May 27

Today’s News 27th May 2021

  • "They Didn't Even Try To Respect The Contract" – EU Demands Massive Fine In Lawsuit Against AstraZeneca
    “They Didn’t Even Try To Respect The Contract” – EU Demands Massive Fine In Lawsuit Against AstraZeneca

    After suing AstraZeneca for falling far short of its promise to deliver 300MM doses of its vaccine to the EU by the end of the year (so far, it’s only on track to deliver roughly one-third of that due to manufacturing hiccups and other issues).

    The vaccine, which is still in widespread use despite evidence of rare but sometimes deadly cerebral blood clots, was designed by Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant with cooperation from Oxford University. The EU took the company to court back in April after the company confirmed that deliveries would likely fall far short of expectations.

    The EU’s struggle to compensate for this shortfall has at times led to hostility with its neighbors, including the newly independent UK. The EU’s ruling body, the European Commission, nearly ordered a ban on all exports produced on the continent to claim more supplies for Europeans, but ultimately that plan was quashed.

    Still, Brussels wants the company to deliver at least 120M doses by the end of June. AstraZeneca had delivered only 50M doses as of the beginning of May, though it has likely delivered at least a few million more by now. Still, 50MM is only a quarter of the 200MM that were expected to be delivered by now.

    A lawyer for the EU told Reuters that the bloc is seeking monetary compensation for each promised dose that wasn’t delivered. The rate proposed by the EU would be roughly €10 ($12) per day of delay per dose, starting July 1. At that rate, the fine would amount to $12M per million vaccines per day, or roughly $2.4 billion per day if the number missing is still 200MM.

    Brussels wants the company to deliver at least 120 million vaccines by the end of June. AstraZeneca had delivered 50 million doses by the beginning of May, just a quarter of the 200 million vaccines foreseen in the contract by then.

    “AstraZeneca did not even try to respect the contract,” the EU’s lawyer, Rafael Jafferali, told a Brussels court in the first hearing on the substance of the legal case.

    He said the EU was seeking 10 euros ($12.2) for each day of delay for each dose as compensation for AstraZeneca’s non-compliance with the contract. This penalty would apply from July 1, 2021, if the judge accepted it.

    Jafferali said the EU was seeking an additional penalty of at least 10 million euros for each breach of the contract that the judge may decide.

    A lawyer for AZ denounced the accusations as “shocking” and argued that manufacturing vaccines is fraught with complexities that sometimes can’t be anticipated.

    “This is not a contract for the delivery of shoes or T-shirts,” AstraZeneca’s lawyer Hakim Boularbah told the court later on Wednesday, stressing the complexity of manufacturing a new vaccine.

    The EU accusations were “shocking”, Boularbah said, noting the company had formulated its delivery targets based on early estimates of production capacity. He added that the vaccine was sold at cost.

    AstraZeneca has repeatedly said the contract was not binding as it only committed to make “best reasonable efforts” in delivering doses.

    Jafferali said that principle had not been respected because the drugmaker had not delivered to the bloc 50 million doses produced in factories that are listed in the contract as suppliers to the EU, including 39 million doses manufactured in Britain, 10 million produced in the United States and 1 million in the Netherlands.

    AZ’s factories in Britain, and their refusal to export vaccines, is central to the lawsuit. The company claims that it fulfilled its commitments by alerting the EU to production delays.

    AstraZeneca’s lawyer said the British factories were mentioned in the EU contract for information, but there was no commitment to use them. They were expected to produce vaccines solely for Britain until February 2021, when the company expected to deliver 100 million doses to London. It has not yet completed its deliveries to Britain.

    Jafferali said AstraZeneca had pledged in the EU contract not to have other engagements that would prevent it from abiding by the terms of the deal.

    The lawyer also said AstraZeneca had failed to communicate to the EU in a timely manner the magnitude of its supply problems because it repeatedly sent messages, including publicly, that it was able to meet its targets, before finally admitting there were large shortfalls in March.

    The company had warned the EU in December of production problems, but communicated only at the end of January, just before the start of deliveries, a much larger cut than initially expected for the first-quarter.

    Boularbah said AstraZeneca had continuously kept the EU informed about its production plans and problems.

    A verdict is expected next month.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/27/2021 – 02:45

  • Massive War Study Shows 91% Of All Global Casualties From Explosives Were Civilians
    Massive War Study Shows 91% Of All Global Casualties From Explosives Were Civilians

    Authored by Jessica Corbett via Common Dreams,

    On the heels of Israel’s recent bombardment of the Gaza Strip, a London-based charity revealed Tuesday that civilians accounted for 91% of people killed or injured when explosive weapons were used in populated areas worldwide from 2011 to 2020.

    The new Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) report (pdf) is based on data collected as part of the group’s Explosive Violence Monitoring Project. It emphasizes that the data, taken from English-language media reporting, “is not an attempt to capture every single casualty of every incident around the world.”

    Aerial bombing of Sanaa, Yemen. Via Reuters

    However, the report provides insight on the devastating impact of using explosive weapons—including air-dropped bombs, artillery shells, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and mortars—in densely populated areas and demands global commitments to end such violence.

    “Since the monitor began, AOAV has recorded the appalling suffering caused across the globe by both manufactured and improvised weapons,” the report says. “We call on states and other users to commit politically to stop using explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas. The harm recorded over the last 10 years and reflected in this report illustrates the stark urgency needed for a political declaration detailing such a commitment.”

    AOAV tallied 357,370 deaths or injuries in 28,879 incidents across 123 countries and territories—and at least 262,413 of those casualties or 73% were civilians. Overall, explosive weapons killed 155,118 people—of which 92,588 or 60% were civilians—and injured 202,252 people, of which 169,825 or 84% were civilians.

    Source: The International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW)

    As the report details:

    Civilians were most at risk when explosive weapons were used in populated areas—a well-established pattern of harm.

    60% of all recorded incidents took place in populated areas. In those attacks, AOAV recorded 263,798 casualties. Civilians accounted for 91% (238,892) of those killed or injured in populated areas. This compares to 25% of victims being reported as civilians when explosive weapons were used in areas not identified as highly populated areas.

    AOAV executive director Iain Overton told The Guardian the report clearly demonstrates that “when explosive weapons are used in towns and cities, civilians will be harmed.” That conclusion, he added, was “as true as it is today in Gaza as it was a decade ago in Iraq and beyond.”

    The highest numbers of civilian deaths and injuries were recorded in Syria (77,534), Iraq (56,316), Afghanistan (28,424), Pakistan (20,719), and Yemen (16,645). Though Gaza and Lebanon ranked ninth and 13th in terms of civilian casualties by numbers, they had the highest percentages of deaths and injuries endured by civilians—90% and 91%, respectively.

    IEDs were responsible for 52% of all deaths and injuries while manufactured explosive weapons accounted for another 47%. In other events, both types were used.

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    AOAV points out that the consequences of such incidents are not limited to immediate deaths and injuries, highlighting that “further casualties have been caused by the reverberating impacts.”

    “Explosive remnants of war contaminate the land, posing a risk to civilians for generations and frequently preventing local populations from returning or using the land for livelihood activities,” explains the report. “The destruction of civilian infrastructure takes years to repair and can leave civilians without access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities or prevent access to services such as healthcare,” AOAV continues. “Such impacts cost further lives, exacerbate the mental health impact for survivors, and see rises in poverty and disease.”

    In an effort to prevent future casualties and damage, Ireland put forth a “Draft Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians From Humanitarian Harm Arising From the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas” (pdf) in January, and has welcomed comments on the proposal.

    The International Committee of the Red Cross is among the parties that have offered comments (pdf), stating that “in the ICRC’s view, the revised draft provides a solid basis for further work towards clear and concrete political commitments to strengthen the protection of civilians from harm caused by these weapons,” and detailing some recommendations aimed at “clarifying and strengthening the text.”

    Aftermath of a 2004 bomb attack on a US base in Iraq, via AP.

    The Guardian reports that though the draft “has won the support of Belgium and will be considered at a U.N. meeting in Geneva later this year,” countries including the U.S., U.K., Israel, and France have reservations “while Russia, accused of repeated breaches of humanitarian law during indiscriminate bombing in Syria, has not participated.” According to AOAV’s report, “For civilians living in conflict zones this declaration cannot come soon enough—states and civil society must ensure that stronger standards are not watered-down by states that reject the need for constraint.”

    “States should also seek to improve their policies and practices in light of the harm that is predicted when explosive weapons are used in populated areas,” the group adds. “The international community must not only take note of the scale of the figures we have included in this report but be cognizant of the fact that each number represents a life, frequently young, and almost always a civilian.”

    Earlier this month, Israel’s assault of Gaza—which included the destruction of medical facilities and apartment buildings, one of which housed international media offices—killed at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded over 1,900 people, according to local health officials. Although Palestinian groups also launched rockets toward Israel, most were stopped by the nation’s air defenses; 13 people have been killed in Israel.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/27/2021 – 02:00

  • "I Don't Know Of A Bigger Story In The World" Right Now Than Ivermectin: NYTimes Best-Selling Author
    “I Don’t Know Of A Bigger Story In The World” Right Now Than Ivermectin: NYTimes Best-Selling Author

    Authored by Nick Corbishley via NakedCapitalism.com,

    So why are journalists not covering it?

    Michael Capuzzo, a New York Times best-selling author , has just published an article titled “The Drug That Cracked Covid”. The 15-page article chronicles the gargantuan struggle being waged by frontline doctors on all continents to get ivermectin approved as a Covid-19 treatment, as well as the tireless efforts by reporters, media outlets and social media companies to thwart them.

    Because of ivermectin, Capuzzo says, there are “hundreds of thousands, actually millions, of people around the world, from Uttar Pradesh in India to Peru to Brazil, who are living and not dying.” Yet media outlets have done all they can to “debunk” the notion that ivermectin may serve as an effective, easily accessible and affordable treatment for Covid-19. They have parroted the arguments laid out by health regulators around the world that there just isn’t enough evidence to justify its use.

