Aug 19

Today’s News 19th August 2022

  • Cadillac's $300,000 EV Prototype Spotted On Road For First Time
    Cadillac’s $300,000 EV Prototype Spotted On Road For First Time

    GM released a series of images showing the Cadillac Celestiq prototype, with a mystical blue and white camouflage wrap, undergoing on-road testing around the company’s facilities in Michigan, according to autoblog GM Authority. 

    The Celestiq is Cadillac’s new EV flagship model that costs a whopping $300,000. Even though the sedan has stylish lines and looks like a Lucid Motors Air (from the front), it’s still a Cadillac, and the price seems ridiculous. 

    The electric hatchback is set to reach customers sometime in 2024 and should be equipped with an all-wheel-drive electric powertrain capable of a +300-mile driving range and packed with groundbreaking technologies (including a hands-free assisted-driving system). 

    Reading through the comments of autoblog Car and Driver‘s take on the new Cadillac — commenters had mixed feelings about the luxury EV sedan. 

    One commenter said: “It’s ugly and over price, and will never compete with Bentley, Mercedes, Or BMW.” 

    “It looks great, but 2x the price of a Model S or Lucid?” someone said. 

    Another person said: “Ugly, bad name, overpriced, have to remember to plug it in. No thanks.” 

    But not all comments were negative: “The most beautiful EV ever built! Hope to see it in production,” someone else said. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 23:00

  • China’s Trillion-Dollar Research Funds Squandered On Travel and Leisure
    China’s Trillion-Dollar Research Funds Squandered On Travel and Leisure

    Authored by Jessica Mao via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    In the past four years, many Chinese IC stars that emerged from the CCP’s “rapid chip-making” campaign have gone awry or ended in a disastrous failure. ( NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP via Getty Images)

    Chinese authorities had high hopes for China’s chip industry, expecting to see a “semiconductor miracle,” which would then affirm the “advantage of China’s whole nation system,” as well as overcome technology sanctions imposed by the United States.

    However, eight years into establishment of China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known as the “Big Fund,” trillions of yuan have been exhausted with little success in tech innovation.

    China’s anti-corruption watchdog launched an investigation into the former and current executives of the “Big Fund” in July, and seven senior officials linked to the “Big Fund” have demoted since.

    In fact, misusing government research and development (R&D) subsidies and grants is common within China’s scientific community.

    Where Did China’s Trillions in Research Funding Go

    In April 2018, Chinese state media Sina Finance published an article, asking the question, “China has long been spending trillions of yuan in the field of semiconductors every year, but where did the huge amount of funds go?”

    The article went on to say that in the past several years, roughly only 40 percent of the country’s research funding was actually spent on science and technology research and development, and 60 percent was spent on meetings and business trips.

    “Whenever there are chances of business meetings, one can reimburse travel expenses, gasoline cost, and the travel cost can be huge when people go abroad to attend meetings. Even researchers at Tsinghua University and Peking University are no exception,” it said. “Anhui University of Engineering has also found that research funds are used to reimburse entertainment, foot spa, HOA cost and other expenses unrelated to the project. Moreover, the university noted a drastic increase of business trips abroad in recent years.”

    A researcher revealed to Sina Finance that usually for the so-called inspection trips in foreign countries, the researchers simply made a brief appearance at their targeted inspection sites, and the rest of the time was spent on travel, leisure, and sightseeing.

    In addition to holding or attending business meetings, Chinese research institutions are also obsessed with buying equipment, according to the article.

    “Every year, when the funding is allocated, the first thing they do is to update all the laptops, scanners, cell phones, and other resources in the team, and sometimes a mentor with several topics in hand can get himself several of the latest laptops,” it said.

    R&D Fraud

    Many researchers are very skillful at selling an idea—hyping up a concept, sometimes to the point of committing R&D fraud, in order to apply for a hefty amount of funding. “Some key projects can get several millions or even several tens of millions of yuan as research grant. These people’s desire for capital is greater than getting down-to-earth with scientific research,” the article said.

    Citing the Wuhan Hongxin scandal as an example, the article recounted that in August 2002, Chen Jin, then dean of the microelectronics school of Shanghai Jiaotong University, bought a Motorola chip from the United States, and hired a few migrant workers to polish off the MOTO logo from the chip with sandpaper. He then paid a small company to put a “Hanxin One” trademark on polished surface of the chip. Through layers of his personal connections, he was able to obtain various certifications, claiming that it was China’s first high-end DSP chip with independent intellectual property rights.

    “As the whole nation was thrilled at his claim, Chen applied for dozens of research projects in one shot, and even deceived the General Armament Department of China’s military into filing a Weapons and Equipment Technology Innovation Project. No one noticed any problems before or afterwards. So he succeeded in defrauding over 100 million yuan of scientific research funds,” the article said.

    In an interview with The Epoch Times on Aug. 12, overseas China expert Lu Tianming pointed out that China’s ambition of rapid chip R&D itself is a good goal to set, but the thing is, the Chinese Communist Party is rotten to the core.

    “It can be said that every single communist official is corrupt,” Lu said. “Actually, it would be abnormal if any official or supervisor involved would not embezzle from the funds. They all wish to line their own pockets when given such an opportunity.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 22:00

  • Drought Is Driving European Energy Markets Toward Disaster
    Drought Is Driving European Energy Markets Toward Disaster

    By Irina Slav of OilPrice.com

    Energy markets and nature seem to have it in for Europe. Record-breaking gas prices, rising coal prices, and droughts that interfere with electricity generation in some key markets have combined to push electricity contracts in the EU to record highs as uncertainty about the coming winter deepens.

    Reuters reported earlier this week that a number of power forward contracts traded in the EU hit highs because of what increasingly looks like a perfect energy storm, affecting every energy source in one way or another.

    “A number of factors are adding up: The market is uncertain about whether (French utility) EDF will increase nuclear availability enough for winter, which explains the price differences between the two countries [France and Germany],” Rystad Energy analyst Fabian Ronningen told Reuters.

    EDF has had to significantly reduce the capacity utilization rate of its nuclear power plants because droughts in France have reduced water availability for cooling the reactors. But the drought came on top of earlier problems: reactor corrosion that prompted the utility to close some of them earlier this year, effectively reducing the supply of electricity available for sale on the domestic or regional market.

    Meanwhile, in Germany, wind output is low, and so is the water level of the Rhine—a key transport route for things like coal, for example. Germany’s economy is quite dependent on this crucial shipping corridor, but when the water level is critically low, shippers simply cannot load the usual volume of cargo, meaning that coal and other commodities are reaching their destinations in smaller mounts and more slowly.

    The drought is also affecting hydropower output, adding to worries about future supply. Because of the drought, Norway, which generates more than two-thirds of its electricity from hydropower, announced it would curb electricity exports, threatening supply for other European countries at the worst possible time. In the UK, there’s talk about blackouts.

    Meanwhile, Gazprom’s gas flows to Europe remain much lower than usual, with the Russian state major warning this week that gas prices on the spot European market could top $4,000 per 1,000 cubic meters. Recently, spot prices broke the $2,500 barrier.

