW of electricity at each site, with each of the plants set to be connected to the grid in simple cycle mode in 2026 and permanently operated as combined cycle power plants one year later.In the statement, Siemens said the gas-fired power plants will help to replace some of Saudi Arabia’s ageing power plant fleet, much of which relies on oil as an energy source.Siemens Energy, a German publicly traded energy corporation formed through the spin-off of the former Gas and Power division of Siemens, claims the new power plants will save up to 60% of CO₂compared with oil-fuelled power plants.
Growing FSRU Demand Expected to Help Balance LNG Surplus Later This Decade -A wave of new LNG supply that’s expected to push global natural gas prices lower later this decade is likely to spur additional investments in floating storage and regasification units (FSRU) that could ultimately help to balance any glut. FSRUs are faster to deploy than building larger onshore terminals to import liquefied natural gas and come at a far lower cost. The scramble to secure energy supplies since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and upended global gas flows has increased utilization of the vessels, prompted orders for new ones and created long wait times for those in operation. “It is evident that these vessels have been developed and deployed at a faster rate than in the past,” said RWE AG freight analyst Rupesh Mulwani. “The urgency brought on by recent geopolitical events has driven this accelerated pace.” Related Tags
Russian Oil and Gas Revenues Surge by 50% in June -- In a significant rebound, Russia's oil and gas revenues for June are projected to increase by over 50% year-on-year, reaching $9.4 billion, according to new Reuters calculations. This surge comes after a reduction in refinery subsidies, highlighting Russia's resilience in the face of Western sanctions aimed at its energy sector. The redirection of oil exports to India and China has played a crucial role in maintaining financial inflows, essential for a budget under pressure from increased defense spending. Despite the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and subsequent economic sanctions, Russia's ability to adapt its export strategies has been pivotal. The projected increase in June revenues, up from 794 billion rubles in May and 529 billion rubles in June 2023, underscores the robustness of Russia's energy sector. The Finance Ministry's anticipated report on July 3 will provide detailed insights into these financial trends. The 2024 federal budget anticipates oil and gas revenues to rise by 21% from 2023, following a year marked by lower oil prices and reduced gas exports. Despite the economic strains, Russia has continued to sustain its defense expenditures, resulting in consecutive annual budget deficits of over 3 trillion rubles, approximately 2% of GDP. These deficits have been managed through internal borrowing and the National Wealth Fund. President Vladimir Putin has emphasized the country's economic growth, which stood at 3.6% in 2023 after a 1.2% contraction in 2022. However, local economists caution that this growth is driven largely by increased production in the defense sector, which offers limited benefits to the broader population. As Russia navigates its economic challenges, the resilience of its oil and gas sector remains a critical factor in its financial stability.
Chinese company Wison New Energies ceases all Russian operations - Wison New Energies has announced the cessation of all ongoing projects in Russia, effective immediately, following thorough evaluation.The Chinese engineering company’s decision will affect the Arctic LNG 2 project, which is spearheaded by Russia’s Novatek, reported Reuters. In a LinkedIn post, the company said: “We appreciate the good relations we have built with our Russian partners in the past and value the work we have done together. However, in view of the strategic future of the company, we have to make this difficult decision.”Previously, Novatek disclosed plans to build a gas turbine power station for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, utilising equipment from Wison and Harbin Guanghan Gas Turbine.Novatek aimed to establish the Arctic LNG 2 plant on the Gydan Peninsula as the country’s most significant LNG facility.Initial commercial deliveries were scheduled for the first quarter of this year, following the commencement of production at the first train in December.However, the project faced setbacks last year when it became a target of Western sanctions due to Russia’s engagement in Ukraine. This led to foreign shareholders freezing their participation and Novatek declaring force majeure.As a result, Novatek had to suspend production owing to the sanctions and a lack of available gas tankers. Furthermore, Wison New Energies has decided to divest its entire stake in Zhoushan Wison Offshore & Marine.
Crack in platform leg halts oil production at Wassana offshore Thailand — Valeura Energy has suspended production from the Wassana Field in the Gulf of Thailand due to a safety issue.A scheduled underwater inspection of the MOPU Ingenium revealed a crack within one of the steel jackup legs, which could pose a risk to the platform’s structural integrity.Operations will remain offline while further inspection and analysis take place. Valeura is working with its own and external specialist to determine appropriate action.
Singapore says dredger that hit tanker reported sudden loss of control, Sentosa oil spill cleanup ongoing - Singapore authorities said Monday a dredger boat reported a sudden loss in engine and steering control that led it to hit a stationary cargo tanker, causing an oil spill that has blackened part of the city-island's southern shores. The Netherlands-flagged dredger Vox Maxima struck the Singaporean fuel supply ship Marine Honor on Friday. It ruptured one of the cargo tanks on the Marine Honor, which leaked low-sulfur oil into the sea. Although the leak has been contained, tides washed the spilled oil that had been treated with dispersants further along the shoreline, including to the popular resort island of Sentosa. Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority, in a joint statement with the National Environment Agency, the National Parks Board and Sentosa Development Corp., said the master and crew members of Vox Maxima are assisting in the ongoing investigations. Advertisement Part of the beachfront at a public park, beaches at three southern islands and a nature reserve have been closed to facilitate cleanup efforts. Sentosa beaches remain open to the public but sea activities and swimming are prohibited. Oil Spill Response Limited, an industry-funded cooperative that responds to spills, will deploy floating containment and recovery devices to corral the oil on the water surface, where two skimmer craft will then lift the oil into storage tanks, the statement said. Over 250 workers are involved in the cleanup. Close to 1.5 kilometers (.9 miles) of containment booms have been set up to trap the oil and another 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) of the temporary barriers will be laid over the next few days to prevent further spread of oil onto the shore, the statement said. The National Parks Board also deployed oil-absorbing booms to protect mangroves at another park that hasn't been affected so far. Members of the public who volunteered to help have been assigned to patrol the park for early signs of oil slicks. Conservationists and biologists are monitoring the full extent of the damage on marine and wildlife.
Oil spill clean-up at Singapore's Sentosa will take three months: official - Singaporean Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said earlier this week that it will take three months to complete the oil spill clean-up in the Tanjong and Palawan beaches at Singapore's Sentosa resort. According to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, public and private organizations have deployed over 700 personnel for the clean-up operation. They have collected 550 tonnes of oil-soaked sand and debris from affected beaches. Fu said the clean-up response in the next phase will focus on removing oil remnants trapped in some areas that are not easily accessible, such as breakwaters and rock bunds. She noted the authority is monitoring longer-term impacts at biodiversity-sensitive sites. The oil spill happened on June 14 after a collision between a Netherlands-flagged dredger and a Singapore-flagged bunker vessel. The oil spread to Singapore's southern coast areas, including Sentosa, beaches and parks across Singapore, affecting entertainment activities there. The incident also affected people's lives when some people in Sentosa Cove were forced to leave their homes on June 15 due to an unpleasant smell. Cruise businesses have suffered losses as tourists are disappointed by the pollution.
Malaysia beaches hit by Singapore oil spill - An oil spill off Singapore has spread to beaches in southern Malaysia, a government official said Friday, with clean-up operations underway. Around 25 people were involved in the clean-up of two beaches spanning one kilometer (0.6 miles) in southern Johor state, local government official Ling Tian Soon told AFP. "Work began today and we hope to complete the task tomorrow. From our observation, marine life or fishermen activities have not been affected," he said. The oil spill resulted from an accident on Friday at Singapore's Pasir Panjang terminal between a Netherlands-flagged dredger and a stationary Singapore-flagged bunker vessel, Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said. Photos posted on Ling's Facebook showed men in white protective gear picking up black sludge from a beach and placing it into plastic bags. Ling added that Malaysia's maritime officials were monitoring to see if the oil spill spread to other parts of the coast.
Malaysia cleans up beaches hit by oil spill from Singapore --A Malaysian official said on Friday that clean-up operations are underway after an oil spill off Singapore has spread to beaches in southern Malaysia. The oil spill off Singapore has spread to beaches in southern Malaysia. Photo courtesy of Vietnam News Agency. The oil spill off Singapore has spread to beaches in southern Malaysia. Photo courtesy of Vietnam News Agency. Ling Tian Soon, an official from southern Joho state, said around 25 people were involved in the clean-up of two beaches spanning 1km. Marine life or fishermen activities have not been affected, he said. Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority said the incident resulted from an accident at Pasir Panjang terminal between a Netherlands-flagged dredger and a stationary Singapore-flagged bunker vessel. Ling added that Malaysia's maritime officials were monitoring to see if the oil spill spreads to other parts of the coast.