    For his part, Capuzzo, as a reporter, “saw with [his] own eyes the other side [of the story]” that has gone unreported, of the many patients in the US whose lives have been saved by ivermectin and of five of the doctors that have led the battle to save lives around the world, Paul Marik, Umberto Meduri, José Iglesias, Pierre Kory and Joe Varon. These are all highly decorated doctors. Through their leadership of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care (FLCCC) Alliance, they have already enhanced our treatment of Covid-19 by discovering and promoting the use of Corticoid steroids against the virus. But their calls for ivermectin to also be used have met with a wall of resistance from healthcare regulators and a wall of silence from media outlets.

    “I really wish the world could see both sides,” Capuzzo laments.

    But unfortunately most reporters are not interested in telling the other side of the story. Even if they were, their publishers would probably refuse to publish it.

    That may explain why Capuzzo, a six-time Pulitzer-nominated journalist best known for his New York Times-bestselling nonfiction books Close to Shore and Murder Room, ended up publishing his article on ivermectin in Mountain Home, a monthly local magazine for the of the Pennsylvania mountains and New York Finger Lakes region, of which Capuzzo’s wife is the editor.

    It’s also the reason why I decided to dedicate today’s post to Capuzzo’s article. Put simply, as many people as possible –particularly journalists — need to read his story.

    As Capuzzo himself says, “I don’t know of a bigger story in the world.”

    Total News Blackout

    On December 8 2020, FLCCC member Dr Pierre Kory gave nine minutes of impassioned testimony to the US Homeland Security Committee Meeting on the potent anti-viral, anti-inflammatory benefits of ivermectin.

    A total of 9 million people (myself included) saw the video on YouTube before it was taken down by YouTube’s owner, Google. As Capuzzo exhaustively lays out, both traditional and social media have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep people in the dark about ivermectin. So effective has this been that even in some of the countries that have benefited most from its use (such as Mexico and Argentina) many people are completely unaware of its existence. And this is no surprise given how little information is actually seeping out into the public arena.

    A news blackout by the world’s leading media came down on Ivermectin like an iron curtain. Reporters who trumpeted the COVID-19 terror in India and Brazil didn’t report that Ivermectin was crushing the P-1 variant in the Brazilian rain forest and killing COVID-19 and all variants in India. That Ivermectin was saving tens of thousands of lives in South America wasn’t news, but mocking the continent’s peasants for taking horse paste was. Journalists denied the world knowledge of the most effective life-saving therapies in the pandemic, Kory said, especially among the elderly, people of color, and the poor, while wringing their hands at the tragedy of their disparate rates of death.

    Three days after Kory’s testimony, an Associated Press “fact-check reporter” interviewed Kory “for twenty minutes in which I recounted all of the existing trials evidence (over fifteen randomized and multiple observational trials) all showing dramatic benefits of Ivermectin,” he said. Then she wrote: “AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. There’s no evidence Ivermectin has been proven a safe or effective treatment against COVID-19.” Like many critics, she didn’t explore the Ivermectin data or evidence in any detail, but merely dismissed its “insufficient evidence,” quoting instead the lack of a recommendation by the NIH or WHO. To describe the real evidence in any detail would put the AP and public health agencies in the difficult position of explaining how the lives of thousands of poor people in developing countries don’t count in these matters.

    Not just in media but in social media, Ivermectin has inspired a strange new form of Western and pharmaceutical imperialism. On January 12, 2021, the Brazilian Ministry of Health tweeted to its 1.2 million followers not to wait with COVID-19 until it’s too late but “go to a Health Unit and request early treatment,” only to have Twitter take down the official public health pronouncement of the sovereign fifth largest nation in the world for “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information.” (Early treatment is code for Ivermectin.) On January 31, the Slovak Ministry of Health announced its decision on Facebook to allow use of Ivermectin, causing Facebook to take down that post and removed the entire page it was on, the Ivermectin for MDs Team, with 10,200 members from more than 100 countries.

    In Argentina, Professor and doctor Hector Carvallo, whose prophylactic studies are renowned by other researchers, says all his scientific documentation for Ivermectin is quickly scrubbed from the Internet. “I am afraid,” he wrote to Marik and his colleagues, “we have affected the most sensitive organ on humans: the wallet…” As Kory’s testimony was climbing toward nine million views, YouTube, owned by Google, erased his official Senate testimony, saying it endangered the community. Kory’s biggest voice was silenced.

    “The Most Powerful Entity on Earth”

    Malcom X once called the media “the most powerful entity on the earth.” They have, he said, “the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of masses”. Today, that power is now infused with the power of the world’s biggest tech and social media companies. Together social and traditional media have the power to make a medicine that has saved possibly millions of lives during the current pandemic disappear from the conversation. When it is covered, it’s almost always in a negative light. Some media organizations, including the NY Times, have even prefaced mention of the word “ivermectin” — a medicine that has done so much good over its 40-year lifespan that its creators were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2015 — with the word “controversial.”

    Undeterred, many front-line doctors have tried to persuade their respective health regulators of the unparalleled efficacy and safety of ivermectin as a covid treatment. They include Dr. Tess Lawrie, a prominent independent medical researcher who, as Capuzzo reports, evaluates the safety and efficacy of drugs for the WHO and the National Health Service to set international clinical practice guidelines:

    “[She] read all twenty-seven of the Ivermectin studies Kory cited. The resulting evidence is consistent and unequivocal,” she announced, and sent a rapid meta-analysis, an epidemiolocal statistical multi-study review considered the highest form of medical evidence, to the director of the NHS, members of parliament, and a video to Prime Minister Boris Johnson with “the good news… that we now have solid evidence of an effective treatment for COVID-19…” and Ivermectin should immediately “be adopted globally and systematically for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.”

    Ignored by British leaders and media, Lawrie convened the day-long streaming BIRD conference—British Ivermectin Recommendation Development—with more than sixty researchers and doctors from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, England, Ireland, Belgium, Argentina, South Africa, Botswana, Nigeria, Australia, and Japan. They evaluated the drug using the full “evidence-to-decision framework” that is “the gold standard tool for developing clinical practice guidelines” used by the WHO, and reached the conclusion that Ivermectin should blanket the world.

    “Most of all you can trust me because I am also a medical doctor, first and foremost,” Lawrie told the prime minster, “with a moral duty to help people, to do no harm, and to save lives. Please may we start saving lives now.” She heard nothing back.

    Ivermectin’s benefits were also corroborated by Dr. Andrew Hill, a renowned University of Liverpool pharmacologist and independent medical researcher, and the senior World Health Organization/UNITAID investigator of potential treatments for COVID-19. Hill’s team of twenty-three researchers in twenty-three countries had reported that, after nine months of looking for a COVID-19 treatment and finding nothing but failures like Remdesivir— “we kissed a lot of frogs”— Ivermectin was the only thing that worked against COVID-19, and its safety and efficacy were astonishing—“blindingly positive,” Hill said, and “transformative.” Ivermectin, the WHO researcher concluded, reduced COVID-19 mortality by 81 percent.

    Why All the Foot Dragging?

    Yet most health regulators and governments continue to drag their feet. More evidence is needed, they say. All the while, doctors in most countries around the world have no early outpatient medicines to draw upon in their struggle against the worst pandemic in century. Drawing on his own experience, Capuzzo describes the absence of treatments for COVID-19 as a global crisis: 

    When my daughter Grace, a vice president at a New York advertising agency, came down with COVID-19 recently, she was quarantined in a “COVID hotel” in Times Square with homeless people and quarantining travelers. The locks on her room door were removed. Nurses prowled the halls to keep her in her room and wake her up every night to check her vitals—not to treat her, because there is no approved treatment for COVID-19; only, if her oxygen plummeted, to move her to the hospital, where there is only a single eective approved treatment for COVID-19, steroids that may keep the lungs from failing. 

    There are three possible explanations for health regulators’ refusal to allow the use of a highly promising, well-tolerated off-label medicine such as ivermectin:

    • As a generic, ivermectin is cheap and widely available, which means there would be a lot less money to be made by Big Pharma if it became the go-to early-stage treatment against covid.

    • Other pharmaceutical companies are developing their own novel treatments for Covid-19 which would have to compete directly with ivermectin. They include ivermectin’s original manufacturer, Merck, which has an antiviral compound, molnupiravir, in Phase 3 clinical trials for COVID-19. That might explain the company’s recent statement claiming that there is “no scientific basis whatsoever for a potential therapeutic effect of ivermectin against COVID-19. 

    • If approved as a covid-19 treatment, ivermectin could even threaten the emergency use authorisation granted to covid-19 vaccines. One of the basic conditions for the emergency use authorisation granted to the vaccines currently being used against covid is that there are no alternative treatments available for the disease. As such, if ivermectin or some other promising medicine such as fluvoxamine were approved as an effective early treatment for Covid-19, the vaccines could be stripped of authorisation.

    This may explain why affordable, readily available and minimally toxic drugs are not repurposed for use against Covid despite the growing mountains of evidence supporting their efficacy. 

    Ivermectin has already been approved as a covid-19 treatment in more than 20 countries. They include Mexico where the mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Scheinbaum, recently said that the medicine had reduced hospitalisations by as much as 76%. As of last week, 135,000 of the city’s residents had been treated with the medicine. The government of India — the world’s second most populous country and one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of medicines — has also recommended the use of ivermectin as an early outpatient treatment against covid-19, in direct contravention of WHO’s own advice.

    Dr Vikas P. Sukhatme, the dean of Emory School of Medicine, recently wrote in a column for the Times of India that deploying drugs such as ivermectin and fluvoxamine in India is likely to “rapidly reduce the number of COVID-19 patients, reduce the number requiring hospitalization, supplemental oxygen and intensive care and improve outcomes in hospitalized patients.” 