    “European spot gas prices have reached $2,500 (per 1,000 cubic meters). According to conservative estimates, if such a tendency persists, prices will exceed $4,000 per 1,000 cubic meters this winter,” Gazprom said.

    The European Union has been quick in switching from Russian gas to U.S. LNG amid the Ukraine crisis, but speed has not been enough: U.S. LNG export capacity is not limitless, and producers also have other clients, in Asia. As the winter season approaches, Asian buyers have become more willing to pay hefty premiums for any LNG, which has intensified competition for a limited number of LNG tankers.

    No wonder, then, that electricity prices in some parts of Europe have hit records. Even less wonder that industries are beginning to buckle, per a recent Bloomberg report. The report noted that Germany’s year-ahead electricity contract rose to more than 530 euros per MWh earlier this week, which constituted a 500-percent increase over the past 12 months. No industry can absorb such a price shock unscathed, and German industry didn’t.

    Germany had to pay the equivalent of more than $15 billion to bail out one of its biggest gas utilities, Uniper, earlier this year. Chemicals giant BASF warned that a gas shortage could wreak havoc on the industry. Aluminum and zinc smelters are closing, and so are fertilizer plants, all because of record gas and electricity prices.

    Relief is not in sight unless one considers the filling up of gas storage caverns in Europe a form of relief. The EC had set a target of 80 percent for storage fill rates by October 1. Member-states are on track to hit this target ahead of schedule, but this has come at a cost: the EU’s gas bill this year is ten times higher than it normally is, at over $51 billion.

    What’s more, storage alone will not be enough to keep European economies going through the winter months. The EU will need more gas as regular supply. Besides the U.S., there are few other places it can get it. It could be why the head of the German energy regulator warned the EU’s biggest economy would need to reduce gas consumption by a fifth to avoid shortages and rationing in the winter.

    “The longer these price rises go up, the more this will be felt across the economy,” Daniel Kral, senior economist at Oxford Economics, told Bloomberg this week. “The magnitude of the increase and magnitude of the crisis isn’t comparable to anything in the past few decades.”

    It is unfortunate that Europe is experiencing one unprecedented crisis after another. And it could yet get worse as the oil embargo against Russia kicks in at the end of the year.

    Analysts have warned that this could lead to higher prices for oil. This will, in turn, add to upward electricity price pressure due to the switch from gas to oil some utilities in Europe have implemented to shield themselves from prohibitive gas prices.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 21:30

  • Putin Will Attend G20 Summit In Indonesia, Despite US Demands To Exclude Russian Leader
    Putin Will Attend G20 Summit In Indonesia, Despite US Demands To Exclude Russian Leader

    The western world is about to stop waging some bizarro war against Vladimir Putin that has sparked loathed energy hyperinflation across most of Europe, and is about to embrace the Russian leader, behind closed doors of course, even if it means a terribly vexxed Zelenskyy and US deep state.

    Why? Because “pariah” Vladimir Putin is about to re-emerge on the G20 scene again, this time courtesy of Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who today said that both Putin and China’s president Xi both plan to attend the G20 summit in the resort island of Bali later this year.

    “Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” Jokowi, as the president is known, said in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait on Thursday. It was the first time the leader of the world’s fourth-most populous nation confirmed both of them were planning to show up at the November summit, according to Bloomberg.

    Needless to say, the presence of Xi and Putin at the meeting will set up a showdown with the deep state handlers who control Joe Biden’s teleprompter and other, less senile “western” leaders, all of whom are set to meet in person for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The attack has left the G-20 divided over whether to place sanctions on Russia, because while a handful of G-20 countries are relatively self reliant, most are desperate for Russia’s commodity exports, whose lack has sent European energy prices to… well, just look for yourselves.

    Putin and Jokowi discussed preparations for the G-20 summit in Bali in a phone call Thursday, the Kremlin said in a statement that didn’t mention whether the Russian leader will attend. Putin’s attendance will also likely bring him face to face with Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the first time since Russia’s invasion because for some odd reason the Ukrainian president – who also doubles as a Vogue model – is also slated to be in Bali.

    Showing just how inconsequential the Biden White House has become in global affairs, Putin’s presence will take place even though Biden had called for Russia to be removed from the G-20, and US officials had earlier been pressuring Indonesia to exclude Putin from the Bali summit.

    It’s almost as if when it comes to the world deciding between Putin’s nat gas exports and the deep state’s wishes, the world chooses the former. To make that point, Indonesia’s leader explained that as the new global axis lines are drawn, Asia stands with China and Russia.

    “The rivalry of the big countries is indeed worrying,” Jokowi, 61, said in the interview. “What we want is for this region is to be stable, peaceful, so that we can build economic growth. And I think not only Indonesia: Asian countries also want the same thing.”

    “Indonesia wants to be friends with everyone,” he said. “We don’t have problems with any country. Each country will have their own approach. Each leader has their own approach. But what’s needed by Indonesia is investment, technology that will change our society.”

    Jokes aside, however, as Bear Traps report author Larry McDonald notes, we are likely just months away from quietly shelving western sanctions on Russia.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 21:20

  • Lowe’s To Give $55 Million In Bonuses For Hourly Workers To Fight Inflation
    Lowe’s To Give $55 Million In Bonuses For Hourly Workers To Fight Inflation

    Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A Lowe’s store in Philadelphia in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/AP/Matt Rourke)

    American retail company Lowe’s is handing out $55 million in bonuses to its front-line hourly employees in an effort to help combat the increasing cost of living.

    Lowe’s Chief Executive Marvin R. Ellison announced the bonus scheme during the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

    “I would like to personally thank our associates for their hard work and dedication. In recognition of some of the cost pressures they are facing due to high inflation, we are providing an incremental $55 million in bonuses to our hourly front-line associates this quarter,” Ellison said on the call.

    “These associates have the most important jobs in our company, and we deeply appreciate everything they do to serve our customers to deliver a best-in-class experience,” Ellison added.

    For a designated time period, the company is also providing workers with an additional 10 percent discount on everyday household and cleaning items, meaning they can now purchase those products at a 20 percent discount.

    Executive Vice President Joe McFarland said he hopes the added discounts will also help to “ease the burden of inflation impacting many of these items.”

    “We will continue to look for meaningful ways to improve our associates’ work-life balance while providing them with the tools to build a career at Lowe’s,” McFarland said.

    Steve Salazar, a spokesperson for Lowe’s, confirmed to The Washington Post that employees at the company will see the bonus on Sept. 9, and it will be taxed.

    Households Feeling the Strain

    Lowe’s operates or services 2,200 home improvement and hardware stores and employs approximately 300,000 people, according to its official website.

    The $55 million in bonuses shared among the 300,000 employees would amount to an average bonus of roughly $183 per employee.

    Lowe’s announcement comes as inflation has rocketed in the United States, prompting a string of businesses, including Microsoft, ExxonMobil, and Walmart, to offer worker bonuses, discounts, and gift cards in an effort to offset soaring prices, although it is unclear just how helpful the one-time lump sumps will be as the cost of living steadily increases.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 21:00

  • Blood, Bath And Bankrupt? BBBY Hires Restructuring Advisor
    Blood, Bath And Bankrupt? BBBY Hires Restructuring Advisor

    It is only fitting that on the day Blood, Bath and Bankruptcy Bed Bath & Beyond suffered a historic crash in its stock price, we learn from Bloomberg that the quasi-insolvent retailer hired law firm Kirkland & Ellis to help it address a debt load that’s become unmanageable amid a sales slump.