Singapore seeks compensation for oil spill - Port Technology International The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) is seeking compensation from the shipowner of the vessel involved in last week’s oil spill. According to Reuters, the MPA told local media that the shipowner of the Singapore-flagged Marine Honour, which was struck by the Netherlands-flagged dredger Vox Maxima, is liable for the costs of containing and cleaning the oil spill and repairing infrastructural damage.The MPA announced on 14 June that oil had spilt into the water from the damaged cargo tank of the bunker vessel, adding that the affected tank had been isolated and the spill contained.The dredger Vox Maxima reportedly lost engine and steering control before colliding with the Marine Honour at the terminal, causing the rupture of an oil cargo tank and thus the subsequent spillage of oil into the sea.The oil spread to nearby beaches and parks around Singapore alongside the island of Sentosa, effectively leading to the closure of beaches at Tanjong, Palawan, and Siloso for cleaning, with swimming and sea activities prohibited.An intense clean-up effort followed, involving the deployment of 3,400 metres of booms and oil recovery operations at sea. These efforts relied on predictive modelling of tidal and wind conditions, alongside drone and satellite imagery, reported Reuters. Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat reported that the port authority quickly ensured there were no further leaks from the vessel and sprayed dispersant to treat the spilt oil after the accident, according to Reuters. He further added that the incident was not a result of port congestion. Last month, the port authority completed propulsion and manoeuvrability trials of an ammonia-powered vessel at the Port of Singapore
Pengerang oil spill cleanup to complete on Saturday - Selangor Journal— Cleaning work of the oil spill in the waters of Pengerang, Johor, which started yesterday morning is scheduled to be completed on Saturday (June 29), said Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad. Phase One of the cleaning work, involving collecting oily waste by an appointed contractor, had reached 95 per cent, while Phase Two, involving spraying rocky areas and cleaning pebblestones, was 20 per cent completed. “Other cleaning works such as the collection of tarballs on the surface of the beach and the containment of oily water using absorbent booms to prevent it from flowing towards the sea are also being actively carried out. “It involves the Sungai Rengit beach area, which is behind SK Sungai Rengit and the Sungai Rengit Fisherman’s Jetty,” he told the press after opening a carnival at Taman Tasik Titiwangsa today. Nazmi said the oil slick was also detected in the waters of Pulau Cik Kamat, and cleaning will be carried out after the situation in the area is assessed. As of today, the status of other locations, including the rocky area behind the Sungai Rengit Police Station, has not been cleared, while monitoring continues at the Teluk Ramunia Beach near the mosque area. “The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency has also mobilised its assets to monitor waters of Pengerang up to the Abu Bakar Maritime Base, and so far, no oil slicks have been detected in the area involved,” he said. According to media reports, the Netherlands-flagged dredger Vox Maxima struck a Singaporean fuel supply ship, Marine Honor, on Friday (June 21). The impact damaged the cargo tank, causing about 400 tonnes of oil to leak into the waters off the Singapore coast and spread into Malaysian waters. Meanwhile, when asked about the discovery of 40 bags suspected of containing scheduled waste in an open area near Kulim, Kedah yesterday, Nazmi said the Department of Environment is still investigating the matter. “The ministry has also suggested to the state government to install closed-circuit television cameras in hotspots dumping areas as well as strategic locations to deal with the problem,” he said.
Coast Guard probes oil spill in Oriental Mindoro The Coast Guard is investigating an oil spill spotted along the shores of Barangays Buhay na Tubig and Bacawan in Pola, Oriental Mindoro. Residents also noticed a strong, unpleasant odor coming from the sea. The Coast Guard Oriental Mindoro conducted cleanup operations in the areas affected and collected at least three sacks of oil-contaminated debris. The Marine Environmental Protection of the Philippine Coast Guard has taken samples for laboratory testing. Officials suspect that a ship or boat might have discharged or accidentally spilled oil while passing through the area. The Coast Guard clarified that the spill did not originate from the sunken oil tanker, MT Princess Empress, as all its oil had already been removed.
Dangote Claims Oil Majors Are Trying to Sabotage Africa's Biggest Refinery -The international oil companies operating in Nigeria are seeking to undermine the operations and profit margins of Africa’s largest refinery, Dangote, by asking for high premiums for domestically produced crude, a senior official at the Dangote refinery has told local media.The Dangote Refinery in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest, began the production of fuels in January 2024, marking the start-up of the refinery that has seen years of delays. Now a senior official accuses the multinational companies operating in the country of “plotting” to bankrupt the refinery.“While the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) are trying their best to allocate the crude for us, the IOCs are deliberately and willfully frustrating our efforts to buy the local crude,” Devakumar Edwin, Vice President, Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), told Nigerian media this weekend.“It seems that the IOCs’ objective is to ensure that our Petroleum Refinery fails. It is either they are deliberately asking for ridiculous/humongous premium or, they simply state that crude is not available,” Nigeria’s newspapers quoted Edwin as saying.The refinery had to pay $6 per barrel above the market price at one point, the official added.“It appears that the objective of the IOCs is to ensure that Nigeria remains a country which exports crude oil and imports refined petroleum products,” Edwin was also quoted as saying.The Dangote refinery, which has a processing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd), is expected to meet 100% of Nigeria’s demand for all refined petroleum products and have a surplus of each of the products for export.
Oil prices up as focus remains on Middle East conflict -- Oil prices slightly increased on Monday over the supply worries due to the growing tensions in the Middle East. International benchmark Brent crude traded at $84.53 per barrel at 11.18 a.m. local time (0818 GMT), a rise of 0.24% from the closing price of $84.33 per barrel in the previous trading session. The American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $80.90 per barrel at the same time, a 0.21% increase from the previous session that closed at $80.73 per barrel. The escalating geopolitical tensions continue to put global energy supply routes at risk and drive up oil prices. In recent weeks, the Israeli-Lebanese border has seen significant escalation, prompting repeated calls from the US to contain the situation. According to sources cited by Channel 12, Israel has alerted the US it could use weapons never deployed before in the event of an all-out war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. "Tel Aviv conveyed a message to the White House stating its intent to employ unspecified new weapons systems to swiftly deal with any potential conflict with Hezbollah and avoid a prolonged war," the Israeli television channel said. Tensions have soared along Lebanon's border with Israel amid cross-border attacks between the Lebanese Hezbollah group and Israeli forces as Tel Aviv presses ahead with its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 37,500 Palestinians since last October. Yemen's Houthi group has also continued targeting cargo ships in the Red Sea, owned or operated by Israeli companies or transporting goods to and from Israel in solidarity with the Gaza Strip. The Red Sea is one of the world's most frequently used sea routes for oil and fuel shipments. However, ongoing uncertainties over the timing of the US Federal Reserve's (Fed) interest rate cut continue to raise demand concerns, limiting upward price pressures. The Fed announced its monetary policy decisions and economic projections on June 12. The bank did not change the policy rate in line with expectations and kept it constant at 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 23 years. Experts believe that keeping interest rates at high levels for a sustained period may pose risks to the oil demand outlook.
The Market Remained Supported by Tensions in the Middle East and An Easing of the U.S. Dollar - The crude market traded higher on Monday as the market remained supported by tensions in the Middle East and an easing of the U.S. dollar, which had rallied to a seven week high on Friday. The market opened lower in overnight trading and posted a low of $80.23 as the market continued to trade lower following Friday’s late selling. However, the oil market bounced off its low and rallied higher amid the continuing geopolitical risks in the Middle East and an increase in Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries. The crude market traded to a high of $81.78 ahead of the close, still holding resistance at its previous high of $81.79. The August WTI contract settled up 90 cents at $81.63 and the August Brent contract settled up 77 cents at $86.01. The product markets ended the session mixed, with the heating oil market settling up 2.99 cents at $2.5214 and the RB market settling down 22 points at $2.5115. European foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said that the Middle East was close to seeing the conflict expanding into Lebanon just days after Iran-backed Hezbollah threatened EU member Cyprus. He said “The risk of this war affecting the south of Lebanon and spilling over is every day bigger.” Iran-backed Hezbollah began attacking Israel shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault sparked the war in Gaza. Hezbollah has said it would not stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza. Last week, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that nowhere in Israel would be safe if a full-fledged war breaks out between the two foes, and also threatened EU member Cyprus for the first time and other parts of the Mediterranean. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that Ukraine has hit more than 30 Russian oil refineries, terminals and oil depots. Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian oil facilities this year, seeking to disrupt oil supplies to the Russian army and cut Russia’s revenues to finance its war against Ukraine. Chevron said it expects upstream turnarounds and downtime to impact 65,000 bpd of oil equivalent in production in the second quarter mostly driven by Tengizchevroil in Kazakhstan and several Gulf of Mexico assets. It said it expects downstream turnarounds to impact earnings by $300 million to $400 million mainly due to maintenance at the El Segundo and Richmond refineries in California. IIR Energy said U.S. oil refiners are expected to shut in about 85,000 bpd of capacity in the week ending June 28th, increasing available refining capacity by 68,000 bpd. Offline capacity is expected to fall to 79,000 bpd in the week ending July 5th. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said a merchant vessel in the Arabian Sea reported an explosion in close proximity to it on Monday. It said the crew was reported safe and the vessel was proceeding to its next port of call.
Oil prices rise on fuel demand expectations, easing US dollar (Reuters) - Oil prices rose about 1% on Monday, spurred by the prospect of strong summer driving demand and as tensions in the Middle East and drone attacks on Russian refineries led to concerns about supply.An easing U.S. dollar added to the crude price strength.Brent futures for August delivery settled at $86.01 a barrel, gaining 77 cents, or 0.9%. U.S. crude settled at $81.63 a barrel, gaining 90 cents, or 1.1%Both benchmarks advanced about 3% last week for their second consecutive weekly upswing."The chief underlying reason behind the price strength ... is the growing confidence that global oil inventories will inevitably plunge during the summer in the northern hemisphere," After last week's big decline in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories, , traders are waiting to see whether the report due on Wednesday will provide further evidence of sustained strong gasoline demand, ."It has to sustain for this positive narrative to continue in the market," said Yawger, adding that the growing electric vehicle market is eroding gasoline's share of the transportation market.The gasoline-led rally could taper off in the coming weeks as inflation eats into summer travel spending, . "We still expect a significant falloff in demand next month especially with the recent uplift in retail pricing further curtailing vacation plans,".Geopolitical risks in the Middle East and an increase in Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries also underpinned oil prices.EU countries on Monday agreed on a new package of sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine, including a ban on reloading Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the EU for further shipment to third countries.An easing U.S. currency made dollar-denominated commodities such as oil more attractive to buyers using other currencies.The dollar weakened from a near eight-week high as traders went back on alert for intervention to support the yen after the Japanese currency danced with the 160 per dollar level.The dollar index, measuring performance against six major currencies, had climbed on Friday and was up slightly on Monday after data showed U.S. business activity at a 26-month high in June.In Ecuador, state oil company Petroecuador has declared force majeure on deliveries of Napo heavy crude for export after the shutdown of a pipeline and oil wells owing to heavy rain, sources said on Friday.