    Four weeks after the government included ivermectin and budesonide among its early treatment guidelines, the country has recorded its lowest case count in 40 days.

    In many of India’s regions the case numbers are plunging in almost vertical fashion. In the capital Delhi, as in Mexico City, hospitalisations have plummeted. In the space of 10 days ICU occupancy fell from 99% to 70%. Deaths are also falling. The test positivity ratio slumped from 35% to 5% in just one month.

    One of the outliers of this trend is the state of Tamil Nadu, where cases are still rising steeply. This may have something to do with the fact that the state’s newly elected governor, MK Stalin, decided to exclude ivermectin from the region’s treatment protocol in favor of Remdesivir. The result? Soaring cases. Late last week, Stalin reversed course once again and readopted ivermectin. 

    For the moment deaths in India remain extremely high. And there are concerns that the numbers are being under-reported. Yet they may also begin to fall in the coming days. In all of the countries that have used ivermectin widely, fatalities are the last thing to fall, after case numbers and hospitalizations. Of course, there’s no way of definitively proving that these rapid falloffs are due to the use of ivermectin. Correlation, even as consistent as this, is not causation. Other factors such as strict lockdowns and travel restrictions no doubt also play a part.

    But a clear pattern across nations and territories has formed that strongly supports ivermectin’s purported efficacy. And that efficacy has been amply demonstrated in three meta-analyses.

    India’s decision to adopt ivermectin, including as a prophylaxis in some states, is already a potential game-changer. As I wrote three weeks ago, if case numbers, hospitalizations and fatalities fall in India as precipitously as they have in other countries that have adopted ivermectin, it could even become a watershed moment. But for that to happen, the news must reach enough eyes and ears. And for that to happen, reporters must, as Capuzzo says, begin to do their job and report both sides of this vital story.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 23:40

  • Lukashenko Lashes Out After BBC & Others Admit Detained Activist's Ukrainian Azov Battalion Ties
    Lukashenko Lashes Out After BBC & Others Admit Detained Activist’s Ukrainian Azov Battalion Ties

    Belarus’ long time leader Alexander Lukashenko has spoken out on Wednesday over the Ryanair diverted flight saga, pushing back against widespread accusations coming from the former Soviet satellite country’s opposition but especially Western leaders that his security services engaged in “state hijacking” of the airliner carrying activist and blogger Roman Protasevich. Promises of EU and US additional sanctions were swift after Protasevich and his girlfriend were detained on charges of inciting riots and publishing the personal information of police and officers of the state online. State airline Belavia is also facing an airspace ban over Europe and carriers out of the EU are avoiding flying over Belarus. 

    Instead of concealing the ordeal or downplaying the detention which has attracted international media scrutiny and outrage, Lukashenko has gone on the offense, lashing out at his critics while justifying the detention of Protasevich, calling him an “extremist” who was ultimately taking cues from a foreign entity in his activism and journalism, or even “inciting riots” – as he’s being charged with. “One extremist with his female accomplice. So let his numerous Western patrons answer this question: Which intelligence services did this individual work for?” Lukashenko said as quoted by the Belarus Segodnya newspaper.

    Via EPA

    “Not only him but his accomplice as well. These Western advocates should answer one more question: who paid him for taking part in the war in Donbass?” Belarus’ president added, “Perhaps, they fear this the most. So they’re making a fuss. His experience as a mercenary is huge.“

    It’s long been reported and a subject of controversy in Belarusian and Eastern European media that Pratasevich was indeed in war-torn Donbas in Ukraine at the height of fighting there in 2015. And BBC among others is now acknowledging:

    “Mr Protasevich confirmed in an interview last year that he had spent a year in the conflict-hit Donbas region and was wounded, but said he was covering the conflict as a journalist and photographer.” 

    He was “embedded” with the far-right and neo-Nazi linked Azov Battalion while they fought fierce battles against pro-Russia separatists. However, BBC notes that Protasevich has insisted he was only there as a journalist: “A former commander of the Azov unit has backed Mr Protasevich’s version of events, confirming that he spent time with them as a journalist and was wounded,” the report says.

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    Minsk is now accusing the young detained activist of essentially being a mercenary and “terrorist” who’s long plotted the overthrow of the legitimate government. Lukashenko added in his Wednesday comments:

    “These facts are well-known not only here, but in brotherly Russia, and also throughout the world. And he did not hide this. Well, here, in Belarus, he and his accomplices also plotted a massacre and a bloody coup,” Lukashenko said further.

    Photographs of Protasevich’s time in Eastern Ukraine increasingly point to him having been more than a mere journalist in the conflict…

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    The Belarusian president stressed and claimed further that “there was a terrorist on that plane.”

    Via Sky News

    Instead of skirting the issue, Lukashenko owned up directly to authorizing Protasevich being removed from the plane along with his girlfriend:

    “According to the law, this person had been put on a terrorist list, and his organization is recognized as an extremist one. Who does not know this? And that we detained him, a Belarusian national, and his partner who holds our residence permit at the airport, this is our sovereign right to do so,” he said.

    However, the president stated the Ryanair flight was not initially diverted because of efforts to apprehend Protasevich, but because there was a bomb threat. The West has accused the bomb threat of being a ruse orchestrated to force the plane’s emergency diversion and landing.

    Via TASS

    “As we predicted, ill-wishers from outside and inside the country have changed their ways of attacking our country,” Lukashenko said, according to state media. “They crossed many red lines, crossed the boundaries of common sense and human morality.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 23:20

  • How Zuckerberg Paid Millions For Progressives To Work With 2020 Vote Officials Nationwide
    How Zuckerberg Paid Millions For Progressives To Work With 2020 Vote Officials Nationwide

    Authored by Steve Miller via RealClearInvestigations (emphasis ours),

    In the months leading up to November’s election, voting officials in major cities and counties worked with a progressive group funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and its allies to create ballots, strategically target voters and develop “cure” letters in situations where mail-in ballots were in danger of being tossed out.

    The Center for Tech and Civic Life, or CTCL, provided millions of dollars in private funding for the elections that came from a $350 million donation from Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.  The CTCL gave “COVID-19 response” grants of varying amounts to  2,500 municipalities in 49 states.

    In exchange for the money, elections divisions agreed to conduct their elections according to conditions set out by the CTCL, which is led by former members of the New Organizing Institute, a training center for progressive groups and Democratic campaigns.

    A CTCL partner, the Center for Civic Design, helped design absentee ballot forms and instructions, crafted voter registration letters for felons and tested automatic voter registration systems in several states, working alongside progressive activist groups in Michigan and directly with elections offices in Georgia and Utah.

    Still other groups with a progressive leaning, including the Main Street Alliance, The Elections Group and the National Vote at Home Institute, provided support for some elections offices.

    Facebook, with the CTCL, was also part of the effort, providing a guide and webinar for election officials on how to engage voters. Included were directions to report “voter interference” to Facebook authorities. The company also provided designated employees in six regions of the U.S. to handle questions. Together, the groups strategically targeted voters and waged a voter assistance campaign aimed at low-income and minority residents who typically shun election participation, helping Democratic candidates win key spots all over the U.S.

    The little-explored roles of CTCL and other such groups emerged in emails and other records obtained by RealClearInvestigations and public documents secured by conservative litigants and groups, including the Foundation for Government Accountability, which has filed more than 800 public records requests with elections offices accepting the grants.

    Previously, the Zuckerberg-funded effort has been described in generally positive terms, notably when NPR reported in December on “How Private Money From Facebook’s CEO Saved The 2020 Election” — in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump’s doubts about the legitimacy of the process and “Congress’ neglect.”

    Conservatives take a more critical view the effort. “This private funding has never been done before,” said Hayden Dublois, a researcher at the Foundation of Government Accountability. ”We hear about dark money and corporations buying ads, but never have we seen hundreds of millions of private dollars going into the conducting of elections. And states didn’t have any laws on the books to stop it.”
     
    Numerous Trump supporters contend that the 2020 presidential election was rigged or even stolen but have produced little concrete evidence to prove it. But their suspicions aren’t likely to be dispelled by the efforts of the private progressive groups, however legal.
     
    They are among other notable instances of monied interests underwriting public governance and affairs for political ends. In 2018, RCI reported that a New York University School of Law program funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg had placed environmentally minded lawyers in the offices of Democratic state attorneys general to challenge Trump administration policies. And examples of private efforts to steer cash-strapped public education are numerous, from the Koch charities on the right to more recent race-conscious programs on the left emphasizing the legacy and centrality of white racism in society.

    Zuckerberg did not respond to an emailed request from RCI for comment. In a post-election interview, he praised Facebook’s security work during the election and singled out its policing of “misinformation.” He noted working with polling officials to watch for information that might lead to “voter suppression” and said Facebook had strengthened its enforcement “against militias and conspiracy networks like Q-Anon.” 

    Facebook has banned Trump from its platform and has delisted individuals – many of them conservatives — for espousing views about the election that it insists are “misinformation.”

    ‘Curing Absentee Ballots’

    According to court documents filed by the Thomas More Society, a conservative law firm, the Zuckerberg-funded CTCL allowed elections departments to use grant money to buy vehicles to transport “voter navigators.”  The group filed unsuccessful lawsuits in several states before the election, contending the private funding created unconstitutional public-private partnerships. Several other suits remain active.

    The election department in Green Bay, Wis., promised as part of its CTCL grant of $1 million that it would employ the vote navigators to “assist voters, potentially at their front doors, to answer questions … and witnessing absentee ballot signatures,” according to documents filed in legal complaints in Wisconsin by Erick Kaardal, a Minneapolis-based lawyer who has worked on the Thomas More Society lawsuits.