    Kirkland, best known for its legal advice in restructuring and bankruptcy situations, was tapped to help the retailer navigate options for raising new money, refinancing existing debt, or both, according to the report. Translation: from $30 yesterday, BBBY stock will be worthless in a few days (just in case there is confusion why Ryan Cohen pulled the plug).

    None of this will come as a shock to debt investors, usually far, far smarter then their equity peers, and is why much of Bed Bath & Beyond’s bonds and loans are already trading at distressed levels, even as its stock climbed as high as $30 per share earlier this week.

    The share price however tumbled back to $10 after hours on Thursday, after activist shareholder Ryan Cohen dumped his entire stake making $68 million in the process, while costing a similar amount to the thousands of retail investors who followed him into this melting ice cube.

    Alas, the stock is going much lower – in fact, $0.00 sounds like support – as the trading prices of the retailer’s debt, have plunged to half their face value or less this year, with the sharpest drop coming after the company announced dismal quarterly earnings June 29. And since the unsecured debt will be impaired, this implies there is zero value for the equity in the upcoming bankruptcy.

    If only BBBY had sold stock in an ATM offering at the grotesquely inflated price from earlier this week, to hapless retail investors. That way RC Ventures pump and dump would have been complete.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 20:36

  • Russians Scramble For Visas As EU Urges "Coordinated Approach" On Travel Bans
    Russians Scramble For Visas As EU Urges “Coordinated Approach” On Travel Bans

    The European Commission has said it is still weighing a travel ban for all Russian nationals, but stressed in a Thursday statement that some member states have individually begun to impose restrictions on visas, but that none has ceased issuing them completely. 

    Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper called for a “coordinated approach” among EU countries, saying in a Thursday press briefing in Brussels that “visa activities have not stopped completely and in particular the humanitarian cases are catered for.”

    She said that Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine had created “unprecedented challenges” for the entirety of the EU, and for that reason had “acted immediately” to suspend a visa facilitation agreement with Moscow on February 25, the day after the invasion. 

    EU foreign ministers are set to meet later in August, and the proposed travel ban will be on on the agenda, she said. Ukrainian government under President Zelensky has been lobbying hard for the European Union as well as the United States to shut their borders to any and all Russian travelers for a period of at least one year.

    “The most important sanctions are to close the borders — because the Russians are taking away someone else’s land,” Zelensky told The Washington Post in an interview published over a week ago. He stressed that as punishment Russian citizens should “live in their own world until they change their philosophy” – before being allowed to travel in the West. “They’ll understand then,” he said.

    Estonia and Finland were among the first European countries to back the call, and took steps to impose their own restrictions for Russian travel. 

    The Moscow Times reports that Russians seeking to travel abroad are now racing against the clock ahead of proposed tighter travel restrictions especially to the Baltics:

    Finland said Tuesday it will reduce the number of visas issued to Russians by 90% starting next month and Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia have recently also announced restrictions on tourist visas for Russians. 

    The three Baltic states and Finland, which share land borders with Russia, have reported an increase in the numbers of Russians using their airports to transit further into the EU as a workaround to the bloc’s ban on Russian airlines.

    Further the report underscores that “The number of applications for Schengen visas — which give access to most EU countries — submitted by Russians has risen rapidly in recent weeks, according to tour agencies contacted by The Moscow Times.”

    One major Russian tour and travel industry insider was quoted as saying the number Schengen visa applications made by Russian citizens has doubled in only two weeks.

    Last week the Kremlin blasted the proposal as “irrational” and painted it as racist and xenophobic. It remains that the EU were to tell 145 million Russians they can no longer travel to Europe for any reason in a sweeping ban, it goes without saying that this would be unlikely to impact Putin’s war-time decision making in any way. Instead, it would only serve to punish common people, who also have a wide range of views regarding the war in Ukraine. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 20:00

  • Buchanan: How, When, Or Will We Ever Come Together Again?
    Buchanan: How, When, Or Will We Ever Come Together Again?

    Authored by Pat Buchanan,

    When 30 FBI agents showed up at Mar-a-Lago to cart off boxes of documents, it was an authorized, legitimate and justified procedure to retrieve national security secrets being illegally kept there.

    Or it was an unprecedented regime raid on the home and office of the foremost political rival of President Joe Biden that called to mind a “Third World country,” the East German “Stasi,” the KGB or the Gestapo.

    And Jan. 6, 2021?

    That was a riot, a disgraceful breach of the Capitol, involving assaults on Capitol cops that deserved to be and are being punished.

    No, it was more than that. Far more. It was an “insurrection,” a “fascist coup,” an act of treason led by far-right extremists to abort the transfer of power from the winner of the election of 2020 to the loser. It ranks right up there with the 1814 burning of the Capitol by the British.

    Such is the magnitude of the divide in America, a divide that extends far beyond our clashing views of Jan. 6 and the Mar-a-Lago raid.

    Consider abortion. Before the 1960s, abortion was almost universally regarded as a shameful and criminal act. Doctors who performed abortions were disgraced and sometimes sent to prison.

    But after the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court declared that Roe v. Wade in 1973 was wrongly decided, restoration of women’s right to an abortion is being championed by half the nation.

    The other half of America yet believes abortion involves the killing of an unborn innocent child.

    Part of America celebrates the Supreme Court’s decision to declare marriage equality for homosexuals. Yet, a traditionalist minority believes such a mandate imposes on the nation a secularist morality contradicted by the tenets of the Christian faith that was the basis of laws for our first two centuries as a nation.

    Nor is it only clashing morality that divides us.

    For a nation, a country, a people, a democracy to endure, there needs be a broad consensus of belief, culture, custom and politics.

    On the issue of law and order, without which a republic cannot stand, there is now disagreement over the role and conduct of our police.

    During the George Floyd summer of 2020, “Defund the Police!” was the clamor of the left, and among the street chants of Black Lives Matter was, “Pigs in a Blanket, Fry ‘Em Like Bacon.”

    Only a stunning political recoil caused its abandonment.

    For a nation, especially a great world power like the United States, some things are indispensable to its preservation.

    A democratic republic needs to preserve the value of its currency, to defend its borders against illegal mass migrations and invasions, to preserve law and order, especially in its great cities.

    Which of these requisites exist today when the nation suffers 8% inflation; 250,000 illegal aliens cross our southern border every month; and “mass shootings” occur daily in our cities during which at least four victims are gunned down, wounded or killed?

    The preservation of a democracy also requires the confidence of its people in its defining institutions.

    Yet, since the Reagan era, Americans’ collective confidence in our major institutions has fallen from one-half of the nation to one-fourth.

    In 2022, confidence in the Supreme Court fell by a third to 25%. Only a fourth of the country retained high confidence in the presidency; and confidence in Congress plummeted to 7%, or one in every 14 Americans.

    One in 6 Americans had great confidence in our newspapers, with only 1 in 9 citizens saying the same about television news.