Oil prices fall about 1% as traders watch Israel-Lebanon tensions, summer demand - Crude oil futures fell about 1% Tuesday as the recent rally took a breather, with traders watching for summer fuel demand and tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border.U.S. crude oil and global benchmark Brent are ahead by 4.9% and 4.1%, respectively, for the month as prices have bounced back from May doldrums on a more optimistic outlook for summer fuel demand.But the oil market slipped Tuesday as prices failed to maintain upside momentum, with funds liquidating recently acquired long positions, Prices fell as consumer confidence slightly weakened in June, and the Richmond Federal Reserve's manufacturing index fell to -10 this month, down from zero in May. Here are Tuesday's closing energy prices:
- West Texas Intermediate August contract: $80.83 per barrel, down 80 cents, or 0.98%. Year to date, U.S. oil has gained 12.8%
- Brent August contract: $85.01 per barrel, down $1, or 1.16%. Year to date, the global benchmark is ahead by 10.3%.
- RBOB Gasoline July contract: $2.51 per gallon, little changed. Year to date, gasoline is up 19.6%.
- Natural Gas July contract: $2.75 per thousand cubic feet, down 1.96%. Year to date, gas is up 9.6%.
Though the rally has taken a breather, geopolitical tensions should prevent another rout in oil prices, as tensions between Israel and Lebanon raise the risk of a disruption to crude supplies.Israel and the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah have threatened war in recent days after trading fire across the Lebanon border for months. Air Force General Charles Q. Brown, the top U.S. military officer, warned Sunday that OPEC member Iran "would be more inclined to support Hezbollah" if Israel launched an offensive in Lebanon."A renewed increase in our energy supply risk indicator can support price action in the near term, but ultimately we still argue the upside is likely capped by increasing global supply and potential OPEC+ increases, which puts 2025 balances in question," Oil prices hit annual highs in April as Israel and Iran teetered on the brink of war, stoking fears that a wider conflict could engulf the Middle East and disrupt crude supplies. Prices subsequently pulled back as tensions eased."Oil markets have so far been immune to the fallout of the Gaza invasion," "However, at a time when there is an expectation of higher-to-be numbers in oil prices, such a sweeping under the carpet of the wider considerations of the conflict is starting to run out of space,".Brent prices above $85 per barrel could be the start of more upward pressure on prices as geopolitical risk and bullish fundamentals converge, said Claudio Galimberti, director of global market analysis at Rystad Energy.U.S. crude oil, gasoline and distillate stockpiles all fell during the week ending June 14 in a sign of strengthening demand. Analysts expect there was an even bigger crude oil draw of 3 million barrels last week, according to a Reuters poll. The Energy Information Administration releases official data Wednesday. JPMorgan forecasts Brent will hit $90 per barrel by August or September.
The Oil Market on Tuesday Ended the Session Lower Ahead of the Release of the Weekly Petroleum Stocks Reports -- The oil market on Tuesday ended the session lower ahead of the release of the weekly petroleum stocks reports later in the afternoon and on Wednesday morning. The market’s recent gains, which were attributed to the geopolitical tension in the Middle East, were also limited by weak U.S. consumer confidence data increasing concerns about the economic outlook. The crude market opened slightly higher and posted a high of $81.90 before it started to erase some of its previous gains in overnight trading. The market, however, erased its gains and sold off to a low of $80.76 ahead of the close. The August WTI contract settled down 80 cents at $80.83 and continued to sell off, posting a low of $80.69 in the post settlement period. The August Brent contract settled down $1.00 at $85.01. The product markets ended the session in mixed territory, with the heating oil market settling down 1.2 cents at $2.5094 and the RB market settling up 32 points at $2.5147. Colonial Pipeline Co is allocating space for Cycle 38 shipments on Line 20, which carries distillates from Atlanta, Georgia to Nashville, Tennessee. Iran’s oil minister claimed that as a result of investments of more than $34 billion over the past three years in 155 energy projects, Iran’s crude oil production has grown by more than 70% and reached 3.6 million b/d. Nigerian oil and gas producer Aiteo Eastern Exploration reported earlier this week it has resumed production at its OML 29 license, ending a seven day shutdown following the discovery of a leak at the Nembe Creek facility back on June 17th. Some 50,000 b/d of production had been impacted. Mexican regulators reported that crude oil production by Pemex remained below 1.5 million b/d for the second month in a row in May, while gas production was at its lowest level since 2020. Crude oil production in May was reported at 1.48 million b/d, almost 100,000 b/d below May 2023 levels. Meanwhile gross natural gas production was 4.3 bcf/d, with approximately 1 bcf/d of production coming from just two fields. Reuters reported Tuesday that according to its calculations Russia’s oil and gas revenues in June are set to rise by more than 50% year on year to $9.4 billion, after a decrease in subsidies to refineries as well as Russia’s ability to limit the impact of sanctions. U.S. consumer confidence fell slightly in June amid worries about the economic outlook. The Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index fell to 100.4 in June from a downwardly revised 101.3 in May. Consumers’ 12-month inflation expectations fell to 5.3% from 5.4% in May. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s monthly manufacturing index in June fell to -10 from 0 in May.
WTI Drops On Large Gasoline Build, Oil Demand Slump -- Crude prices have roller-coastered over the last 12 hours or so as last night's API (large gasoline build) sparked selling, then buying waves hit during the late-Asia/early-Europe session, then selling returned with a vengance during the early US session as Kanda's comments sparked dollar strength and sent commodities lower. The dismal home sales print sparked dollar weakness and sent oil prices back up into the green ahead of the official inventory data. API
- Crude +914k (-200k exp)
- Cushing -350k
- Gasoline +3.84mm (-900k exp) - biggest build since Jan 2024
- Distillates -1.18mm
DOE
- Crude +3.59mm (-200k exp, whis +800k)
- Cushing -226k
- Gasoline +2.65mm - biggest build since Jan 2024
- Distillates -377k
Confirming API's report, the official data shows a considerable crude inventory build and the largest rise in gasoline stocks since January...Graphics Source: BloombergThe Biden admin added a shockingly large 1.285mm barrels to the SPR last week - the largest since June 2020. Overall this was the biggest weekly increase in stocks in two months...
Oil settles slightly up as global supply risks offset US demand concerns (Reuters) - Oil prices settled slightly higher on Wednesday despite a surprise jump in U.S. gasoline supplies, as investors worried that a potential expansion of the Gaza war could disrupt crude supplies from the Middle East.Brent crude futures rose 24 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $85.25 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled 7 cents higher at $80.90 a barrel.Cross-border strains between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have been escalating in recent weeks, stoking fears of an all-out Israel-Hezbollah war that could draw in other regional powers, including major oil producer Iran."The geopolitical risk premium has been coming back to the market as a war between Israel and Lebanon is likely to see direct involvement of Iran, that would be a concern," Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his country stood in solidarity with Lebanon and called on regional countries' support.Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea have supported oil prices. The group said it targeted a ship in Israel's Haifa port with a number of drones in a joint military operation with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.Early in the session, oil prices fell after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a 3.6 million barrel jump in the country's crude oil stocks last week, surprising analysts polled by Reuters who had expected a drawdown.U.S. stockpiles are rising while inventories elsewhere are declining, UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo noted. “I would call the oil market a tale of different stories," Staunovo said. "We saw oil inventory draws in Japan and Europe last week. So it seems the market is tightening, just not yet in the U.S."UBS expects oil prices to rise in coming weeks.Oil traders have worried about weak U.S. gasoline consumption during the country's peak summer driving season.U.S. gasoline use represents around 10% of total world oil consumption, and gasoline demand in the country last week was down 3.6% from a year ago to around 8.9 million barrels a day. Stocks of the fuel rose unexpectedly even as refiners cut back output."These statistics are certainly going to disappoint the gasoline bulls," Lipow said. "Absent a hurricane, we have adequate supplies for the summer driving season with July 4th right around the corner."
Oil eases as stock build raises spectre of slower US demand - Oil prices dipped on Thursday as a surprise build in U.S. stockpiles fuelled fears about slow demand from the world's top oil consumer, though declines were capped by worries a potential expansion of the Gaza war may disrupt Middle East supplies. Brent crude oil futures fell 28 cents, or 0.3%, to $84.97 a barrel by 0310 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures dropped 31 cents, or 0.4%, to $80.59 per barrel. Both benchmarks had settled slightly higher on Wednesday. "An expected increase in U.S. inventories of crude oil and gasoline are weighing on the market due to fears of weakening demand," "But the market is in a tug-of-war situation, underpinned by the prospect that an escalation in the battle between Israel and Hezbollah may hinder supply," The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a 3.6 million barrel jump in the country's crude oil stocks last week, surprising analysts polled by Reuters who had expected a 2.9 million-barrel drawdown. U.S. gasoline stocks also rose by 2.7 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for a 1 million-barrel draw. Product supplied for motor gasoline, a proxy for demand, fell by about 417,000 barrels per day last week, to 8.97 million bpd. The four-week average for demand is about 2% under last year's levels. "We believe the market's upside is limited by weak U.S. gasoline demand despite the peak summer driving season kicking in," Gasoline margins, reflected by the crack spread between gasoline to Brent and WTI, have trended lower after peaking in March at the $30s-per-barrel range, Jamil said. "This weakness is further compounded by sluggish diesel demand both in Europe and the U.S., with margins falling since last August," he added. Meanwhile, worries of the Gaza war spreading to Lebanon limited price declines. In the Middle East, cross-border strains between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have been escalating in recent weeks, stoking fears of an all-out Israel-Hezbollah war that could draw in other regional powers, including major oil producer Iran. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his country stood in solidarity with Lebanon and called on regional countries' support. Israeli forces pounded several areas across Gaza on Wednesday, and residents reported fierce fighting overnight in Rafah in the south of the Palestinian enclave.