    Caleb Jeffreys, one of at least two voter navigators in Green Bay, described his duties as including “curing absentee ballots.” Jeffreys, now a city employee in Green Bay according to his LinkedIn profile, did not respond to an interview request.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 23:00

  • Canadians Overwhelmingly Support Leaving US Border Closed Until September
    Canadians Overwhelmingly Support Leaving US Border Closed Until September

    Even as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has moved to roll back some of the COVID-19-inspired restrictions to allow Canadians to enjoy their all-too-brief summer, the latest reports suggest that the US-Canada border – the world’s longest undefended frontier – will remain closed until at least September. And even once it does reopen, most Canadians appear to support requirements for proof of vaccination before any unvaccinated American heathens are allowed to enter Canada.

    According to Bloomberg, roughly half of the respondents to a recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute said that the border should remain shut until September, and more than three quarters of respondents said they would support a vaccine passport.

    Source: Bloomberg

    The border with the US has been closed for more than a year, but now that Canada is accelerating its vaccination program, Trudeau is facing growing pressure from business groups (not to mention the opposition Conservatives) to come up with a concrete reopening plan. And as Trudeau mulls whether to trigger an early election in an attempt to win back his parliamentary majority, the politics of the border reopening are suddenly critical.

    More than half of Canadian adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and the country’s three largest provinces – Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia – have announced phased reopening plans.

    During a recent press briefing, Trudeau stressed that Canada still has a long way to go toward reopening.

    “There are lots of reasons to be hopeful but that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down yet,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.

    “Ultimately, the freedoms of a ‘one-dose summer’ may prove inadequate to a pandemic fatigued country, and that may well extend to border reopening timelines as well,” Kurl said. “The next month will be telling.”

    Last week, Trudeau’s government announced another month-long extension of border restrictions until June 21. According to the poll, there isn’t much support for an immediate reopening after a recent flareup in cases last month. But as case numbers continue to slow, and vaccination tallies rise, public opinion might shift sooner than the PM expects – especially as Canadians are forced to watch as their American peers return to a state of near-normalcy, which is already happening across all 50 states.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 22:40

  • New Zealand Worried That China "Storm" On Horizon, Urges Diversity Of Exports
    New Zealand Worried That China “Storm” On Horizon, Urges Diversity Of Exports

    New Zealand officials have of late looked at their much larger Aussie neighbor and expressed concern that the island could soon find itself in the middle of a similar trade war with China and generally a target of Beijing’s wrath. New Zealand is after all part of the 70-year old “Five Eyes” intelligence grouping of English-speaking nations that includes the US, UK, Australia and Canada – all of which have been increasingly vocal against China’s human rights abuses and coercive trade and spy measures abroad.  Wellington is under growing pressure from its bigger, influential allies to get more vocal. 

    In April New Zealand’s foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, sought to distance her country from the “pressure” and controversy as they spotlighted human rights abuses connected with the Uyghur Muslim population as well as Hong Kong, and other anti-democracy malfeasance, calling such criticisms “uncomfortable”. But despite the conciliatory attempts to stay somewhat “neutral” on the China criticism and growing antagonism, Mahuta is now warning the tiny nation could soon find itself in the center of a “storm” of anger from China in “only a matter of time”.

    New Zealand’s Prime Minister President Xi Jinping in 2019, file image.

    She’s now openly pushing for greater diversity of exports before that day comes after witnessing the Australia example and the devastation wrought by a trade war with its single biggest export destination – vocalizing something which itself is sure to gain Beijing’s scrutiny. 

    “We cannot ignore, obviously, what’s happening in Australia with their relationship with China. And if they are close to an eye of the storm or in the eye of the storm, we’ve got to legitimately ask ourselves – it may only be a matter of time before the storm gets closer to us,” she said in a Guardian interview this week.

    “The signal I’m sending to exporters is that they need to think about diversification in this context – Covid-19, broadening relationships across our region, and the buffering aspects of if something significant happened with China,” she said, and posed further, “Would they be able to withstand the impact?” 

    An estimated 30% of all New Zealand’s exports now goes to China (accounting for over $33 billion), a clearly massive enough chunk for Beijing to unleash real damage if it wanted to, after a past decade of steady reliance on China as NZ’s “big buyer”, stemming back to the New Zealand–China Free Trade Agreement signed in 2008.

    For now it appears Beijing is desirous of keeping things in accord with FM Mahuta’s April assessment of wanting to stay away from hurling “uncomfortable” accusations, or staying far away from “distractions”. 

    In reaction to Mahuta’s Monday published interview statements, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, expressed hope that the two countries can work in “the same direction, make the pie of cooperation bigger, rise above external distractions.” The Chinese statements were made Wednesday.

    New Zealand’s foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta (left), via AFP

    The Chinese statement laid out that progress in relations can only be achieved “on the premise that the two sides have long been committed to mutual respect, mutual trust and win-win results” – ultimately toward a “comprehensive strategic partnership”.

    Of course Beijing has alternately lately voiced that it’s precisely “mutual respect and trust” that is fundamentally lacking in the current state of deteriorated relations with Washington.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 22:20

  • Two Million Evacuated As "Severe Cyclonic Storm" Hits India's Eastern Coast
    Two Million Evacuated As “Severe Cyclonic Storm” Hits India’s Eastern Coast

    Torrential rains, howling winds, and tidal surges from Cyclone Yaas wreak havoc in eastern India as the virus-stricken country experiences its second cyclone in less than two weeks, according to Bloomberg. 

    More than two million people were evacuated from the eastern states of Odisha and West Bengal as Yaas made landfall Wednesday morning, destroying homes, farms and affecting ten million people. 

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    West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Yaas had destroyed more than 300,000 homes in the state, adding that crops have been swamped, livestock farms have been devastated, and river embankments have been breached. He said around 1.5 million were evacuated ahead of landfall. In neighboring Odisha, more than 500,000 people were evacuated. 

    The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) continues to define Yaas as a “very severe cyclonic storm.” 

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    “Landfall process of Cyclone Yaas is complete. Between 1030 am (05:00 GMT) to 11.30 am (06:00 GMT), it crossed 20km (12 miles) south from the Balasore coast,” IMD director-general Mrutyunjay Mohapatra told Al Jazeera.

    “The cyclone is now moving towards Mayurbhanj district and Jharkhand (state),” he said.

    This is the second storm in ten days to batter India. Last week, cyclone Tauktae, categorized as “extremely severe,” barreled through the country’s western coast and sank a drilling rig, killing dozens. 

    The twin disasters come as India is battling the second wave of COVID-19, increasing pressure on hospitals and medical workers. 

    “This cyclone spells double trouble for millions of people in India as there is no respite from COVID-19,” said Udaya Regmi, the South Asia head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

    Hazra said it would be near impossible to maintain social distancing in the emergency shelters.

    … and it’s a good thing India is preparing to unleash another stimulus package as the latest surge in infections and cyclones could hamper the nation’s economic recovery.  

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 22:00

  • "Descending Into A Farce": Chaos Erupts After Stiffed UniCredit Bondholders Get Fat-Fingered Payment
    “Descending Into A Farce”: Chaos Erupts After Stiffed UniCredit Bondholders Get Fat-Fingered Payment

    Step aside Citigroup, and your erroneous $500MM transfer to Revlon bondholders: there is an even dumber “fat finger” in town.

    Late last week the financial world was shocked when Andrea Orcel, the new CEO of Italy’s second largest bank UniCredi, decided not to make a €30MM debt coupon payment on the grounds that the bank made a loss last year, even though investors had been assured of the cash. Then, on Tuesday, the financial world was even more shocked when the news broke that despite the bank’s decision, some bondholders said they had received notice of payment after all. And while UniCredit insists it didn’t pay it, raising Citigroup-esque dejavi questions about how the payment was made, Orcel’s calculated show of strength has “rapidly descended into a farce“, according to Bloomberg.

    What happened?

    It all started last Friday when UniCredit made the shocking decision to skip the payment of coupons on some financial instruments, in a U-turn that sent he bond in question into a tailspin and hurt some other debt sold by Italy’s No. 2 bank. Just back in February, when presenting full-year results, Finance Chief Stefano Porro had told analysts the bank expected to pay a coupon on the legacy bond it issued over a decade ago, as well as on Additional Tier 1 bonds. But a spokesman on Friday said UniCredit would not do so after posting a 2.79 billion euro ($3.4 billion) loss last year.

    As Reuters noted, UniCredit has withheld coupon payments on the CASHES notes in the past after ending the year in the red, but the latest decision, taken by new Chief Executive Andrea Orcel barely a month after his arrival, took bond investors by surprise.

    However, some bond investors were even more surprised when they woke up on Tuesday to find that their bank accounts had been properly debited with the required coupon payment from the UniCredit bonds.

    Initially there was much confusion who was responsible for the payment or where it came from, even if the confusion was understandable: the 2.98 billion euro bond’s complicated structure meany that there are several players involved, and the error could have come from any one of them. The CASHES, short for Convertible and Subordinated Hybrid Equity-Linked Securities, have different banks serving as depository and fiduciary for the instruments.

    The confusion went away this morning when we learned that Euroclear – Europe’s largest bond custodian and settlement agent of securities transactions – said it had mistakenly credited client accounts with funds for a coupon payment on UniCredit bonds that the bank had decided not to honor. The flub by Euroclear added a fresh – and confusing – twist to the surprise decision by new UniCredit Chief Executive Officer Andrea Orcel not to pay the debt coupon of about 30 million euros.

    In response, the bonds fell 0.5 cents on the euro to about 51.2 on Wednesday, while UniCredit shares fell 0.6% to 10.29 euros as of 10:38 a.m. in Milan. The bank’s Additional Tier 1 bonds, a newer-style capital security, were little changed. The CASHES are quoted almost 10 cents on the euro lower than prior to the news of the coupon skip last week.

    “It’s embarrassing for them of course, even if it isn’t their fault,” said Jerome Legras, a managing partner and head of research at ‎Axiom Alternative Investments. “But the truth is this happened because they took everyone by surprise.”