    In summary, we are a country whose people have a diminishing confidence in almost all of its institutions, from big business to the churches, universities and media. Only small business and the U.S. military enjoy the confidence of the American people.

    Public approval of Biden’s performance is at the lowest level ever recorded for a president at this point in his first term.

    True, we have been through and recovered from divisive times.

    In the 1860s, 11 of the 33 states seceded and fought for four years to gain their independence of the Union.

    The 1960s were divisive, but the left, with Sen. George McGovern its political expression, captured less than 40% of the vote against Richard Nixon in 1972. Ronald Reagan ran up two landslides in the 1980s.

    Those days are long gone.

    The left today dominates the academic community and culture to a greater degree than it once did and is further removed from the heart of the country in Middle America than it has ever been.

    When, how, does America ever unite again?

    And what unites us, other than an external attack on the country, like Pearl Harbor or 9/11?

    Where is the common ground on which to stand?

    Does such ground even exist, given the divisions in religion, race and ethnicity, and the seemingly irreconcilable disagreements over morality, ideology, culture and politics?

    Has the great experiment run its course?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 19:00

  • Amazon Accuses FTC Of Issuing 'Unfair, Unreasonable' Demands As Part Of Probe Into Prime
    Amazon Accuses FTC Of Issuing ‘Unfair, Unreasonable’ Demands As Part Of Probe Into Prime

    Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in New York City on Sept. 20, 2021. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

    Amazon has accused the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of making unreasonable and unfair demands as part of the agency’s probe into the company’s Prime membership program, according to a new legal filing.

    The Jeff Bezos-founded company has been under investigation by the regulator since March 2021 regarding whether or not it makes it difficult for customers who want to end their membership with Amazon Prime, the subscription service that costs $139 per year or $14.99 per month and allows users to take advantage of additional services that are otherwise unavailable to other Amazon customers.

    However, Amazon said in the Aug. 5 legal filing (pdf) that the investigation had become “unworkable and unfair, reflecting less of a responsible effort to collect the facts about a variety of longstanding and highly popular subscription programs than a one-sided effort to force Amazon to meet impossible-to-satisfy demands.”

    Nearly 20 current and former Amazon employees and executives, including founder Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy, as well as former retail executive boss Dave Clark and his successor Doug Herrington, SVP of international Russ Grandinetti, and former head of Prime, Greg Greeley, were served subpoenas to give evidence as part of the agency’s investigation into the e-commerce giant.

    The subpoenas are officially known as Civil Investigative Demands (CID).

    Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services, speaks at the WSJD Live conference in Laguna Beach, Calif., on Oct. 25, 2016. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

    ‘Unworkable and Unfair’

    In the filing, Amazon asked that the FTC “quash or limit” the subpoenas, while certain current and former Amazon employees also petitioned to quash or limit the subpoenas served on them individually because they are “unworkable and unfair.”

    Specifically for founder Bezos and CEO Jassy, lawyers state that the two are petitioning for the CID’s to be “quashed” because “staff has identified no legitimate reason for needing their testimony when it can obtain the same information, and more, from other witnesses and documents.”

    Amazon claims that it has worked “diligently and cooperatively with FTC staff to provide information relevant to the FTC’s investigation” for over a year and has produced 37,000 pages of documents relating to the probe, and provided “dozens of pages of interrogatory responses,” among other things.

    It also claims that it has “proactively followed up with staff to ensure it had the materials it needed” but that FTC staff had become “inexplicably disengaged,” and by February 2022 had not communicated with Amazon about the Prime investigation for almost four months.

    The company claims that in April 2022, after roughly six months of alleged silence from the FTC, Amazon was “abruptly notified … that a new attorney would be taking over and that staff was under ‘tremendous pressure’ to conclude the investigation,” and gave the company and its executives just a few weeks to comply.

    “Staff’s handling of this investigation has been unusual and perplexing,” Amazon wrote in the petition. “The current impasse has been brought about by unexplained pressure placed on staff to complete the investigation hastily, by an arbitrarily chosen deadline.”

    “But staff’s own behavior has exacerbated the breakdown in this investigation, with the most recent incident being the most egregious: staff has attempted to restrict, contrary to law and FTC practice, counsel’s ability to jointly represent Amazon and the Individual CID recipients. Staff has gone so far as to demand that counsel leave a hearing for the first individual witness for failing to abide by this improper restriction. The Commission must step in.”

    Amazon’s website on Prime Day in a stock photo. (Dennizn/Shutterstock)

    Investigation Expanded

    Amazon claimed that the FTC’s scope of the investigation has been extended to include additional non-Prime subscription programs, such as Audible, Amazon Music, Kindle Unlimited, and Subscribe & Save.

    Lawyers for the company claimed that the FTC had “refused to provide the Individual CIDs to Amazon’s counsel when requested and informed counsel that they would not be permitted to jointly represent Amazon and any of the individual employees,” which it described as “plainly contrary to law.”

    At the very least, Amazon asks that the deadline to provide the information should be extended.

    “At a minimum, Amazon needs staff to further clarify its vague and argumentative requests and grant more time to comply with them, something staff has refused to do without explanation,” lawyers noted.

    The FTC, which is headed by Lina Khan, pledged in 2020 to look more closely into the power of America’s five biggest tech companies: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Alphabet (including Google).

    Amazon has raised concerns over Khan’s stance on antitrust law and her previous criticism of the company and its market dominance, stating that it would make her impartial in her role as chair.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 18:30

  • China Condemns Newly Announced Formal US-Taiwan Trade Talks
    China Condemns Newly Announced Formal US-Taiwan Trade Talks

    A major Thursday announcement from the Office of the US Trade Representative is sure to continue pitting Beijing and Washington on a path of escalation and collision course over Taiwan, as the US and Taipei have agreed to begin formal talks on a trade pact. 

    The Taiwan side has also confirmed that negotiations will start early this fall, with the areas to be covered including trade facilitation, regulatory practices, anticorruption, agriculture, environmental standards, and other area, according to the US executive agency’s website. 

    Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi said the formal talks will aim to “deepen our trade and investment relationship, advance mutual trade priorities based on shared values, and promote innovation and inclusive economic growth for our workers and businesses.”

    In addition to seeking to bolster Taiwan’s economic strength, Taiwan’s Office of Trade Negotiations has spelled out that a future trade pact would increase the self-ruled island’s participation in international pacts. China, however, has rejected this as a violation of ‘One China’ and its sovereignty.

    File image: ZUMA Press/DW

    Taiwan’s trade minister John Deng in a Thursday press briefing also said that high on the agenda will be strategies for standing up to China’s “economic coercion”. Naturally increase in economic formalization would further inch Taiwan and US toward formal diplomatic relations, which Beijing sees as a further erosion and abandonment of the ‘One China’ status quo.

    Deng told the briefing of China’s interference, “Its economic coercion targets are not just the United States or Taiwan, it’s done to a lot of countries,” adding that “Its harm to the global economic and trade order is great.”

    One recent example of the reference is blocking trade with countries in dispute with Beijing such as Lithuania for allowing Taiwan to establish a de facto embassy in the capital of Vilnius.