The Market Remained Supported by Concerns Over Geopolitical Tension in the Middle East - The oil market traded higher on Thursday as the market remained supported by concerns over the geopolitical tension in the Middle East. However, its gains were limited by the unexpected builds reported in crude and gasoline stocks in the EIA report on Wednesday. The market traded mostly sideways in overnight trading, posting a low of $80.51, before it breached its previous highs and rallied to a high of $82.04 amid some supportive economic data and comments made by a Fed official stating that inflation appeared to be narrowing, which would allow the Fed to cut interest rates later this year. The market later erased some of its gains and settled a sideways trading range during the remainder of the session. The August WTI contract settled up 84 cents at $81.74 and the August Brent contract settled up $1.14 at $86.39. The product markets ended the session higher, with the heating oil market settling up 1.01 cents at $2.5476 and the RB market settling up 10 points $2.5456. According to a survey by The Wall Street Journal, oil prices are forecast to remain around current levels in the second half and progressively soften early next year. Brent crude is estimated at $86.32 and $85.92/barrel in the third and fourth quarters of 2024, respectively. In the first two quarters of next year, Brent crude is expected to fall to $84.50/barrel and $82.46/barrel, respectively. WTI crude is seen at $81.81/barrel and $81.76/barrel in the third and fourth quarter of this year, respectively and at $80.33 and $78.25/barrel in the first and second quarters of 2025. The U.S. Senate budget committee launched an investigation of 18 domestic oil producers, including Exxon Mobil Corp, BP Plc and Chevron, about any efforts to illegally coordinate with OPEC on oil output and crude oil prices. This followed allegations that the former head of Pioneer Natural Resources Co colluded with the cartel. Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse has requested documents from the oil companies on grounds that evidence suggests the oil and gas industry may be trying to depress production. A spokesman for Yemen’s Houthis, Yahya Saree, said the military group targeted a vessel in the Red Sea with a drone boat and a number of missiles and drones. The U.S. Supreme Court blocked an Environmental Protection Agency regulation aimed at reducing ozone emissions that may increase air pollution in neighboring states. The 5-4 decision granted requests by Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia as well as U.S. Steel Corp pipeline operator Kinder Morgan and industry groups to halt enforcement of the EPA’s “Good Neighbor” plan restricting ozone pollution from upwind states, while they contest the rule’s legality in a lower court. Early Market Call – as of 8:25 AM EDT
Oil settles $1 up, war risk premium outweighs ample US stocks (Reuters) - Oil futures settled higher on Thursday on worries about global crude supply disruptions as geopolitical pressure in the Middle East and Europe mounted, while a surprise increase in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories gave prices a ceiling.Brent crude oil futures settled up $1.14, or 1.34%, to $86.39 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled up by 84 cents, or 1.04%, at $81.74.WTI futures also rose by more than $1 a barrel earlier in the session.Cross-border strains between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have been escalating, fanning fears that a widening war could draw in other countries including major oil producer Iran.The French foreign ministry said France is extremely concerned about the situation in Lebanon and called for restraint. Any contagion could have a big impact on crude supplies from the Middle East, said Panmure Gordon analyst Ashley Kelty.Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his country stood in solidarity with Lebanon and called on the region's countries to show support. Israel stormed a neighbourhood in Gaza City, telling Palestinians they must head south. Israeli forces also bombed the southern city of Rafah in what it called final stages of an operation against Hamas militants. Yemen's Houthis targeted "vessel Seajoy" in the Red Sea with a drone boat and a number of missiles and drones, the Iran-aligned group's military spokesman Yahya Saree said. The Houthi militia, which controls the most populous parts of Yemen, has staged attacks on ships in the waters off the country for months in solidarity with Palestinians fighting Israel in Gaza. In Europe, Russia is considering a possible downgrade of relations with the West due to deeper involvement of the U.S. and its allies in the Ukraine war, but no decision had yet been made, the Kremlin said.Downgrading relations - or even breaking them off - would illustrate the gravity of the confrontation between Russia and the West over Ukraine following escalating tensions surrounding the war in recent months.The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a 3.6 million-barrel weekly jump in crude oil stocks. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a drawdown of 2.9 million barrels."Yesterday’s EIA report is still an overhang for the market today as it was a surprise in terms of the builds we saw, and the refinery run rates," U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 2.7 million barrels. Analysts had expected a 1 million-barrel draw."We are right now at the peak of the summer driving season, approaching July 4 weekend, so for markets to be moving sideways now, then we may well even see a dip after the holiday weekend,” .In Europe, independently held gasoline stocks in storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose by over 9% in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed, suggesting limited scope for transatlantic U.S. gasoline demand. Meanwhile, comments from Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic in a policy essay released on Thursday reiterated expectations of an interest rate cut in the fourth quarter of this year, in line with investors' expectations of cuts starting in September. "There is certainly nothing we can hang our hats on in terms of the Fed looking to juice the markets again,"
Oil price news: Oil hits 2-month high as Mideast tensions rattle market - Oil touched the highest level in almost two months, with the market gripped by turmoil in the Middle East and political uncertainty in some of the world’s biggest economies. Brent crude and West Texas intermediate edged up, hitting their highest intraday levels since April 30. Brent traded above US$87 a barrel, while the U.S. benchmark rose toward $83. Israel is lurching closer to a full-blown war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, while its fight against Hamas in Gaza continues. Meanwhile, Houthi rebels in Yemen have stepped up attacks on commercial shipping in the region. Iran, which backs all three militant groups, is holding a snap election Friday following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month. “The idea of a tightening market remains very much the remit of futures at present, and is where much of the anxiety of what might just happen in the Middle East is represented,” said Tamas Varga, an analyst at brokerage PVM, in a research note. Looming votes elsewhere are also grabbing traders’ attention. In France, voters are set to go the polls this weekend for the first round of a snap election that has roiled markets. And in the U.S., a disastrous debate for President Joe Biden on Thursday has led some Democrats to question whether they should quickly replace him with another candidate to face Republican Donald Trump in November’s election. Separately, traders are awaiting U.S. personal consumption data due Friday for clues on the path forward for U.S. monetary policy. U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said he continues to expect one interest rate cut this year in the fourth quarter as inflation shows progress. Crude has traded in a narrow range of about $2 this week as bullish momentum counteracts weak near-term fundamentals for the economy. U.S. Gulf Coast inventories surged last week, while overall stockpiles are the highest since April. There are also signs of lackluster fuel consumption. Persistent concerns about China’s economic outlook remain an issue for the market. The nation’s refiners have been forced to cut operating rates and prolong maintenance due to a demand slowdown in the world’s biggest crude importer. Still, prompt spreads are signaling some strength, with the measure for Brent rallying to over $1 a barrel in a bullish backwardation structure ahead of the contract expiry. WTI for August delivery was 1% higher at $82.57 a barrel at 10:55 a.m. in London. Brent for August settlement, which expires Friday, rose 0.9% to $87.13 a barrel. The more-active September contract climbed 0.9% to $86.03 a barrel.
Oil eases on weak US fuel demand, profit taking – CNA -- Oil prices fell on Friday as investors weighed weak U.S. fuel demand and took some money off the table at quarter-end, while key inflation data for May boosted the chances the Federal Reserve will start to cut interest rates this year. Brent crude futures for August settlement, which expired on Friday, settled up 2 cents at $86.41 a barrel. The more liquid September contract fell 0.3 per cent to $85 a barrel.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled 20 cents lower, or 0.24 per cent, to $81.54.For the week, Brent rose 0.02 per cent while WTI futures posted a 0.2 per cent loss. Both benchmarks gained around 6 per cent for the month.While U.S. oil production and demand rose to a four-month high in April, demand for gasoline fell to 8.83 million barrels per day, its lowest since February, according to the Energy Information Administration's Petroleum Supply Monthly report published on Friday."The monthly report from the EIA suggested the gasoline demand was pretty poor," "Those numbers didn't really inspire more buying."Analysts said some traders took profits at the end of the second quarter after prices rallied earlier this month.The U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, was flat in May, lifting hopes for rate cuts in September.Still, the reaction in financial markets was minimal. For oil traders, the release passed unnoticed, Growing expectations of a Fed easing cycle have sparked a risk rally across stock markets. Traders are now pricing in a 64 per cent chance of a first rate cut in September, up from 50 per cent a month ago, according to the CME FedWatch tool.Easing interest rates could be a boon for oil because it could increase demand from consumers."Oil prices have been converging with our fair value estimates recently, revealing the underlying strength in fundamentals through a clearing in the fog of war," Barclays analyst Amarpreet Singh wrote in a client note. Barclays expects Brent crude to remain around $90 a barrel over the coming months.Oil prices might not change much in the second half of 2024, with concern over Chinese demand and the prospect of higher supply from key producers countering geopolitical risks, a Reuters poll indicated on Friday.Brent crude is expected to average $83.93 a barrel in 2024 with U.S. crude averaging $79.72, the poll found.The U.S. active oil rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell by six to 479 this week, the lowest level since December 2021, energy services firm Baker Hughes said.Money managers raised their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions in the week to June 25, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said.