    For Orcel, the fat finger debacle is denting what would have been another signal of a high-energy start to his tenure. In just over a month in charge the Italian has already slimmed down the management ranks and cut down on co-head structures to simplify decision making – all while embroiled in a high profile court case in Spain over millions of dollars in lost pay.

    In any case, now that the source of the mistake has been isolated, the question is what happens next: does UniCredit pull a Citigroup and try to recover the funds (it didn’t work too well for Citi), or does it slink away with its tail folded between its legs.

    it would raise questions over whether investors will need to return the funds — and who will be on the hook for the payment if not.

    “Even if it isn’t their fault, but of the depositary or fiduciary bank, the timing is very unfortunate,” said Paola Biraschi, an analyst at CreditSights. “They already incurred some reputational damage given the inconsistent market communication around the intention to pay the coupon. Investors will now want to understand the reasons behind the alleged payment of the coupon. And if any money was transferred, I imagine they will attempt to claw it back from bond holders.”

    Since a clawback appears unlikely especially in the aftermath of the Citi cash study, an angry UniCredit may just take out its anger and frustration on more bondholders and refuse to pay future coupons. According to Bloomberg, given the notes’ terms the bank could also skip the next three coupons, even though UniCredit took steps last year to update terms of the CASHES allowing it to pay the coupons after reporting a loss or without distributing a dividend.

    The notes are a legacy of the financial crisis, highly complex securities issued more than a decade ago. Investors in this type of legacy bond contend not only with unpredictable decisions by lenders, but also labyrinthine regulations and often-tortuous terms that can be interpreted in different ways. As Bloomberf notes, They’ve already been the subject of controversy after a London hedge fund accused the bank of boosting its capital strength by misclassifying them. The issue fizzled after the European Banking Authority sided with the bank, saying it found “no clear evidence” to support the hedge fund’s claim.

     

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 21:40

  • Ireland Rejects US Plan For Global Minimum Tax, Will Keep 12.5% Rate
    Ireland Rejects US Plan For Global Minimum Tax, Will Keep 12.5% Rate

    Following reports that an agreement between the G-7 and the White House on a global minimum corporate tax rate is almost ready, Ireland – which isn’t a G-7 member, but is a member of the OECD and the EU, and therefore must also assent to these changes – is speaking out against a new minimum level agreed to by the White House.

    According to Sky News, Ireland has no plans to increase its 12.5% corporate tax rate, which is already one of the lowest in the developed world, and which has been a tremendous boon for its economy. The latest iteration of the agreement as envisioned by the US set the global minimum rate at more than 15%.

    Source: Sky

    While the OECD is supportive of proposals for a global minimum corporate tax, it has also pointed out that reforms should also include more clear treatment of where and how taxes are assessed.

    Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said that he had “significant reservations” over American plans to encourage countries around the world to adopt a minimum corporate tax rate in order to prevent companies from shifting their profits and avoiding payments in future, especially as President Biden tries to engineer one of the biggest tax hikes in decades.

    In an interview with Sky News, Donohoe said “we do have really significant reservations regarding a global minimum effective tax rate status at such a level that it means only certain countries, and certain size economies can benefit from that base – we have a really significant concern about that.”

    The international agreement being hammered out by the US and the G-7 would be the biggest such overall in a century, when the current rules on international corporate taxes were hammered out. Back then, it was much more difficult for corporations to use accounting and legal loopholes to reduce their tax burden.

    Today, it’s commonplace for companies to shift billions of dollars of profits around the world to countries with lower tax rates, something the Biden administration has vowed to combat. The US is planning on raising its own corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, and is increasing the rates for American companies working overseas. And the UK has its own plans for tax hikes.

    Donohoe’s comments will raise the stakes during negotiations at the upcoming G-7 summit in England. The OECD has been pushing for corporate taxation reform for many years, and the US proposal for a global accord is building off of that.

    Of course, if Ireland refuses to lower its tax rate, that will make it extremely difficult for the UK to agree to the US plan, since British firms are already seeing unprecedented pressure to move across the border and back into the EU single market.

    “I absolutely support and will be making the case for our 12.5% tax rate,” Donohoe said. “I believe a rate like that – a low rate – should be a feature of an agreement in the future. “Our friends and partners in the United States understand our concerns in these matters, but the best kinds of partnerships – the best kinds of friendships – are ones in which you can talk about these matters openly and engage with each other, professionally, and that’s what we’re going to be doing.”

    The US has already pitched concessions like surrendering more tax revenue from American tech giants that operate internationally. Apparently, whatever they’re offering, it’s not going to be good enough for Ireland, which essentially holds the power to scuttle a global agreement simply by making its neighbors unwilling to tolerate Ireland’s notoriously low tax rates.

    In other words, just when US diplomats were proclaiming to the press that a deal was as good as done, it looks like talks have a long way to go.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 21:20

  • Iran Bans Crypto Mining As Blackouts Grow Into Summer: "85% Of Mining Farms Are Unlicensed"
    Iran Bans Crypto Mining As Blackouts Grow Into Summer: “85% Of Mining Farms Are Unlicensed”

    On Wednesday Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced efforts to combat the growing trend of rampant and unpredictable blackouts experienced across parts of the country of over 80 million people at the start of a hot summer, particularly in already strained major cities. By many accounts what was somewhat already a “norm” under American sanctions has come early this year – namely the sporadic blackouts, increasingly angering the population just ahead of a key presidential election in June.

    “The ban on the mining of cryptocurrencies is effective immediately until September 22… Some 85 percent of the current mining in Iran is unlicensed,” Rouhani said in a cabinet address aired by state TV. 

    There are an estimated 50 officially licensed mining farms sucking up a total of at least 200 megawatts of power, according to the most recent analysis. Iran’s state-controlled power generation company recently made public its data showing colossal increases in energy consumption far beyond this – mostly due to miners, leading to a nationwide strain that includes periodic blackouts, indeed confirming mining operations that far exceed the aforementioned 50 legal large-scale operations. 

    “Rouhani said legal crypto mining operations in Iran consume about 300MW of electricity, which is very insignificant. But illegal operations consume up to 2,000MW,” Al Jazeera noted of the speech announcing legislation enacting the four month ban.

    Rouhani did, however, appear to make a passing acknowledgement of the benefit to the country that crypto mining represents (which reportedly netted the country over $1 billion a year in recent years amid its isolation), saying “Now everybody has a few miners laying around and are producing Bitcoins” – which reportedly got some laughs out of top officials, but at the same time slammed illegal mining as coming at the cost of the citizenry’s well-being. 

    As we previously detailed, both private and public crypto mining has exploded in Iran over the past few years, putting it according to one recent study among the top ten bitcoin mining countries in the world – accounting for 4.5% of all bitcoin globally – primarily as a means of paying for imported goods and as an easily available way to soften the impact of sanctions amid a hard cash shortage – also given foreign currencies are hard to come by as a result of the prior US-led economic war against the Islamic Republic.

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    While Iran has relied on ‘legal’ and authorized mining farms to soften the US sanctions blow, it’s in recent months cracked down on private and undisclosed operators seeking to profit from state subsidized electricity.

    And now with the Islamic Republic on the cusp of achieving a renewed JCPOA nuclear deal in Vienna, and with sanctions expected to quickly be rolled back including vitally on the oil and banking sectors, priorities are shifting, also as a presidential election is set for June, and further as Tehran appears to be following China’s example.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 21:00

  • Biden Panics After CNN Reveals He Canceled COVID Origins Investigation, Orders 90-Day Report From US Intel Agencies
    Biden Panics After CNN Reveals He Canceled COVID Origins Investigation, Orders 90-Day Report From US Intel Agencies

    Update (1522ET): Less than 24 hours after CNN threw Biden under the bus for canceling a State Department effort launched under Trump to get to the bottom of the origins of COVID-19, the Biden administration has backpedaled – and has ordered the US intelligence community to conduct a 90-day investigation into how the pandemic began.

    In a statement via the White House website, the Biden administration claims that officials have been pursuing various possibilities – including “whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident,” it’s clear that the administration is in full damage control mode.

    “I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days,” said Biden in the announcement.

    *  *  *

    The Biden administration pulled the plug on a Trump-era State Department investigation into whether COVID-19 originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, according to a Tuesday evening report by CNN.

    The effort, led by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, also sought to determine whether China’s biological weapons program may have played a role in the pandemic. According to the report, it was met with internal opposition from officials who thought it was simply a politicized witch hunt to blame China for the virus.

    According to three unnamed sources, when Biden was briefed on the investigations’ findings in February and March, he pulled the plug – and instead opted to trust the findings of the World Health Organization, which conducted an ‘investigation’ earlier this year which turned out to be nothing more than political theater, the cast of which included the highly conflicted Peter Daszak, the Fauci-funded virologist who was studying bat viruses at the Wuhan lab.

    “The way they did their work was suspicious as hell,” said one former State Department official who (we’re guessing was rooting for team Schiff during Trump’s impeachment).

    Pompeo, meanwhile, said in May 2020 that there was “enormous evidence” and a “significant amount of evidence” to support the lab-escape theory. And according to former senior State Department official David Feith, “People in the US government were working on the question of where Covid-19 came from but there was no other effort that we knew of that took the lab leak possibility seriously enough to focus on digging into certain aspects, questions and uncertainties.“

    The revelation that Biden shut down the inquiry is awkward at best, after the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were so sick in November of 2019 that they sought hospitalization, citing the intelligence report that Biden rejected.

    The details of the reporting go beyond a State Department fact sheet, issued during the final days of the Trump administration, which said that several researchers at the lab, a center for the study of coronaviruses and other pathogens, became sick in autumn 2019 “with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness.”