    Additionally China and Australia have been locked in a trade war for more than a year after Beijing rolled out a series of punitive measures on key Australian agriculture and other exports to China, including sanctions on certain products, special taxes, and draconian inspection procedures – all of which started after Beijing was incensed that Australian leaders called for an independent inquiry into the origins of Covid-19.

    Predictably, an initial reaction out of China’s commerce ministry stressed it “opposes” US-Taiwan trade talks and that it will take “all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests,” according to a Thursday statement. Further according to Reuters:

    “One China” policy is a prerequisite for Taiwan’s participation in economic cooperation with foreign countries, Shu Jueting, spokeswoman of the ministry, said at a regular press conference.

    Military tensions continue to be on edge in waters surrounding Taiwan as the Eastern Theater Command continues ‘shows of force’…

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    There continues to be the backdrop of Chinese PLA military pressure on the democratic island, with groups of fighter jets said to now be buzzing the median line in the Taiwan Strait on a daily bases, following the Aug.2nd visit of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 17:30

  • Data Shows Number Of Low-Income Audits Could Triple As IRS Grows
    Data Shows Number Of Low-Income Audits Could Triple As IRS Grows

    Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The Internal Revenue Service Headquarters Building in Washington on Sept. 19, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

    The IRS audited 197 low-income families for every high-wealth family in 2019, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO)—a number that some experts expected to climb under an IRS turbocharged with more money and manpower.

    Over the next decade, the Democrat’s new “Inflation Reduction Act” will provide the IRS with 87,000 new agents and $80 billion in funding, with nearly $46 billion earmarked for enforcement.

    According to the Congressional Budget Office, the tax and spend bill is projected to bring in $203.7 billion in revenue from 2022 to 2031.

    President Joe Biden’s administration has promised no new taxes or audits on households making less than $400,000 per year.

    But experts say that promise may be hard to keep.

    A previous CBO analysis using a similar funding plan featured in the Inflation Reduction Act found audit rates would be restored to levels around 10 years ago. The analysis showed the audit rates would rise for all taxpayers, but the ones with higher incomes would face the biggest increase.

    The oldest data available in the 2022 Government Accountability Office report released this year was for 2010. That’s when the IRS was better funded and staffed with some 95,000 full time employees.

    From 2010-2019, the IRS audited 0.9 percent across all income groups compared to 0.25 percent now.

    Rachel Greszler, a budget and entitlements senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times that even returning to the 2010 audit levels for those making more than $400,000 per year, would still fall short of the IRS’s revenue goal.

    “My rough estimate shows that returning to the 2010 audit levels for all income groups would only generate a little over 20 percent of the bills’ estimated enforcement revenues in 2031,” she said.

    In her commentary on the Heritage Foundation’s website Aug. 12, Greszler wrote the numbers don’t add up using 2019 data either without the lower- and middle-class.

    Even increasing recent audit rates 30-fold for taxpayers making over $400,000—including 100 percent audit rates on taxpayers with incomes over $10 million—still would fall more than 20 percent short of raising the estimated $35.3 billion in new revenues by 2031, she wrote.

    So it stands to reason that taxpayers can expect audit rates more like those about a decade ago.

    GAO statistics show a larger number of audits in 2010 for taxpayers in the $0-$24,999 tax bracket than the high wealth households. About 579,000 audits were performed on the lowest tax bracket in 2010, compared to 197,000 in 2019.

    Yet for the wealthy, high wealth audits of $10 million or more stood at 2,800 in 2010, dipping to 1,000 in 2019.

    While a higher percentage of high wealthy households is audited more than poor ones, the lower class sees more audits overall.

    A better-funded IRS in 2010 audited the poor much more aggressively than the super wealthy—at a rate of 207 to 1.

    In recent years, the IRS audited taxpayers with incomes below $25,000 and those with incomes of $500,000 or more at higher-than-average rates. But, audit rates have dropped for all income levels—with audit rates falling the most for taxpayers with incomes of $200,000 or more, according to the GAO report.

    The Inflation Reduction Act, which is a scaled-down version of Build Back Better negotiated by Democrats Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), took Republicans by surprise. The measure passed the Democratic-controlled Senate and Congress last week through a reconciliation process.

    President Joe Biden (C) signs the Inflation Reduction Act with (L-R) Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on Aug. 16, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

    Alarm bells sounded for Republicans after Democrats shot down an amendment to the bill proposed by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to protect the working class from more audits. Crapo’s amendment stipulated that none of the funds from the Inflation Reduction Act could be used to audit taxpayers making under $400,000 a year. Still, all 50 Democrats in the Senate voted against it.

    Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee said CBO calculated the monetary impact of Crapo’s amendment. Calculations confirmed that had lower- and middle-income taxpayers been protected by the amendment, revenue in the Democrats’ bill would have been reduced by at least $20 billion.

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen attempted to clear up “misinformation” about the bill in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig. She wrote new resources allocated to the IRS “shall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels.”

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies before the Senate Finance Committee in Washington, on June 7, 2022. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

    However, her directive isn’t included in the bill, meaning it won’t have the power of law. Tax experts and analysis from the nonpartisan scorekeeper at the CBO indicate Yellen’s promise will likely be broken if the IRS sticks to its income expectations.

    “Again, this has no teeth behind it,” said Preston Brashers, a senior tax policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation.

    Brashers said it would take time for the audits to start rolling, increasing as the tax agency adds tens of thousands of new agents. Proponents of the bill say a large number of those 87,000 employees will fill jobs lost through attrition, but Brashers said it appears that the agency will almost double in size.

    In a press release, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) estimated that the Democrats’ bill would amount to 1.2 million new audits of taxpayers per year. Over 710,000 of these audits would fall on Americans who earn $75,000 a year or less.

    House Ways and Means Minority Leader Kevin Brady (R-Texas) speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on May 13, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

    “If you’re an American worker making $75,000 a year, you are 4x more likely to see a tax hike from this bill than any tax relief at all. You’re hitting middle class families directly and through higher energy prices as well,” Brady wrote on the Ways and Means GOP Twitter feed.

    Audits of Least Resistance

    Another taxpayer category likely to be audited more is rural, low-income households claiming an Earned Income Tax Credit, according to the IRS.

    Those who claim the EITC credits often make mistakes or don’t understand the rules, which makes auditing these returns low-hanging fruit for the IRS because they don’t require many man hours. The opposite is true of audits of wealthy families who can afford accountants and lawyers.

    A much larger number of returns claiming EITC credits are audited compared to the wealthiest households. In 2019, the number of audits of low-income families claiming the EITC credit compared to high wealth audits of $10 million or more was 205 to 1.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 17:00

  • Ryan Cohen Dumps Entire BBBY Stake, Makes $68 Million As Apes Crushed
    Ryan Cohen Dumps Entire BBBY Stake, Makes $68 Million As Apes Crushed

    Update 7:45pm: not everyone lost money in this post-modern, gammafied pump and dump which culminated with BBBY losing more than half of its value today: according to Bloomberg calculations Billionaire Ryan Cohen – who apparently was not rich enough – pocketed at least a $68 million profit from the sale of his stake in Bed Bath & Beyond, scoring a 56% gain on an investment he held for roughly seven months. Some math:

    Cohen’s RC Ventures paid $121.2 million between mid-January and early March to acquire 7.78 million shares and options to purchase another 1.67 million shares, a regulatory filing shows. He unloaded all of them this week for a combined $189.3 million, according to a filing on Thursday after the US market close.