US Imposes New Sanctions Against Iran, Claiming ‘Nuclear Escalation’ - The US State Department announced today, as it threatened earlier this month, a new round of sanctions against Iran, claiming it was the result of “nuclear escalations.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Iran announced expansions that had “no credible peaceful purpose.” The IAEA had earlier informed the US and others that Iran was installing additional centrifuge cascades. The cascades have been installed as an Iranian attempt to get the JCPOA parties to remedy the fact that the signatories of the JCPOA, notably, Germany, France, and Britain, have never honored the sanctions relief that is central to the deal.In trying to force the talks, Iran has increased uranium enrichment up to 60%, which still falls far short of the 90-95% generally recognized as weapons-grade. So far, the three European nations have just threatened Iran and accused them of not honoring the spirit of the deal. The US, of course, imposes new sanctions regularly although the US left the deal during the Trump administration years ago.Blinken continues to play up the false allegation of Iran seeking nuclear weapons and presented the sanctions as a US action to preclude that from happening. This, despite reports from the US Director of National Intelligence that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons at all.The JCPOA was meant to offer Iran substantial sanction relief and a path to international normalization in return for implementing measures in its civilian nuclear program that went far beyond those any other nation has been subjected to. The US, however, blocked the sanctions relief from the beginning, and has continuously threatened Iran ever since.Iran’s civilian nuclear program is meant to provide fuel for its nuclear energy program and to produce nuclear isotopes for medical purposes. The nation has sought to be as self-reliant as possible because in the past the West has seized its nuclear assets. The JCPOA was also meant to guarantee Iran access to the international market for nuclear fuel.The new sanctions target three UAE-based companies which are accused of transporting Iranian oil. Since Iran’s economy is heavily reliant on oil exports, blocking such exports is a go-to action for the US when imposing harsh sanctions.
Shadow banking network for Iranian military hit with US sanctions -- The U.S. Treasury Department is imposing sanctions on a what it calls a shadow banking network for Iran’s military.The sprawling network expands to 50 people and firms in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and the Marshall Islands, and is used by Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the department said.According to the Treasury Department’s announcement, the network has gained illicit access to international finance system, allowing it to “process the equivalent of billions of dollars since 2020.”The release said the individuals and organizations are involved in the sale of Iranian oil and petrochemicals, and use the money to purchase weapons, some of which are transferred to Russia for its war in Ukraine, and fund groups like Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which have caused a crisis in Red Sea shipping lanes amid the war in Gaza.Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement that the U.S. is taking action against the shadow banking network like “hundreds of other targets” involved in Iran’s activity since President Biden took office.“We will continue to pursue those who seek to finance Iran’s destabilizing terrorist activities,” Adeyemo said. “We continue to work with allies and partners, as well as the global financial industry, to increase vigilance against the movement of funds supporting terrorism.”The Treasury said Iran’s defense ministry is responsible for the development, production, funding for all its defense operations, including the manufacturing of weapons.
US assault ship sent to eastern Mediterranean amid Israel-Hezbollah tensions - The Pentagon has sent the Navy amphibious assault ship USS Wasp with Marines aboard to the eastern Mediterranean amid rising tensions between Hezbollah and Israel along Lebanon’s border, U.S. European Command confirmed Friday. The Wasp and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit — which includes about 2,200 personnel — entered the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday “on a scheduled deployment to the US Naval Forces Europe-Africa area of operations,” the command said in a Thursday statement. The ship is intended to serve as a deterrent in the region and keep the Israel- Hamas war from becoming a broader regional conflict, EUCOM added. Asked Friday about the ship’s movement, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh stressed that the deployment was scheduled and that the US was not preparing any noncombat evacuation of American citizens out of Lebanon. “The purpose is not to conduct a type of … military assisted departure,” she told reporters. “It is there to ensure regional stability and deter aggression. It has many other capabilities — one being, if there was a need for any type of departure, it can be there to assist in that.” The Wasp will be joined in the eastern Mediterranean by the USS Oak Hill, which is already in the waterway, and the USS New York, which is currently operating in the Atlantic Ocean. The three ships make up the Wasp’s Amphibious Ready Group, Singh said. Amphibious Ready Groups and Marines are trained for a wide variety of missions that include the evacuation of U.S. citizens from war zones. After trading fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border for nearly nine months, fears are growing of a full-blown conflict. The animosity stems from Hamas’s attack in Israel on Oct. 7, which set off a brutal Israeli air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip to defeat Hamas. Both Israel and Hezbollah have recently ratcheted up the rhetoric, with an escalation in the clashes and the Israeli government earlier this month announcing it had approved a plan for a military offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Rare LNG vessel sails through Red Sea amid Houthi attacks, data shows (Reuters) - The first liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker since January is sailing through the Red Sea, just days after Yemen-based Houthi militants sank their second vessel in attacks begun last November. The vessel, Asya Energy, passed Yemen, travelling through the Bab al-Mandab Strait on Tuesday, shiptracking data from LSEG and Kpler showed, the same week that the second ship believed to have been hit by the militants sank. "Asya Energy is the first LNG tanker to sail through the Strait since January, when LNG voyages through the Red Sea were suspended amid repeated rocket attacks," said LSEG analyst Olumide Ajayi. Data showed the ship was carrying cargo, he added. Most LNG tankers have avoided the route after the Houthis' repeated drone and missile strikes in the Red Sea region. They call the attacks, since expanded to other busy waterways, acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's war in Gaza. The Suez Canal links the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, creating the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia, and is connected to the Gulf of Aden by the Bab al-Mandab Strait between Yemen and Djibouti. Palau-flagged Asya Energy is heading for Gibraltar, Kpler data shows. It previously called at the Sohar port in Oman, LSEG data showed. It was not immediately clear who had chartered the ship. Nur Global Shipping manages the ship, which is owned by Lule One Services, Equasis data showed, with both companies based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Nur Global Shipping did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted on LinkedIn. Reuters could not find contact information for Lule One Services. The Asya Energy may soon become the first vessel to take the Red Sea passage since Jan. 12 after waiting around the coast of Oman since mid-January, said Ana Subasic, natural gas and LNG analyst at data and analytics firm Kpler. "At present, automatic identification system (AIS) signal feed to our platform shows the ballast vessel has set a course towards the Gibraltar checkpoint, although ... it is too early to be making an accurate prediction," she said. "We are keeping a very close eye on it and waiting for more ad-hoc raw signals or market sources to feed in." Leading industry groups have called for urgent action in the Red Sea to stop attacks on merchant shipping by the Houthis, whose first ship sunk was the British-owned Rubymar, on March 2, about two weeks after being struck by missiles.
Russia Confirms US Drone Strikes Against Eastern Syria - Russian officials have issued a statement confirming that multiple drone strikes overnight in eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border. The strikes killed multiple, and included an attack on a cargo truck traveling through the region, killing a member of Iraq’s Sayyed al-Shuhada Brigades.The reports are that MQ-1C multi-purpose drones were used. The United States has not commented on its apparent involvement in the attacks. The US-led Global Anti-Terrorism Coalition denied that any drone operations took place, despite multiple reports of the attacks.One of the strikes hit a group which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights labeled “pro-Iran fighters,” though two of the slain were identified as Iraqis, and the third has not yet been identified.The attacks took place in and around al-Bukamal, a key city at the border crossing between Syria and Iraq. That main strike was at a military base, causing an explosion that was heard throughout the area.The second strike, which targeted a truck, killed a man that Sayyed al-Shuhada Brigades claimed was on a “reconnaissance patrol.” The brigades said that the United States was behind the attack. The US targets Shi’ite militias operating on the Syrian side of the border fairly regularly.
Israel Pounds South Lebanon Town With White Phosphorous - Amid growing fear of a full-scale invasion, Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes against the southern Lebanon town of Khiam, using incendiary white phosphorous bombs, according to the National News Agency.Israel has not commented on the use of white phosphorous in a populated civilian area, nor is it likely to. The extent of any casualties is not known at the present.In recent weeks, the use of phosphorous, even including flinging fireballs into Lebanon with medieval trebuchets, has become a go-to Israeli strategy. At the time, Israel maintained setting fires was a security measure, clearing brush in the agricultural areas of southern Lebanon. Employing white phosphorous is not actually illegal, but the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons severely regulates its use against civilian targets. Israel is a signatory to the convention, but in its frequent warfare with neighboring countries, does not appear to view the regulation as restricting its use of the substance. Beyond Khiam, Israel carried out strikes on Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon, destroying at least three homes, and artillery strikes against Wazzani, Wadi Hamoul and Dhayra. Israeli jets also attacked what they described as “infrastructure” in southern Lebanon, in places including Kfar Chouba and Ayta ash-Shab. Israel’s military released video footage of the attacks.