    The disclosure of the number of researchers, the timing of their illnesses and their hospital visits come on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organization’s decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of an investigation into Covid-19’s origins. -WSJ

    And of course now we know that the ‘venerable Dr. Fauci’ was involved in funding research in Wuhan via EcoHealth Alliance, and now admits “there’s no way of guaranteeing” that American taxpayer funds didn’t go towards “gain-of-function” research to make bat coronaviruses better-infect humans.

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    The lab leak theory, floated by Zero Hedge and several other outlets in early 2020, was promoted heavily by former President Trump, who blamed China for unleashing the virus on the world and derailing historic economic growth following three years of ‘America First’ international negotiations, along with generous tax breaks.

    “I said it right at the beginning, and that’s where it came from,” Trump told Newsmax Tuesday night, taking somewhat of a victory lab over the MSM’s ‘come to Jesus’ moment over the mounting lab leak hypothesis. “I think it was obvious to smart people. That’s where it came from. I have no doubt about it. I had no doubt about it. I was criticized by the press.”

    Trump also said he remains confident that the lab leak theory is correct.

    “‘People didn’t want to say China. Usually they blame it on Russia,” he continued. “I said right at the beginning it came out of Wuhan. And that’s where all the deaths were also, by the way, when we first heard about this, there were body bags, dead people laying all over Wuhan province, and that’s where it happened to be located.”

    “To me it was very obvious. I said it very strongly and I was criticized and now people are agreeing with me, so that’s okay.“

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 20:44

  • Dutch Court Orders Shell To Aggressively Cut Carbon Emissions In Landmark Decision
    Dutch Court Orders Shell To Aggressively Cut Carbon Emissions In Landmark Decision

    There’s been a lot of speculation this year about what it might take for western governments like the US to meet the carbon emissions targets laid out in the Paris Accords, which President Biden has enthusiastically rejoined. One study by the IEA concluded that all oil and gas firms would have to halt new projects in order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

    While progressives increasingly demand more aggressive change, moderate Democrats and Republicans have long insisted that markets would naturally wean society off of its dependence on fossil fuels as renewables, nuclear and other alternatives to fossil fuel become more affordable. As COVID led to a memorable drop in demand that sent spot oil prices into negative territory last spring, investors have made clear that ESG investing and carbon credits are growing increasingly popular, alongside divestment movements. A recent runup in gas prices has also helped spur interest in alternatives.

    However, over in Europe, EU courts are stepping in to force one of the world’s biggest energy companies to accelerate its green commitments. Royal Dutch Shell has just lost a landmark case brought by environmental activists in Dutch courts in the Hague. The court ruled that the company must cut its greenhouse gas emissions more aggressively: by 2030, Shell’s net carbon emissions needed to be 45% lower than 2019 levels. The FT said the ruling could have “far-reaching consequences” not just for Shell, but for its competitors as well. Though Shell said it expects to appeal the decision.

    Previously, Shell had promised to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% within a decade, and to net-zero before 2050.

    If it stands, the ruling would set a precedent for similar cases against the world’s biggest corporate polluters who could now be exposed to similar lawsuits that could force an ESG reckoning that oil firms have repeatedly tried to delay.

    Judge Alwin, who handed down the decision on Wednesday, said it would require the company to accelerate “a change of policy” from Shell that could “curb the potential growth of the Shell group”.

    “The interest served with the reduction obligation outweighs the Shell group’s commercial interests,” she added.

    The big change here is that until now oil companies have mostly faced lawsuits related to environmental damages that they specifically caused, like an oil spill. Now, court rulings could allow activists to influence energy company policy more directly, with courts threatening massive fines if the firms don’t comply.

    One analyst who spoke with Bloomberg said the decision could have far-reaching ramifications for oil companies.

    “This is big news for carbon emitters everywhere, not just in the oil industry,” Angus Walker, an environmental lawyer at BDP Pitmans in London, said. “This may spread from large emitters to small, and from the Netherlands to other countries, at least in terms of challenges, if not successful ones.”

    Shell has poured billions of dollars in investment into low-carbon energy, including electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, renewables and biofuels. Even so, the firm has insisted it wouldn’t set targets for fossil fuel reduction targets saying they would be arbitrary given that demand is the ultimate factor. Other firms, like European rival BP, have agreed to reduction targets, thought whether they will be met remains to be seen.

    Shell’s lawyers argued in its case that society and the market must change before Shell does. But the judge countered that the company “must do more than monitoring developments in society and complying with the regulations in the countries where the Shell group operates.”

    And although Shell had no input and never agreed to the Paris Climate Accord, Judge Alwin ruled that the company must still shoulder the burden since the Netherlands, which is one of its parent companies, has agreed to the deal.

    “Companies have an independent responsibility, aside from what states do,” Judge Alwin said in her decision. “Even if states do nothing or only a little, companies have the responsibility to respect human rights.”

    The ruling followed a legal campaign led by Milieudefensie, the Dutch wing of activist group Friends of the Earth, which celebrated the decision, with one spokesman for the group declaring it “a monumental victory” for the climate movement.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 20:40

  • Facebook Stops Removing Posts Claiming COVID-19 Man-Made After Lab-Leak Hypothesis Finally Goes Mainstream
    Facebook Stops Removing Posts Claiming COVID-19 Man-Made After Lab-Leak Hypothesis Finally Goes Mainstream

    After nearly 18 months of punishing anyone who suggested that COVID-19 might have originated in a Wuhan lab, Facebook has decided to stop removing posts which claim the virus was man-made or manufactured, a company spokesperson told Politico on Wednesday.

    The move comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that three lab workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized in late 2019 with symptoms consistent with the virus – building on previous reporting by the Washington Post‘s Josh Rogin. Both articles cast doubt on the mainstream media’s unsupported claim that COVID-19 jumped from bats to humans through an intermediary species – as opposed to the far more plausible theory that the virus escaped from a lab known for manipulating bat coronaviruses to better infect humans, in the same town which became ground zero for the pandemic. As we noted last week, there were very obvious clues to anyone able to think for themselves.

    As the mainstream media parroted CCP talking points throughout 2020 and punished anyone who strayed from the official narrative, Facebook banned Zero Hedge articles and policed COVID ‘disinformation’ based on the word of so-called “fact checkers” who insisted that the new disease could only have emerged via yet-to-be discovered animal intermediaries.

    Of course, one of Facebook’s “fact checkers” also worked at the Wuhan lab, and was defending her former colleagues in a giant undisclosed conflict of interest.

    Former Wuhan lab worker and Facebook fact checker, Danielle Anderson, who collaborated nine times with bat-covid researcher, Peng Zhou

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    Meanwhile, Politifact was caught quietly editing an article ‘debunking’ the lab-leak hypothesis.

    VOX was similarly caught stealth-editing an article “debunking” the lab origin.

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    No apologies. No introspection. Just spineless stealth edits and quiet policy changes such as Facebook’s recent decision. Perhaps most disturbing is the complete rejection of the lab-leak hypothesis by the MSM, social media giants, and liberal leaders because President Trump promoted it.

    What’s more, last night we learned from CNN that President Biden canceled aTrump-era State Department investigation into the origins of COVID-19, which also sought to determine whether China’s biological weapons program may have played a role in the pandemic. According to the report, it was met with internal opposition from officials who thought it was simply a politicized witch hunt to blame China for the virus.

    After news broke of Biden’s pro-China decree to cancel the investigation, his administration scrambled to do damage control, announcing that US intelligence agencies have 90 days to “redouble” their efforts to find out the virus’ origin and report back.

    Facebook flip-flop

    As Politico notes, “Facebook announced in February it had expanded the list of misleading health claims that it would remove from its platforms to include those asserting that “COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured.” The tech giant has updated its policies against false and misleading coronavirus information, including its running list of debunked claims, over the course of the pandemic in consultation with global health officials.”

    Now, according to a spokesperson, the origin language has been stricken from that list due to the renewed debate.

    “In light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts, we will no longer remove the claim that COVID-19 is man-made from our apps,” said the spokesperson in an email. “We’re continuing to work with health experts to keep pace with the evolving nature of the pandemic and regularly update our policies as new facts and trends emerge.”

    Now maybe they can unblock ZeroHedge posts and realize they have no place as the arbiters of anything.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 20:20

  • Apple Seeks 'Experienced BizDev Manager' To Negotiate Alternative Payments Partnerships, Must Have 'Crypto Experience'
    Apple Seeks ‘Experienced BizDev Manager’ To Negotiate Alternative Payments Partnerships, Must Have ‘Crypto Experience’

    Apple is looking to hire an ‘experienced’ business development manager to spearhead Alternative Payments partnerships for the company’s Apple Wallets, Payments and Commerce (WPC) team, in a sign that the technology giant is getting more serious about mainstreaming cryptocurrencies for practical purposes.

    Per a Wednesday job posting highlighted by Coindesk.

    The Apple Wallets, Payments, and Commerce (WPC) team is seeking an experienced Business Development Manager to lead Alternative Payments Partnerships. We are looking for a proven professional in global alternative and emerging payment solutions. We need your help forming partnership framework and commercial models, defining implementation paradigms, identifying key players and managing relationships with strategic alternative payment partners. This position will be responsible for the end to end business development, including screening partners, negotiating and closing commercial agreements and launching new programs.

    The ideal candidate will have more than 5 years of experience working in or with alternative payment providers, “such as digital wallets, BNPL (buy now, pay later), Fast Payments, cryptocurrency and etc..”  They will also need to have “Deep knowledge of the alternative payments ecosystem, understanding the complexities of funds flow, roles/responsibilities for settlement, relevant regulations and industry standards and the wide spectrum of FinTech products.“

    As Coindesk’s Danny Nelson notes, “Apple has long maintained an ironclad grip over payments, especially in its App Store, which has never accepted customers’ crypto and forces all catalog apps to use Apple’s commerce rails and play by Apple’s rules.”