    On the other hand, retail traders – especially those who were late to the trade – and who poured millions of dollars into the insolvent retailer’s stock, may be just starting to feel the pain.

    According to Vanda research, retail traders poured a torrent of cash into Bed Bath & Beyond’s shares in recent weeks, even with the company’s financial situation collapsing. They bought $58.2 million of the stock on Wednesday, a day after snapping up a record $73.2 million. Net purchases over three weeks totaled $229.1 million an amount which just may wake the Suck Elon’s Cock commission from its perpetual hibernation.

    The worst part for the Reddit crowd in this entire fiasco: It was billionaire Cohen’s very involvement in the stock that fueled their enthusiasm. The price at one point this week more than quadrupled from a recent low in July, with at least some pointing to a disclosure that showed the GameStop chairman still was holding onto his stake, which at that point exceeded 10% of the firm. It included call options that would only be in-the-money if the stock continued to soar.

    It did not, because – drumroll – Cohen used that disclosure to spark a meltup in the stock which he then sold into.

    The rest is now known.

    * * *

    We tried – we really tried – to warn millions of retail traders, from the reddit apes, to the mom and pops, to the basement dwellers, to the Robinhood fanatics – that their idol “Papa Ryan” Cohen, aka “Diamondhands” was about to rugpull them.

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    Instead, our warning was met with idiotic accusations of being everything from Citadel shills (even though they threatened to sue us for correctly accusing them of frontrunning retail investors), to being Wall Street sellouts.

    Well less than 24 hours later we were proven right when Papa Ryan dumped his entire 9.5 million share-equivalent stake in BBBY just one day after the 144 filing…

    … or rather before, because what is most remarkable about the one-day liquidation is that RC Ventures, Ryan Cohen’s market manipulation fund, was actually dumping the shares on Wednesday morning, long before he even filed the 13G.

    Now that there is no pied piper to lead the rats apes to their destruction, BBBY stock is crashing…

    … and dragging GME – where Papa Cohen has yet to sell – with it.

    As for Cohen, we can’t help but be touched by his nobility and generosity, when just a few weeks ago he was so concerned about bagholders…

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    … before himself leaving thousands of bagholders nursing millions of losses.

    We can only hope that the outcry from this latest glaring manipulation will finally prompt the absolute morons at the SEC to finally do something about this kind of manipulative, management-driven gamma squeeze…

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    … but with the unprecedented amount of corruption in this administration, we are not holding our breath.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 16:44

  • Brace For Even Higher Beef Prices As Texas Cattle Industry Faces Historic Drought Crisis
    Brace For Even Higher Beef Prices As Texas Cattle Industry Faces Historic Drought Crisis

    Ranchers across Texas continue to panic sell cattle herds as the worst megadrought in 1,200 years makes it too expensive to sustain operations. 

    “We’ll keep selling cows till it rains,” Texas High Plains rancher Jim Ferguson told Amarillo station KAMR, which collaborated with The Hill on the expanding cattle crisis in the state. 

    America’s cattle heartland has seen pastures turn to dust, and costs for feed, fertilizer, and diesel skyrocket, threatening an entire industry that is essential to the nation’s beef supply. 

    The Hill said that the devastating drought and higher cattle operation costs would result in higher beef prices for at least the next two years. And we agree with that assessment as the latest data via USDA shows supermarket prices surged to record highs earlier this year and are quickly approaching the $5 handle. 

    “The lack of water in general, it’s hurting us all the way around. Any way you can think of,” cattle buyer Josh Sturgeon said. 

    Sturgeon said ranchers are liquidating herds at auction because of the lack of water and soaring costs. 

    But “you’re almost afraid to buy. Cattle drink a lot of water, especially this time of year. With this drought, they’re drinking a lot of water. Cattle are dying because of this. Even the best of cattle are struggling,” he noted.

    Walter Kunisch of consultant group Hilltop Securities said increased cattle liquidations at auctions due to worsening drought is “nothing like we’ve seen in the last 15 years.” 

    Kunisch pointed out that farmers are selling off their breeding stock, which they rely on to produce the next generation of cows. 

    “That’s a big signal to me that, you know, that future supplies at some point are going to run tight,” Kunsich warned. 

    USDA’s latest cattle report found herds are down 2.4% nationwide since last year — a decrease of 750,000 cows — and a decline of 2 million since the national herd peaked in 2018. 

    The biggest takeaway is cattle herds moving forward are expected to shrink, meaning tight supplies and higher prices. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 16:30

  • Multiple Explosions Rock Russia's Crimean Port City Of Sevastopol
    Multiple Explosions Rock Russia’s Crimean Port City Of Sevastopol

    Update(1617ET): There are breaking unconfirmed reports that another Russian airfield near Crimea’s Sevastopol naval base is under attack. According to Reuters Belbek air base may have come under attack:

    • AT LEAST FOUR EXPLOSIONS ROCK CITY OF SEVASTOPOL IN RUSSIAN-ANNEXED CRIMEA – LOCAL SOURCES
    • CRIMEAN SOURCES SAY BLASTS TOOK PLACE IN THE VICINITY OF THE BELBEK MILITARY AIRPORT NORTH OF SEVASTOPOL 

    This comes after reports that Russian anti-air defenses were activated over the region. There are also unconfirmed reports circulating that a Ukrainian drone may have been engaged by Russian defenses. 

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    Little is confirmed at this early point, but it follows a string of blasts inside Crimea over the past week, some of which were admitted by the Kremlin to be Ukrainian “sabotage” operations. 

    To recap, reports of the Sevastopol blasts come just after an ammo depot was reported on fire within Russia’s Belgorod Oblast near the Ukrainian border.

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    * * *

    Russian state media has confirmed another large blaze is engulfing an ammunition depot within its territory on Thursday, with social media videos capturing the incident, following a string of prior blasts, amid growing reports Ukraine is launching ‘sabotage operations’ deep within Russian territory, particularly in Crimea over the past week.

    “An ammunition depot in Russia’s Belgorod Region caught fire on Thursday, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, adding that no casualties had been reported,” according to TASS.

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    “The district’s head ordered the residents of the Timonovo and Soloti settlements to be evacuated to a safe distance. Response teams are working on the scene, efforts are underway to establish the cause of the fire,” the governor wrote further on Telegram of ongoing emergency efforts to control the blaze. 

    The area referenced merely a little over 5 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, where on the other side Russian strikes are pounding away on the major northeast city of Kharkiv. The two Russian villages have a combined population of a little over 1,000 residents. 

    ABC News recounts of events in Crimea over the past week:

    But in recent days, explosions have destroyed several Russian planes at an air base in Crimea, and munitions blew up Tuesday.

    Ukrainian authorities have stopped short of publicly claiming responsibility, but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alluded to Ukrainian attacks behind enemy lines after the most recent blasts Tuesday while Russia blamed “sabotage.”