Israeli Defense Minister Vows to Return Lebanon to ‘Stone Age’ - Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was prepared to send Lebanon back to the “Stone Age” with a massive bombing campaign. The White House desperately tries to avert a major war in the Middle East but is not making progress.After three days of meetings with top officials in Washington, Gallant told reporters that Israel preferred diplomacy but was also willing to utterly destroy Lebanon. “We do not want war, but we are preparing for every scenario. Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage in Lebanon if a war is launched,” he said. Israel could bomb “Lebanon back to the Stone Age, but we don’t want to do it.”Gallant’s remarks come as daily tit-for-tat exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel risk escalating into a major war that could see the US, Iran, and other militias across the Middle East enter the fray. After announcing it had “operational plans” ready for an attack, Israel has started to move some military assets from near Gaza to its northern border.The White House has invested considerable effort into bringing the conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza to a close. However, rather than applying pressure on Tel Aviv to deescalate, Washington has tried to force Hezbollah and Hamas to accept Israeli demands. Last week, American officials told Beirut that Washington was unable to constrain Tel Aviv, in hopes the warning would convince Hezbollah to back down.President Joe Biden has significant leverage he could use to reign in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but has largely refused to do so. While US officials claim their diplomatic efforts are not stalled, an increasing number of countries worry war will break out and are asking their citizens to leave Lebanon.Last week, Biden’s envoy Amos Hochstein visited Tel Aviv and Beirut, hoping to work on a deal to end the fighting. At the time, Hochstein pushed for a deal to end the war in Gaza, with the belief that it would lead to deeslcation on Israel’s northern border as well.Hezbollah maintains that it will end operations against Israel once the onslaught in Gaza comes to a close. Israel says it will not stop attacks on Lebanon until Hezbollah withdraws several miles from the border. Tel Aviv has decimated southern Lebanon, turning much of the area within three miles of the border into a “dead zone.”Now, the Biden administration’s tactics have flipped, with officials telling reporters that the deal to end the fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border must be separate from any Gaza ceasefire. “The logic of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah…is that it is all tied to Gaza, and until there is a cease-fire in Gaza the firing at Israel won’t stop,” the Wall Street Journalreported, citing a senior Biden official. “We frankly, completely reject this logic.”
IDF Kills Over 100 Palestinians in Weekend Strikes Across Gaza Strip - Tel Aviv carried out several attacks across the Gaza Strip this weekend. On Saturday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 100 Palestinians were killed, along with 169 others wounded, in 24 hours amid various strikes. This was the deadliest day in the Strip since the June 8 massacre on the Nuseirat refugee camp, which slaughtered at least 274 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more. A UN facility was hit on Sunday, killing at least four people. On Friday, the IDF bombarded areas in southern Gaza near the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) base at the al-Mawasi camp, a location Tel Aviv claimed was a safe zone for displaced Palestinians following its invasion of Rafah. Palestinian officials say two Israeli strikes killed a minimum of 25 people and wounded 50 others, the Associated Press reported. The victims were among hundreds of Palestinians sheltering in tents outside the ICRC office.Witnesses whose family members were slaughtered in the bombing told AP that the IDF fired a second volley that killed people making their way out of their tents. The ICRC denounced the mass killing at the camp and noted the warring parties were aware of the location of its humanitarian office, which was also struck during the attack.“Firing so dangerously close to humanitarian structures, of whose locations the parties to the conflict are aware and which are clearly marked with Red Cross emblems, puts the lives of civilians and Red Cross staff at risk,” an ICRC statement reads. It added, “The strike damaged the structure of the ICRC office, which is surrounded by hundreds of displaced civilians living in tents, including many of our Palestinian colleagues.” A day later, Al Jazeera documented further assaults on the al-Mawasi camp with Tareq Abu Azzoum, one of the outlet’s correspondents on the ground, reporting “Witnesses said Israeli tanks carried out a sudden and unexpected incursion in al-Mawasi, launching a number of artillery shells towards the evacuation centers and makeshift tents… The entire area of al-Mawasi is an evacuation center. It’s a very tiny strip of land where more than 100,000 Palestinians have been taking refuge. It’s the place where field hospitals have been established and it’s a center for humanitarian organizations.”In northern Gaza, on Saturday, at least 43 more Palestinians were murdered by Israeli attacks on the Shati refugee camp as well as Gaza City’s Tuffah neighborhood. Abu Azzoum said a residential area in the Shati refugee camp was targeted, another location where displaced Palestinians from the north were told they could seek refuge.“Rescuers with the help of civilians are trying to sift through the rubble to find survivors… The casualties arriving at Al-Aqsa hospital are surging,” he said. The head of Gaza’s Government Media Office told the outlet that, in Shati, 24 people were killed in 7 homes. Gaza’s Civil Defense reported recovering 19 bodies from Tuffah.On Sunday, eight Palestinians were killed and multiple others wounded in Gaza City near an aid center, sheltering hundreds of people, that was the primary headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the besieged enclave. The air strike hit the compound’s main gate. This facility is used to distribute the miniscule amount of aid that reaches the Strip.According to UNRWA, since the start of the Gaza onslaught, 188 UN facilities have been targeted during 445 Israeli bombing raids killing more than 500 displaced Palestinians and wounding more than 1,500. Additionally, the IDF has murdered a record 193 UN workers.In an X post, the IDF took credit for the “precise strike” on the UNRWA aid center but blamed Hamas and Islamic Jihad, claiming it has become a base of their operations without providing evidence. Over the last several days, Israeli tanks have advanced further into the western and northern parts of Rafah, with the southern Gazan city’s residents saying the pace of Israeli operations is accelerating. Reuters reports the IDF is moving toward a complete capture of the city, where approximately 1.5 million Palestinians had been displaced throughout the first seven months of the genocidal war.More than a million people have been displaced from Rafah since the IDF seized the vital Rafah border crossing with Egypt on May 7 andsubsequently destroyed it, deliberately exacerbating the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis caused by the massive bombing campaign and its concomitant starvation siege. The director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital said Saturday that four children starved to death this week. “We lost a child in the nursery department of the hospital during the past few hours. He is the fourth child to die in the hospital in the last week due to malnutrition,” he told a news conference.
Save the Children: 21,000 Gaza Children Missing - Save the Children issued a startling new report suggesting that 21,000 Gazan children are missing as the Israeli onslaught drags on. Aside from those unaccounted for, at least 14,000 children have been confirmed killed.The report stated that in the chaos of war, it is hard to locate missing children, but some are thought to be separated from their parents while others are buried under the rubble or in mass graves.“At least 17,000 children are believed to be unaccompanied and separated and approximately 4,000 children are likely missing under the rubble, with an unknown number also in mass graves,” the agency’s press release explained. “Others have been forcibly disappeared, including an unknown number detained and forcibly transferred out of Gaza.”“No parent should have to dig through rubble or mass graves to try and find their child’s body. No child should be alone, unprotected in a war zone. No child should be detained or held hostage,” said Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, Jeremy Stoner. “Gaza has become a graveyard for children, with thousands of others missing, their fates unknown. There must be an independent investigation and those responsible must be held accountable.”The Gaza Health Ministry reports that children account for 14,000 of the more than 37,000 confirmed Palestinian deaths over the past eight months. Along with death and separation from family members, Gaza’s children are facing numerous other severe challenges.The spokesman for the UN aid agency for children (UNICEF), James Elder,said in an interview with Democracy Now that Israel’s military operations in Gaza amount to a “war on children.” As the conflict continues, thousands of children are facing a lack of food, water, and medical care that is beginning to become lethal.
20 killed, including police officers, as attacks launched on synagogues, Orthodox churches in southern Russia: Officials - The death toll from apparent coordinated terrorist attacks Sunday in southern Russia climbed to 20 on Monday, including 15 law enforcement officers, when militant terrorists wielding automatic weapons opened fire on synagogues and Orthodox churches in two cities miles apart in the Dagestan region, according to Russian officials. At least 46 people were injured in the two attacks, said Tatyana Belyaeva, the minister of health for the Republic of Dagestan. "Unfortunately, 20 people have died, including law enforcement officers and civilians," the report said, citing Belyaeva. Belyaeva said seven of the victims wounded in the attacks are in serious condition. The attacks unfolded Sunday afternoon in Derbent and Makhachkala, Caspian Sea coastal cities 75 miles apart. Around 6 p.m. local time, multiple gunmen unleashed a barrage of automatic weapons on a synagogue and a Russian Orthodox church in Derbent, according to Russian officials. A Volkswagen Polo is believed to have been used by the suspects in the Derbent attack and was seen by witnesses fleeing the scene, Russian officials said. A second attack occurred in Makhachkala, the capital of the Republic of Dagestan and the region's largest city, where terrorists targeted two more synagogues and two Russian Orthodox churches, Russian officials said.A Russian Orthodox priest was killed in the Makhachkala attacks and one of the Orthodox churches there was set ablaze, officials in the region said. Following the attacks on the houses of worship, a long gun battle erupted Sunday night between police and the suspects in Makhachkala, according to officials. At least six militants were killed in the fighting, Russian officials said. In Makhachkala, gunmen also opened fire on traffic police on one street and a police car was set on fire on another street, the TASS state-owned news agency reported. Sergei Melikov, a Russian leader of the Dagestan region, said in a statement that an operational headquarters had been established amid the attacks. "This evening in Derbent and Makhachkala, unknown persons made attempts to destabilize the social situation. Dagestan police officers stood in their way. According to preliminary information, there are victims among them," Melikov said in his statement.