    That tightly-controlled ecosystem is the focus of a blockbuster court fight launched by Fortnite developer Epic Games. Epic alleges Apple’s rules violate antitrust laws and stifle payments innovation. App developers could accept “bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies” if not for Apple’s restrictions, Epic claimed in the suit.

    Apple has made no public statements about its plans for the crypto space. -Coindesk

    Meanwhile, according to MacRumors, Coinbase included an Apple Pay logo in a recent update regarding its Coinbase Card. Perhaps negotiations have already begun?

     

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 20:00

  • "Don't You Live In The Ghetto?" – Bill Gates Ignored Complaints About Top Money Manager's Racist, Sexist Behavior
    “Don’t You Live In The Ghetto?” – Bill Gates Ignored Complaints About Top Money Manager’s Racist, Sexist Behavior

    Since Bill and Melinda Gates first announced their divorce earlier this month, barely a day has passed without some unflattering new revelation, as the American media apparently scrambles to compensate for all those years where it treated Bill Gates with kid gloves.

    It’s bad enough that Melinda reportedly divorced Bill over his insistence on maintaining ties with Jeffrey Epstein, something that has stoked speculation about whether Gates might face more sexual harassment allegations (sure enough, reports have emerged claiming he was essentially pushed out at Microsoft over improper behavior involving a female subordinate) or that he might be caught up in the Epstein drama.

    Larson

    While that so far hasn’t happened, the allegations of sexual improprieties have been enough to shatter his “dad geek” image. And now, the NYT has published a #MeToo-style report alleging that Gates’ main money man, Michael Larson, has a long history of sexual harassment and Scott Rudin-style abuses, and that Gates has repeatedly been warned about Larson’s antics, but neglected to act. Perhaps because Larson helped Gates grow his assets from $10 billion to $130 billion-plus through a strategy of low-profile investments, including buying up so much land that Cascade is believed to be the largest owner of farm land in the US.

    Larson has managed Gates’ money since the early 90s; before that, he was a portfolio manager at Putnam Investments. Cascade was incorporated in 1995 in Washington State. The generic-sounding name allowed Larson to runa  vast investment operation with a relatively low public profile. The perception that Larson had Gates’ unwavering support allowed him to do essentially whatever he pleased. And his employees, most of whom were hired directly out of college, never felt empowered to speak up.

    The list of allegations is pretty typical: Larson was accused of sexual harassment, racist remarks, acting extremely vindictive toward employees who left the company as well as his extremely blunt and degrading comments made in meetings, which his staffers described as “Larson bombs”. Overall, he was described as a “bully”.

    But what’s more, Bill and even Melinda Gates had been made aware of Larson’s behavior as early as the mid-2000s.

    But Mr. Larson, 61, also engaged in a pattern of workplace misconduct at Mr. Gates’s money-management firm, Cascade Investment, according to 10 former employees as well as others familiar with the firm.

    He openly judged female employees on their attractiveness, showed colleagues nude photos of women on the internet and on several occasions made sexually inappropriate comments. He made a racist remark to a Black employee. He bullied others. When an employee said she was leaving Cascade, Mr. Larson retaliated by trying to hurt the stock price of the company she planned to join.

    Cascade paid off at least seven people , including former employees, who witnessed or were the victim of Larson’s inappropriate behavior. The fact that Gates was so reluctant to reprimand Larson is “at odds with his image as a roving global do-gooder and champion of women’s empowerment,” the NYT said.

    While spokespeople for Larson and Cascade denied the allegations, a representative for Melinda Gates offered a cryptic statement saying she was unaware of “most” of these allegations, but at any rate had zero power to do anything about it since she had zero control over Cascade.

    Courtney Wade, a spokeswoman for Ms. French Gates, said, “Melinda unequivocally condemns disrespectful and inappropriate conduct in the workplace. She was unaware of most of these allegations given her lack of ownership of and control over B.M.G.I.”

    One particular incident, where Larson made a joke about a black employee living in “a ghetto”, was even brought to the Gates’ attention back when it happened in 2005. The employee who was the subject of the joke was also targeted with other harassing behavior, including Larson allegedly shorting the stock of a company that made her a competing offer.

    Ms. Ybarra, then 30, had joined Cascade three years earlier as an investor relations analyst. After she announced her planned departure, Mr. Larson became so angry that he shorted the stock of InfoSpace, according to three people familiar with the episode. (Short selling involves placing bearish bets on the company’s shares, which sometimes causes the stock to fall.) Two of the people said they saw Mr. Larson’s trades on their computer terminals.

    Mr. Larson told Ms. Ybarra and others that he had shorted InfoSpace’s stock out of spite, according to the three people, who heard about his remarks at the time.

    Mr. Giglio confirmed that Cascade shorted the stock but denied that Mr. Larson did it to spite Ms. Ybarra.

    At the same time, Mr. Larson repeatedly pressured Ms. Ybarra to remain at Cascade. She ultimately agreed to stay.

    On Election Day that November, Mr. Larson asked some Cascade employees in the office about the best time to go vote. Ms. Ybarra, who is Black, replied that she had voted that morning without having to wait in line. Mr. Larson responded: “But you live in the ghetto, and everybody knows that Black people don’t vote.” The scene was described by two people who heard the comment and a third who was told about it later.

    Mr. Giglio denied that Mr. Larson made the remark.

    At least one employee at Cascade complained to human resources about Mr. Larson’s remark. The complaint made its way to Mr. Gates and Ms. French Gates, who later spoke to Ms. Ybarra as part of an internal investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.

    In January 2005, she quit Cascade, received a small payout and agreed to not speak about the firm in the future.

    Another anecdote used in the report involves California fund manager Robert Sydow, who had been close friends with Larson until he tried to confront Larson about his behavior, at which point Larson retaliated by allegedly pulling money he had with Sydow’s firm.

    In November 2006, Mr. Gates and Ms. French Gates were sent another complaint about Mr. Larson. This one was from Robert E. Sydow, a California fund manager who had been close friends with Mr. Larson and whose firm, Grandview Capital Management, Mr. Larson had hired to manage a $1.6 billion slice of the foundation’s endowment.

    Mr. Sydow wrote a six-page letter to the Gateses accusing Mr. Larson of abruptly severing Cascade’s ties with Grandview after a dispute between him and Mr. Sydow. (The dispute, Mr. Sydow wrote, came after Mr. Sydow warned Mr. Larson that he needed “to stop using his power to hurt others in anger.”) The letter, reviewed by The Times, said Mr. Larson had harmed Grandview’s reputation in part by spreading “false and defamatory” lies about it in the market.

    Mr. Sydow, the godfather to one of Mr. Larson’s children, went on to describe multiple instances of Mr. Larson seeking to punish employees who left Cascade and retaliating against those who cooperated with the investigation into his treatment of Ms. Ybarra, among other things.

    Mr. Larson has “the potential to greatly embarrass both you and the foundation,” Mr. Sydow wrote.

    “We exit agreements with third-party investment managers for a variety of reasons,” Mr. Larson said in a statement sent by Mr. Giglio.

    The sexual harassment allegations involving employees chiefly revolve around two incidents:

    • At a work Christmas party in the mid-2000s, Mr. Larson was seated outdoors with a small group of male employees after dinner, according to one of the men. Three female colleagues were standing about 20 feet away. “Which one of them do you wanna” have sex with? Mr. Larson asked the men, using a profane verb.
    • On at least one occasion in recent years, with employees looking on, Mr. Larson displayed photographs of naked women on his phone and compared them to Ms. Berman, the human resources executive, according to a former employee who witnessed the incident and another person who was told about it. (Ms. Berman left Cascade in 2015.) Another woman who worked at Cascade said Mr. Larson asked her if she would strip for a certain amount of money.

    Larson apologized for using “harsh language”, but said he only did so early in his career.

    But by far the most egregious allegations involved Larson’s alleged harassment of a bike shop manager, who eventually received a monetary settlement after she hired a lawyer who sent a letter to the Gates’s attorneys warning them about Larson’s behavior.

    Around the time of the complaints involving Ms. Harrington, Mr. Larson was repeatedly propositioning, and being rebuffed by, the manager of a local bicycle store that was mostly owned by a firm, Rally Capital, that Cascade had invested in.

    In 2017, the manager hired a lawyer, who sent a letter to Mr. Gates and Ms. French Gates warning them that if Mr. Larson did not stop harassing her, she would sue them. The letter said Mr. Larson had exposed himself to the manager and had told her that he wanted to have sex with her and another woman, according to someone who read the letter.

    Mr. Gates agreed to settle the matter by having a payment made to the bike store manager. Ms. French Gates insisted that an outside investigator review the incident and Cascade’s culture, people familiar with the matter previously told The Times. In 2018, Mr. Larson went on paid leave while the investigation took place.

    When Larson left Cascade on a temporary leave in 2018, Gates confided in another senior employee that Larson likely wouldn’t return. However, he did return the following year, after an investigation into the bike shop manager’s allegations found that they could not be substantiated.

    Rumors about Larson’s behavior have percolated for years, but now that the NYT has targeted him with a #MeToo-style expose, it’s likely his days atop Cascade are numbered. The last money manager fired by Gates was Andrew Evans, who served a six-month prison sentence for bank fraud (Gates even visited him in jail). When WSJ published a front-page story about Evans’ criminal record in 1993, Gates was forced to seek out somebody else to manage his personal fortune. That’s when he met Larson.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 19:55

  • Illinois Constitutional Amendment Is "A Monstrous Giveaway To Public Unions"
    Illinois Constitutional Amendment Is “A Monstrous Giveaway To Public Unions”

    Authored by Mark Glennon via Wirepoints.org,

    Most Illinoisans are unaware, but their General Assembly is poised to pass a resolution for a state constitutional amendment, the consequences of which are hard to overstate. It would vastly expand union power, permanently, particularly public union power that is already extreme.