    People in the Timonova area are reportedly being told to evacuate, as the fire continued into the night hours…

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    Amid speculation that US-supplied weaponry could be used for these longer-range attacks and operations Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov told US state-funded Voice of America this week, “We have an agreement with the US that we will not use weapons provided by the US and partners against the territory of the Russian Federation. But if we discuss de-occupying… Ukrainian land where the enemy is now, there are no such restrictions.”

    The Kremlin has stated that such long-range attacks with American weaponry would mark a severe “red line” and that it would hold external powers backing Ukraine responsible. 

    Meanwhile, it looks like things are continuing to heat up over Crimea, after Ukraine’s President Zelensky earlier this month vowed to “liberate” the Russian-controlled peninsula…

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 16:17

  • Stocks Stumble, Memes Mauled In Sleepy Session Fit For Sandman
    Stocks Stumble, Memes Mauled In Sleepy Session Fit For Sandman

    If one had to describe today’s session with one word it would be “sleepy.”

    After yesterday’s early selloff, driven by sharply higher rates, the 2pm FOMC failed to provide traders any clear direction on what the Fed plans to do, and an early dovish read of the minutes fizzled quickly, ending any upward momentum. Fast forward to today when stocks traded in a narrow range bound by the pre-FOMC lows and post-FOMC highs (yet one which nonetheless makes the Fed nervous as it is far too high to constrict financial conditions).

    While most sectors were in the green – though energy led the pack thanks to a surge in oil prices…

    …  volumes were dismal (to be expected with more than half of traders out on vacation) and liquidity was non-existent …

    … and what little action there was, was in “meme stonks” where recent insolvent, multi-bagging superstars like BBBY crumbled after even the apes were forced to accept that it’s just a matter of time before “papa Cohen” and his diamondhands dump their BBBY stake (and who knows what else).

    The news sent BBBY stock plunging more than 20% and almost half off yesterday’s $30 high….

    … AMC hit ten-day lows…

    … and GME was also hammered…

    … as the broader basement trader space got deflated now that the Fed has made it clear it will likely hike another 75bps in September.

    And speaking of September rate hikes, after odds of a 75bps hike post yesterday’s FOMC from 70% to 40%, we got the usual confusion today when former uber-hawk Esther George came out dovish today while recent uber-dove Bullard James Bullard said he backs a 75bps rate hike.

    However, since not even the algos care about Fed forecasts any more, there was little impact on either the Euro$ market or risk assets.

    The rest of today’s session was, as noted, boring: the dollar rose, rates went nowhere, the VIX crunch resumed, pushing it back below 20…

    … gold went nowhere, same as bitcoin, while ETH saw a stead trickle of inflows as traders continue to expect outperformance from the token before (and after) the merge.

    Crude was probably the only other interesting move besides memes, as it was finally able to rally out of its previous rut due to Wednesday’s EIA report, which showed that markets are still very tight and gasoline soared. Along with multiple stockpile draws, the report revealed that recessionary risks haven’t trickled over to crude consumption just yet as demand remains high. Bolstering gains were Xi’s comments about Chinese reopening (even though the comments appeared to reference globalization rather than the country’s Covid-zero policy, but whateves), as well as continued geopolitical risk with Bloomberg noting that talks between Ukrainian President Zelenskiy and Turkey’s President Erdogan didn’t prove fruitful, as Zelenskiy says he sees no end to the war without troop withdrawals. Finally, Goldman said that an Iran nuclear deal is actually not going to happen and will instead be an extended “stalemate”, which however won’t help the supply picture. As a result, WTI crude briefly rallied above $91 on Thursday after previously dropping to a seven-month low earlier in the week.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 16:06

  • Russia Shows Off Robo-Dog With RPG At Military Convention
    Russia Shows Off Robo-Dog With RPG At Military Convention

    Russia displayed new and experimental technologies at its annual defense convention at the Patriot Center near Moscow. 

    Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered an opening speech at the Military and Technical Forum ARMY 2022 on Tuesday, organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense, and said that over “28,000 modern samples of military and dual-use products” are being showcased by approximately 1,500 Russian manufacturers to defense officials from 72 countries. 

    In the speech, Putin continued:

    “We are ready to offer our allies and partners the most modern types of weapons, from small arms to armored vehicles and artillery, from warplanes to drones. These guns are in demand among military professionals all over the world for their reliability, quality, and most importantly, their high efficiency. Almost all of them have been used many times in real military operations.”

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    One of the most modern types of weapons that Putin was referring to appears to be an intelligent four-legged robo-dog wielding an RPG-26 rocket launcher on its back. 

    Videos of Russian engineering company Intellect Machine’s M-81 robotic system roaming the convention center floors with a rocket launcher went viral on social media. 

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    This would not be the first time the West’s adversaries have displayed a robo-dog for war. Last month, a video surfaced on social media of a Chinese robot dog by Hangzhou-based company Unitree Robotics with a machine gun mounted on its back. 

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    Here are the other weapons displayed at the defense convention that wraps up on Sunday:

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 15:20

  • Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg Pleads Guilty To Tax Scheme, Will Testify Against Trump Org
    Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg Pleads Guilty To Tax Scheme, Will Testify Against Trump Org

    Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg has pleaded guilty to 15 felonies – admitting that he conspired with other Trump Organization executives to carry out a tax-avoidance scheme connected to lavish corporate benefits – including lease payments for a luxury car, rent for a Manhattan apartment and private tuition for his grandchildren.

    As part of the deal, he has agreed to testify against the Trump Organization in an October trial – however he has refused to implicate Donald Trump in any wrongdoing. The company is accused of helping Weisselberg and other executives dodge taxes by failing to accurately report their full compensation to the IRS.

    As Bloomberg notes, “Trump hasn’t been charged in the case and, according to a person familiar with the matter, Weisselberg won’t implicate his boss as part of his plea. But because Weisselberg’s deal requires him to testify against his employer, an admission of criminal conduct could mean trouble for the Trump Organization, experts say.”

    If convicted, the Trump Organization could face fines or potentially be placed on probation.

    Weisselberg, the only person to face criminal charges so far in the Manhattan DA’s case against Trump’s business empire, will receive a five-month jail term at Rikers Island and five years of probation, however time credited for good behavior he’s likely to serve around 100 days, according to the NY Times. He also has to pay nearly $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 15:03

  • Trump Spox Calls For 'No Redactions' Of FBI Trump Raid Affidavit After Judge Orders DOJ To Unseal 'Portions'
    Trump Spox Calls For ‘No Redactions’ Of FBI Trump Raid Affidavit After Judge Orders DOJ To Unseal ‘Portions’

    Update (1550ET): In response to Judge Reinhart ordering the DOJ to release a redacted version of the Trump raid affidavit, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich called for no redactions,” citing “Democrats’ penchant for using redactions to hide government corruption.”

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    *  *  *

    The Trump-hating judge who signed off on the FBI warrant to raid Mar-a-Lago has ordered the DOJ to unseal portions of the underlying affidavit, after several media outlets and activist groups made the case that it was in the public interest to see it.

    “I’m not prepared to find that the affidavit should be fully sealed,” said Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart following a hearing in which a top government lawyer argued that releasing the document could “severely compromise” an ongoing investigation that’s in its “early stages,” adding that a line-by-line redaction of the document was unrealistic.