Dagestan: Deadly attacks on churches and synagogue in southern Russia - Attacks on police posts, churches and a synagogue in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have left 20 people dead, most of them police officers. Five gunmen were also killed. At least 46 people were taken to hospital with injuries after the Sunday evening attack. Three days of mourning have been declared in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia which neighbours Chechnya. The apparently coordinated attacks targeted the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala on the Orthodox festival of Pentecost, with an Orthodox priest among those killed. He was later identified as Father Nikolai Kotelnikov, who had served in Derbent for more than 40 years. Russian media reported that around 18:00 (15:00 GMT) local time on Sunday, gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons on an Orthodox church and a synagogue in Derbent, which is home to an ancient Jewish community. Two gunmen were said to have then retreated into a nearby building, where police later said they were killed. The Kele-Numaz synagogue was severely damaged by fire. At around the same time, in the city of Makhachkala, two gunmen ran into an Orthodox church, tried to set fire to its main icon and then opened fire, Izvestia newspaper said. Videos on social media showed heavy shooting also taking place outside the church when gunmen dressed in black took aim at passing police cars with automatic weapons. A police post near the Makhachkala synagogue was also attacked. All exits from the city were closed for some time as the interior ministry stated that it was possible the militants' accomplices were preparing to escape the city. In the nearby village of Sergokala, a police officer was injured a few hours later when a police car was attacked. Later, the head of the republic of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, said at least 15 police officers were killed in total. Dagestan has in the past been the scene of Islamist attacks. Although the assailants have not been officially identified, Russian media widely reported that among the gunmen were two sons of the head of the Sergokala district, Magomed Omarov, who was detained by police. However, in a video posted on Telegram, Mr Melikov implied Ukraine had been involved in the attack and that Dagestan was now directly involved in Russia's war in Ukraine. "The war is coming to our homes," Mr Melikov said. "We understand who is behind the organisation of the terrorist attacks and what goal they pursued," he said. On Monday, Mr Melikov said authorities were continuing to hunt for members of "sleeper cells" who had prepared the attacks, including with assistance from abroad. The head of the Russian State Duma's international affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, put forward similar claims, saying that the Dagestan attacks and a missile strike which killed four in Russia-occupied Sevastopol on Sunday "could not be a coincidence". "These tragic events, I am sure, were orchestrated from abroad and are aimed at sowing panic and dividing the Russian people," Mr Slutsky said. But a leading Russian nationalist in occupied Ukraine, Dmitry Rogozin, warned that if every attack was blamed on "the machinations of Ukraine and Nato, this pink mist will lead us to big problems".
After attack in Dagestan, Russian officials minimize Islamic State claim - Russian lawmakers on Monday quickly blamed external forces, including Ukraine and NATO, for terrorist attacks on Sunday that killed at least 20 people in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region of Russia in the North Caucasus that has long been a hotbed of violence by Islamist militants.The gunfire attacks on Sunday — at a police post, a synagogue and Orthodox churches in the regional capital of Makhachkala and a second city, Derbent — killed at least 17 police officers and an Orthodox priest, authorities said.Pro-Kremlin media appeared to play down a claim from Al Azaim Media, a Russian-language channel associated with the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, which posted a statement late Sunday that the attack was carried out in response to calls for attacks on behalf of the Islamic State organization, or ISIS.Dagestan governor Sergei Melikov said that six suspects were killed during the operation. “Our recent call did not keep us waiting long,” the Al Azaim post said. “Our brothers from the Caucasus let us know that they are still strong. They showed what they are capable of.”Dagestan has experienced some unrest apparently tied to Israel’s war onHamas in Gaza.In October, hundreds of people stormed the Makhachkala airport in search of Jewish air passengers arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv.At the time, Russian Foreign Ministry officials claimed without evidence that Ukraine played “a direct and key role” in the October airport riot, calling it a “provocation” orchestrated from outside Russia.In March, gunmen with alleged ties to the Islamic State in Khorasan Province attacked the Crocus City Hall concert venue on the outskirts of Moscow, killing 145 people. At the time, Russian security officials also implicated Ukraine, and the Kremlin disputed Washington’s account that U.S. intelligence had shared a specific warning ahead of that attack.While Russia’s deadly war in Ukraine overshadows virtually all other events in Russia these days, some officials cautioned against seeing Kyiv’s hand in every incident.If every terrorist attack is “blamed on the intrigues of Ukraine and NATO, this pink fog will lead us to big problems,” Russian senator Dmitry Rogozin said.On Sunday, gunmen opened fire at several locations in the two cities, including the Church of Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Derbent, where a priest, Nikolai Kotelnikov, 66, was killed. They also attacked the city’s only synagogue, which was apparently empty at the time.But even before local and national law enforcement had gained control over the violence on Sunday, officials were already blaming the United States and Ukraine.A local lawmaker, Abdulkarim Gadzhiev, blamed Sunday’s attack on “the special services of Ukraine and NATO countries.” The pro-Kremlin head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Leonid Slutsky, who heads the foreign affairs committee in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, blamed “outside forces” aiming to divide Russians and “sow panic.”
US missiles massacre beachgoers in Crimea, as US says Ukraine can strike “anywhere” in Russia Four people were killed and 144 were injured Sunday when a US-made long-range missile fired from Ukraine released cluster bomblets over a busy beach in Sevastopol, Crimea. Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said 82 people were hospitalized and 27 children were injured. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed the targeting of the beachgoers was “deliberate,” saying: Responsibility for the deliberate missile attack on the civilians of Sevastopol is borne above all by Washington, which supplied these weapons to Ukraine, and by the Kyiv regime, from whose territory this strike was carried out. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that four US Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles were shot down mid-air over Crimea, and that one released its bomblets, killing and wounding the beachgoers. It claimed that the coordinates for the ATACMS missiles were transmitted by US spy satellites. “Fallen cluster munitions hit the beach. There is a high density of people there, hence there are so many victims,” one Russian think tank analyst told Sputnik News. Sputnik reported: “At the moment when ATACMS were launched at Sevastopol, a US RQ-4 Global Hawk long-range surveillance drone was detected over the Black Sea.” Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for Russia to retaliate, saying he hopes the “USA” will “burn in hell ... in earthly fire.” Medvedev declared: “The bastards from the USA supply missiles with cluster charges to [Ukrainian fascist Stepan] Bandera’s supporters and help guide them to the target.” Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill noted that the attack occurred on the Eastern Orthodox holiday of Trinity Sunday, declaring: “There was no justification whatsoever for a missile strike on civilians.” The assault on Sevastopol is the latest in a series of escalatory moves by the US intended to open the entirety of Russia up for strikes by US-provided weapons launched from Ukraine.
Between the Kremlin Cup and the General Staff Lip After Sunday’s Crimea and Dagestan Attacks By John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia. Originally published at Dances with Bears - The Ukrainian missile attacks on Sevastopol on Sunday afternoon – five US ATACMS missiles with cluster-bomb warheads – have drawn the most explicit reaction yet from Russia’s independent military bloggers, followed in four hours by an official communiqué from the Defense Ministry. The Kremlin communiqué which followed the Defense Ministry an hour later as Sunday evening came on, was not the same. A salvo of five ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles was intercepted over the Uchkuevka beach at Sevastopol just after midday. In celebration of the 30-degree sunshine and the Orthodox Trinity holiday, there were a large number of people in the water and on the sand. The missiles were intercepted in the air, but shrapnel from the detonating warheads struck the beach. At latest count, four people were killed, two of them children; 151 people, including 27 children, were wounded; 82 were hospitalized, 13 of them in serious condition. Boris Rozhin, editor in chief of the Colonel Cassad military blog, was in Sevastopol and he reported from one of the hospitals to which the casualties were taken. His reports started at 12:23 local time and continued for almost twelve hours. Rozhin is one of the independent Russian war correspondents calling on the Kremlin to remove the limit which has been placed on attacking the US Air Force (USAF) drones and other NATO aircraft which operate over the Black Sea, in international waters off the Crimean shore, to provide flight course, evasion of Russian air defence units, and target coordinates to the American and Ukrainian ground crews operating the ATACMS batteries and executing the fire orders. Russian reports indicate the launch point for the Sevastopol beach attack was Nikolaev on the Ukrainian mainland. If so, the range of the missiles was at least 300 kilometres – longer than the US has publicly admitted. This also means that to be effective in defence against the repetition of such attacks against civilians, the proposed Russian demilitarized zone for the Ukraine, or “sanitary zone” as Putin has called it, must stretch from Nikolaev westward to Kiev.Rozhin has blamed the US explicitly in language repeated by other military bloggers. They mean to say, as they have been repeating in recent weeks, that the USAF drones used in the Sevastopol attacks should be destroyed.Just after 1600 Moscow time on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry issued its bulletin. The text, auto- translated into English, reads: [embedded] Note that that the Ministry, and the General Staff behind it, target the US as directly engaged in the operation of the missile attack. However, they start by calling the attack a “terrorist” strike, not an act of war. The wording of the statement also avoids identifying the USAF drones and other airborne electronic warfare systems offshore from Crimea. Instead, it refers to “satellite intelligence”. These are ideological references, not military ones. The distinction between Ukrainian acts of terrorism and war is Kremlin policy. By terming such attacks, including the Crocus City Hall attack in Moscow in March, terrorism but not war, the policy follows that the Special Military Operation is not in fact a war, and that Russian war tactics and strategy should be limited to retaliation, not to the defeat and demilitarization of the US and NATO on the Ukrainian battlefield. At 1715 the Kremlin followed with a communiqué headlined: “The President reached out to the Government’s social bloc and the military following the attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against Sevastopol.” The two-paragraph statement said: “Vladimir Putin has been in touch with senior officials from the Government’s social ministries and agencies and healthcare institutions on an ongoing basis considering the urgency of providing care to the attack victims. The President has also been interacting with the military. The Ukrainian Armed Forces targeted Sevastopol with an intentional missile strike in the afternoon of June 23, using five ATACMS US-made tactical missiles. The attack left at least 124 people wounded or injured, to a varying degree of severity, including 27 children.”
International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Russia’s top general, ex-defense minister - The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants Tuesday for former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s top general, accusing them of war crimes related to civilian attacks in Ukraine.Shoigu and Gerasimov are charged with “directing attacks at civilian objects” and “causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects,” along with the “crime against humanity of inhumane acts,” the Hague-based ICC said in a press release.Specifically, the ICC said there was sufficient evidence that both Gerasimov and Shoigu are responsible for directing attacks between Oct. 10, 2022, until at least March 9, 2023, on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which has been a major strategy employed by Russian forces during the war.The targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, and the ICC said for any potential lawful targets under the Russian operation, the likelihood of civilian harm outweighed the military objective of the attacks.The arrest warrants were issued by a three-judge panel at the ICC after the prosecution at the court filed evidence in the case.Shoigu was Russia’s defense minister for years before Russian President Vladimir Putinappointed him as the secretary of his Security Council last month. Gerasimov has been Russia’s chief of the general staff since 2012; he became the top commander overseeing the war in Ukraine in early 2023.The ICC last year also issued arrest warrants for Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the alleged deportation of Ukrainian children into Russia.An active warrant means any state that is party to the ICC is obligated to arrest the individual, which could restrict the travel of both Shoigu and Gerasimov. Russia is not party to the court.The U.S. has previously backed the ICC arrest warrant against Putin and is likely to do the same for Shoigu and Gerasimov. But the U.S. is not party to the ICC and criticized the court last month after the top prosecutor announced he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, along with top Hamas officials, for alleged war crimes related to the war in Gaza.
EU Approves Military Aid to Ukraine Drawn From Frozen Russian Assets - European Union foreign ministers have approved, for the first time, thetransfer of approximately €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) in military and financial aid to Kiev, using interest profits drawn from frozen Russian central bank assets. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell made the announcement on Monday, as reports say Washington is preparing to send Ukraine another arms package worth $150 million. The EU also imposed a raft of sanctions on Russia along with entities in China, Turkey, and India.Given Kiev’s long-range missile strikes into Crimea over the weekend, the EU’s plan comes amid dangerous developments in NATO’s Ukraine proxy war. Russia accuses Ukrainian forces of using US-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), with a range of nearly 200 miles, and satellite imagery for the attack, which killed at least four people and wounded more than 100. Russia’s Foreign Ministry declared Washington “has effectively become a party” to the war now and threatened “retaliatory measures.”For almost a year, Budapest has vetoed further funding of Kiev’s war effort using an off-budget fund known as the European Peace Facility (EPF) worth €6 billion. Another fund holding €5 billion is blocked as well. Borrell referred to this “structural difficulty” during a presser following the foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg. Using interest profits off seized Russian assets was seen as a workable alternative. Such international theft marks an unprecedented escalation in the economic war targeting Russia. Earlier this month, G7 leaders agreed to provide Ukraine with $50 billion by the end of the year using stolen Russian funds.According to the South China Morning Post, “A legal analysis noted that as Hungary abstained on the decision to use the frozen assets for Ukraine, and that the new aid is derived from the Russian Central Bank assets, and not EU funds, Budapest’s veto does not apply.” Therefore, Borrell said “it’s not necessary” to involve Hungary in the decision-making process. In keeping with Budapest’s objections against the bloc’s support for the Ukraine war, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto condemned the move and said it violated EU rules.Some 90% of the aid disbursed will be for weapons to support Kiev’s war, while 10% will go toward direct financial aid. Per EU diplomats, Berlin and Prague were selected to use the stolen proceeds first to send Ukraine more air defenses as well as artillery shells. The European Commission says it has frozen roughly €210 billion in the Russian central bank’s funds. Between the US and Europe, about $280 billion in Russian assets have been seized. Euroclear, a financial institution based in Brussels, holds the majority of the European-held assets and claims to have extracted €4.4 billion in interest profits last year.Moreover, the ministers also announced a series of new sanctions against Russia including asset freezes and travel bans imposed on 69 individuals and 47 entities they claim are linked to the Kremlin’s invasion. Organizations based in China, Turkey, and India were also hit with an EU export ban over accusations that these entities provide goods and services bolstering Moscow’s war effort.
Yen Tumbles To 1986 Lows After Japanese 'Currency Chief' Comments; Gold, Oil, & Bonds Dump -- The market is testing Japanese officials... and so far it's winning...Reaffirming its constant stance of jawboning over actual intervention, Vice Finance Minister Masato Kanda said late Wednesday that the government is watching the yen with a high level of urgency as he described the currency’s latest moves as “rapid” and “one sided.”“I have serious concern about the recent rapid weakening of the yen and are closely monitoring market trends with a high sense of urgency,” Kanda told reporters late Wednesday.“We will take necessary actions against any excessive movements,” he said.Kanda refrained from commenting if the yen’s latest move was excessive.This 'status quo' sent the yen lower against the dollar......breaking down to its weakest since 1986... Source: BloombergEarlier this week, Kanda said authorities were ready to intervene in currency markets at any time around the clock if needed.Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said they are closely monitoring developments in the market and will take all possible measures as needed.“If the moves start to get disorderly north of 160, they may come in to smooth the move,” said Win Thin, global head of markets strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co in New York. “Buy until the BOJ tilts more hawkish, upside for USD/JPY is the path of least resistance.”Well, it's starting to look 'disorderly'.“Given quarter-end dollar demand and the fact that the volatility environment remains contained, Japanese authorities might wait a bit more before intervening once again,” said Roberto Cobo Garcia, head of G-10 FX strategy at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA in Madrid.“Volatility needs to rise more if they are to step in again.”The yen weakness sent the dollar higher and triggered selling in Gold...
Kenyan Troops To Deploy for Haiti Mission - Following months of delays thanks to an abrupt transition of power in the Caribbean nation, Kenyan security forces are finally set to leave for Haiti in an effort to quell ongoing unrest. Around 1,000 soldiers will arrive over the coming weeks to crack down on spiraling gang violence.The first group of 400 security personnel will leave for the deployment on Tuesday, with the remaining 600 set to follow later, four Kenyan officerstold Reuters, noting they would first stop in a third country before reaching Haiti. The project is nearly two years in the making, with former Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry first asking the United Nations to send troops to deal with armed gangs back in 2022. Militants have acted with impunity since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, with criminal groups even seizing areas of the capital city at various points.After several requests for an international force to help restore order, the then-PM struck a deal with Nairobi to head a security deployment last March. The plan was put on hold following Henry’s abrupt, US-brokered resignation that same month, however, with Kenya saying it would need a “sitting government to… collaborate with.”With a shaky transitional government now in place under acting Prime Minister Garry Conille – who was once a top UN aide to former US President Bill Clinton – Haiti is now preparing for a round of elections sometime before early 2026.Another 1,500 soldiers from the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Chad, and Jamaica will join the Kenyan forces for the mission, which will largely be funded by the US taxpayer. Following months of delays thanks to an abrupt transition of power in the Caribbean nation, Kenyan security forces are finally set to leave for Haiti in an effort to quell ongoing unrest. Around 1,000 soldiers will arrive over the coming weeks to crack down on spiraling gang violence.The first group of 400 security personnel will leave for the deployment on Tuesday, with the remaining 600 set to follow later, four Kenyan officers told Reuters, noting they would first stop in a third country before reaching Haiti.Kenya’s President William Ruto bid the troops farewell during a ceremonyon Monday, calling the multinational UN-backed mission “one of the most urgent, important and historic in the history of global solidarity.”“It is a mission to affirm the universal values of the community of nations, a mission to take a stand for humanity,” the leader added.The project is nearly two years in the making, with former Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry first asking the United Nations to send troops to deal with armed gangs back in 2022. Militants have acted with impunity since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, with criminal groups even seizing areas of the capital city at various points.After several requests for an international force to help restore order, the then-PM struck a deal with Nairobi to head a security deployment last March. The plan was put on hold following Henry’s abrupt, US-brokered resignation that same month, however, with Kenya saying it would need a “sitting government to… collaborate with.”With a shaky transitional government now in place under acting Prime Minister Garry Conille – who was once a top UN aide to former US President Bill Clinton – Haiti is now preparing for a round of elections sometime before early 2026.Another 1,500 soldiers from the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Chad, and Jamaica will join the Kenyan forces for the mission, which will largely be funded by the US taxpayer.
German Police Responding To Birthday Party Group Chanting "Foreigners Out" Surprised By What They Find - Germany has featured more and more incidents involving young people charting, “Foreigners out, Germany for the Germans,” over the beat of the hit electronic song “L’amour toujours” by Gigi D’Agostino. Now, police are being deployed in “operations” to respond to such instances. This time, police arrived at a birthday party in Cochem on the Moselle River, in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, only to be surprised when they learned who was singing the song.Once on the scene, officers learned that everyone calling for foreigners to leave Germany were actually foreigners.“What is remarkable in this context is that the women were all non-German nationals and only one woman had any significant knowledge of German,” said the Mayen police department. According to Bild, all the people present only spoke Bulgarian, Romanian and Ukrainian.The police determined that they were singing the song due to its spread on TikTok and other social media platforms. They were allegedly unaware that those singing the song face criminal prosecution, according to police. However, in similar cases, prosecutors have already dropped such cases, saying they did not rise to the level of criminal prosecution. Top politicians in Germany have called for those singing the song to face the “maximum penalty.”Police still opened an investigation into “incitement of hatred.”As violent crimes from foreigners explodes in Germany, the media establishment and the country’s top politicians focus all their efforts on doxxing and ruining the lives of a few young people drunkenly singing.https://t.co/gVvVV4rre9The first time the “Foreigners out” chant was sung was at a 2023 harvest festival in Bergholz, Germany. Since then, a number of high-profile incidents involving people singing the song have sprung up across Germany, most notably a video from the island of Sylt, which was released in May.Chancellor Olaf Scholz responded at the time that “such slogans are disgusting. They are unacceptable.”On Wednesday, during the European Football Championship match between Hungary and Germany, Hungarian fans chanted the song in Stuttgart. It is unclear if a criminal investigation has been opened due to this instance.
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