    “On my initial careful review … there are portions of it that can be unsealed.”

    Reinhart said he would “give the government a full and fair opportunity” to make redactions, according to Bloomberg, setting a deadline of next Thursday – after which he will review it and release it if he agrees with the redactions.

    *  *  *

    Several media organizations have urged a Florida judge to release most of an FBI affidavit which was used to justify the DOJ’s search warrant for last week’s raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

    A Palm Beach Police officer at the entrance of former US President Donald Trump’s house at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Aug. 9.Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg

    According to a filing by the group, which includes the New York Times, AP and CNN, the public has a “clear and powerful interest” in what led to the unprecedented action by the DOJ against the sitting president’s top political opponent.

    While the group says that the document should be released “with only those redactions that are necessary to protect a compelling interest articulated by the government,” the Justice Department says that such a redacted version of the affidavit would leave the document so devoid of content that it wouldn’t provide any insight.

    The government has given “little explanation as to how release would harm the ongoing investigation” even though many details of the probe are already public, the group said in the filing in federal court in West Palm Beach, where US District Judge Bruce Reinhart will hold a hearing on the matter Thursday.

    The affidavit provides the basis on which the judge authorized the search of Trump’s estate. The dispute over its release is the latest fallout from the Aug. 8 search, which culminated in FBI agents carting away 11 sets of classified documents in about 20 boxes. Threats against the FBI — and the judge — have jumped since then. –Bloomberg

    “The secrecy surrounding the search warrant, and the affidavit that led to its issuance, has caused the nation to convulse with intrigue and harmful speculation that will only increase the longer the truth is kept from the public,” said Judicial Watch in a statement. “The heat must be replaced with light, and soon.”

    Trump has also called for the document to be publicly released, though he hasn’t filed anything in court to back that up.

    The request comes as Newsweek reports that the FBI raid was specifically intended to recover Trump’s personal “stash” of hidden documents – which reportedly deal with a “variety of intelligence matters of interest to the former president, the officials suggest—including material that Trump apparently thought would exonerate him of any claims of Russian collusion in 2016 or any other election-related charges.”

    When Trump left the White House in January 2021, many of the normal processes of transition were not followed, especially because the president would not admit that he had lost the election or that he would be leaving office. As a result, we now know, some 42 boxes of documents were shipped to Mar-a-Lago by mistake: officials papers under U.S. law, which the National Archives is supposed to take custody of and catalog.

    Over the past 18 months, the Trump camp and the Archives were engaged in a back-and-forth which resulted in the return of 15 boxes (and some additional documents). As late as June 3, when officials from the FBI and Justice visited Mar-a-Lago to serve a Grand Jury subpoena for specific documents, these negotiations were largely cordial. -Newsweek

    Meanwhile, as Jack Phillips of the Epoch Times notes, a lawyer representing Trump, and a former FBI official, both expressed doubts that the affidavit used to seek an FBI search warrant for last week’s Mar-a-Lago raid will be unsealed by a judge on Thursday.

    “I don’t think anybody wants to unseal this thing inside the government,” Chris Swecker, a former assistant director of the FBI, told Fox News on Wednesday, adding that he doubts “very seriously you’re going to see this unsealed tomorrow.”

    The former official was making reference to a hearing that was scheduled by U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart for Thursday about whether the affidavit should be unsealed. The Department of Justice on Monday filed court papers arguing that it should not because releasing it to the public will damage their investigation.

    But former Trump and other Republicans argue it should be released because it would show why the FBI took the unprecedented and extraordinary step of raiding the home of a former president and possible 2024 candidate.

    Revealing the affidavit, they argue, would provide more insight into what the Department of Justice is trying to investigate and lay out reasons for why the raid was carried out. On Aug. 12, Reinhart issued an order to unseal the FBI search warrant and property receipt.

    Lawyer’s Response

    A lawyer for Trump, Alina Habba, echoed Swecker’s assertion that it appears unlikely the judge will unseal the affidavit on Thursday during a recent Fox News interview.

    “Judge Reinhart is the same magistrate judge that recused himself from my Hillary [Clinton] case about a month ago. He is definitely not going to be a friendly judge necessarily. I would say it was highly unlikely,” Habba said, noting that the “DOJ is already saying that they do not want us to see what was in the affidavit.”

    “Usually, that’s to protect witnesses and other things that have been cooperating with the justice system. So while I would love to see it and understand why you would ask for a raid with a cooperating president, do I believe that this judge is going to reveal it? No, I do not,” she said.

    The Justice Department and the FBI have remained mostly silent regarding the raid, with Attorney General Merrick Garland issuing a statement during a news conference on Aug. 11. Garland said he personally authorized the warrant for the FBI raid but provided little to no insight about why it was carried out or what was taken from Trump’s home.

    In statements posted on Truth Social, Trump wrote that FBI agents took three of his passports and demanded their return. A spokesperson for the former president confirmed on social media this week that the travel documents were handed back.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 14:57

  • Bullard Backs 75bps Hike As George Says Fed Has "Already Done A Lot"
    Bullard Backs 75bps Hike As George Says Fed Has “Already Done A Lot”

    Market odds for 75bps rate hike next month jumped from 42% to 50% this afternoon after St. Louis Fed president James Bullard backed another 75 basis-point move next month, which if effectuated would be the third consecutive 75bps rate hike, something the Fed has never done in its modern history.

    Bullard, a voting member of the FOMC and one of the biggest hawks at the US central bank, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Thursday that he backed another 75 basis-point increase in September, arguing “we should continue to move expeditiously to a level of the policy rate that will put significant downward pressure on inflation.”

    Ironically, Kansas City Fed President Esther George, who until not too long ago was the biggest hawk at the Fed (and is now more dovish than Bullard who a few years ago was the biggest Fed dove), said the US central bank had already “done a lot” on raising interest rates.

    George backed the July hike but dissented in June in favor of a smaller half-point increase, citing concern the larger move could stoke policy uncertainty. Her remarks Thursday continued to to tilt dovish.

    “I think the case for continuing to raise rates remains strong. The question of how fast that has to happen is something my colleagues and I will continue to debate, but I think the direction is pretty clear,” she said in Independence, Missouri, on Thursday.

    “We have done a lot, and I think we have to be very mindful that our policy decisions often operate on a lag. We have to watch carefully how that’s coming through.”

    Policy makers saw the federal funds rate reaching a range of 3.25% to 3.5% this year, according to the median estimate of their June projections. The forecasts will be updated in September when the Fed next meets.

    Earlier on Thursday, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly told CNN that she was open to raising rates by 50 or 75 basis points next month and that officials would be in no hurry to reverse course next year. That pushes back against investor bets that the Fed will cut rates before the end of 2023.

    The Fed officials spoke a day after the release of minutes from the July Fed policy meeting, which showed officials judged it would eventually be appropriate to slow the pace of interest-rate increases, with some advocating the Fed keep them at elevated levels for some time after increases concluded while others said a time will come to start easing (obviously).

    In reaction to Bullard’s comments stocks initially dipped but have since rebounded and are again solidly in the green as the market clearly no longer cares about anything the Fed has to say.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 08/18/2022 – 14:40

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