    Limited media coverage so far characterizes the amendment mostly as an attempt to permanently ban right-to-work and lock in current worker protections. That would be bad enough, since the majority of states are now right to work including nearby competitors Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Iowa. And Illinois is already an outlier in how much power it has given to public unions, particularly in collective bargaining rules.

    But that’s just the start. Think hard about what the short amendment, shown here, would do.

    Read it and consider the following:

    The first sentence, by itself, creates a new, personal constitutional right. That right would take all covered matters described in that sentence out of the hands of the legislature and local governments, subjecting it all, instead, to collective bargaining.

    Both the scope of that right and the rules for how the collective bargaining would be conducted are sweeping and open-ended. Note in particular that all matters of “economic welfare” would be forced into collective bargaining, and those matters of economic welfare apparently need not be tied to the workplace (though that’s not entirely clear).

    What isn’t a matter of “economic welfare”? Practically nothing. The Chicago Teachers Union has attempted in the past to include matters like affordable housing in its bargaining. Under the amendment it would clearly have a strong case for demanding any number of such policies as part of its contract negotiations. Same for any other union.

    The broad, new right would override extensive law already in place. Today, public union negotiation is covered by the lengthy Illinois Public Labor Relations Act and the Illinois Education Labor Relations Act. Private unions are governed by both federal and state law.

    But constitutional rights trump all state law, so claims based solely on the new amendment would be asserted. Public unions would have a field day in Illinois courts. The amendment would throw everything open to a new standard that only the courts would define, and we know that Illinois’ political courts routinely rule as unions want.

    The second sentence is irrational surplus on its face. Since a constitutional right is already created by the first sentence, why bother saying that “no law shall be passed” that contradicts the things for which a constitutional right is already created in the first sentence?  Note also that there’s no reference to existing rights, so this is not about locking in current law. The key is that first sentence, which creates something entirely new.

    One example of how the amendment would work is pension reform. Suppose the legislature some day goes back to the courts to try again claiming the facts have changed  (as they already have) since the courts last ruled against reform. Or perhaps the composition of the Illinois Supreme Court changes in favor of reformers. As before, the legislature would then pass a reform bill that the unions wouldn’t like. But the unions, under the amendment, would answer that reforms could only be made through collective bargaining. It wouldn’t be a matter legislation could change. The amendment would thereby create an additional bar to pension reform, just as it would to any other change in labor law.

    Trial lawyers, too, would have a field day with the amendment. Because the proposed amendment is so open-ended and horribly worded, the claims they might assert would be limited only by their imagination.

    I have focused so far on the proposed amendment’s impact on public unions for two reasons.

    First, let’s just stipulate that much of Illinois’ problems derives from their excessive influence over Illinois government, because every informed Illinoisan knows that.

    Second, the powers behind the proposal have basically admitted that it’s intended to benefit public unions.  Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) is lead sponsor of the measure in the Senate.

    As reported by Capitol News Illinois, Villivalam said it would have minimal impact on private-sector workers because the National Labor Relations Act governs organizing and collective bargaining in the private sector. He said the intent was to protect the right to collective bargaining that is already established under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act and the Illinois Education Labor Relations Act, and those are for public unions.

    Villivalam’s admission is probably right, but he’s wrong to disregard the impact the amendment might also have on private sector labor.

    One lawyer we heard from on that is Jeff Risch, who chairs the labor and employment group at the SmithAmundsen law firm. He primarily represents small and mid-size employers that occasionally are able to voluntarily reach agreements to remain union-free. The amendment would apparently make that impossible, he said, by giving any employee a constitutional right to bargain collectively. For that and other reasons, “This amendment will seal Illinois’ fate forever,” he says.

    Also, much of private sector collective bargaining is controlled by federal law. Insofar as the amendment purports to override it, complex questions of preemption would have to be litigated, which is another mess the amendment would create.

    To summarize, drafters of the proposal have made it deliberately and deceptively ambiguous and misleading, but also radically broad and open-ended. By creating a new constitutional right for themselves and their agenda they would be throwing a cluster bomb toward everything in their way. The amendment’s full impact may not be entirely certain but it would, for sure, clear a path to new, unimagined public union power.

    *  *  *

    The Illinois Senate has already passed the resolution and it has passed out of committee in the House. The House is likely to vote on the resolution this month. The amendment would then be presented to voters for approval in the 2022 election.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 19:40

  • Global Chip Hub Taiwan Hammered By Triple Blow Of Drought, Blackouts And COVID Surge
    Global Chip Hub Taiwan Hammered By Triple Blow Of Drought, Blackouts And COVID Surge

    The calm of a sunny May afternoon in Taiwan was broken by what the Nikkei describes as a crescendo of smartphones buzzing due to a national emergency alert: electricity blackouts were coming due to a malfunction at a power plant in the south of the island. People had no time to prepare. There were more than 30 reports of people being trapped in elevators half an hour after the warning in the capital city.

    “I was talking to my clients… but our building suddenly blacked out. The air conditioning as well as WiFi crashed completely, so I went home early,” a manager with the surname of Lin working in the Neihu Science Park in Taipei, where many top tech companies have offices, told Nikkei Asia. “Many traffic lights on my way home were out and my home was dark too.”

    “We could only use candles and have instant noodles for dinner, and there was no hot water for showers,” a resident in the southern city of Tainan told Nikkei. “It’s been like living in ancient times.” Or Texas during a cold blast.

    More than four million households on the island, which has a population of 24 million, were affected by six rounds of rolling one-hour power suspensions on May 13 before power was fully restored around 8 pm. Taipower, the state-owned electricity operator, said human error at Hsinta Power Plant in the southern city of Kaohsiung caused a malfunction in the power grid, tripping four generators and cutting about 13 megawatts of electricity supply. This dragged Taiwan’s total power supply below a critical security level and triggered the outages.

    The nation’s phones buzzed again just four days later with another blackout warning. That evening, up to 659,000 households had their power cut. Taipower said that, with temperatures warmer than usual, there was a shortage of electricity supply because they had not anticipated demand for electricity to be so high.

    “Power demand at 2:09 p.m. broke another historic record in May and the demand around 7:30 p.m. was far higher than usual in the evening,” Taipower said in a statement.

    The two blackouts did not affect Taiwan’s crown jewel semiconductor industry. But they still put production continuity at risk because chipmakers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics Corp said they experienced a sudden voltage dip, which could have a small impact on semiconductor production, industry sources said.

    After the two massive power outages, Taiwan endured another small-scale power suspension in Taipei City on Friday and experienced temporary power generator malfunctions at two separate coal-fired power plants on Sunday and Monday respectively.

    Maintaining production is crucial at a time of global chip shortage, with political tensions and pandemic-induced lockdowns affecting supply chains and remote working increasing demand for electronic devices.

    People in Taipei eat using the light from their phone while experiencing a blackout due to an outage at a power plant on May 13.  

    The outages have triggered serious concerns over whether the island’s electricity infrastructure is sufficient to sustain its booming economy.

    Taiwan’s economy grew more than 8% in the January-March quarter from a year earlier. National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin said the island could see economic growth of more than 5% in 2021, the highest in more than a decade, if “all industrial production can stay intact.”

    The power problems come as Taiwan sees a surge in local COVID cases, after being a model of COVID control in 2020.

    The government has raised the alert level for the whole island, demanding that all schools close for two weeks and urging businesses to adopt contingency plans such as asking employees to divide into groups and work from home. The administration of President Tsai Ing-wen said on Monday it is considering extending the two-week level 3 alert — one stage below a de facto lockdown — after reporting more than 3,000 local cases in just nine days.

    * * *

    Another headache is Taiwan’s worsening water shortage. The island is suffering its most serious drought in more than five decades — another factor that may stymie economic growth.

    As of Thursday afternoon, the water reserve rate at the Nanhua Reservoir only stood at 10.6%, suggesting the water supply from this reservoir could last only 23 days if without any more rainfalls. 

    Ministry of Economic Affairs officials on Wednesday described the drought as the “worst ever,” saying they planned to implement a new round of water-reduction plans from June should rainfall be insufficient. The affected cities include Hsinchu, where top chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics have headquarters. Taoyuan, a major hub of print circuit board production sites and home to Taiwan’s biggest memory chip maker Nanya Technology, is also included in water rationing plans.

    The government also plans to impose stricter water supplies for major industrial users in the southern Taiwanese cities of Tainan and Kaohsiung, where TSMC operates its most cutting-edge plant. It has ordered several central cities, including Taichung, to suspend residential water use for two days a week since early April.

    “It never rains but it pours,” a chip industry executive told Nikkei Asia.

    “We suddenly face a chain of crises: we are short on water, and then we are short of electricity, and we are also short of vaccines amid surging local COVID cases,” the executive said. “The only thing we are not short of is business orders that are full and bright at least until the year end and beyond thanks to surging demand across sectors. But those orders cannot be fulfilled without sufficient water and electricity.”

    Powertech Technology, the world’s biggest memory chip packaging and testing house, is based in Hsinchu, and some of its plants will be subject to a planned two-day suspension of water use for industry and residential use starting in June.

    CFO Evan Tseng said the company stored water in its basement and could transfer some water between plants. “We now only offer bento boxes in our cafeterias and we don’t serve soup or noodles with soup as that could consume more water,” Tseng told Nikkei Asia. “So far we think production could still run normally.”

    Powertech’s CEO told Nikkei in an interview that he expected the robust orders to last at least until the end of this year.

    TSMC spokesperson Nina Kao told Nikkei Asia that the latest water-reduction plan would not affect the company’s production, but the company would “mobilize more water trucks” to support manufacturing to overcome the stricter water rationing. TSMC said in April that the global chip shortage could last until 2022 based on robust demand.

    A woman walks past a closed open-air gym in Taipei on Friday following the recent rise in COVID-19 in Taiwan

    The water and power issues highlight some key vulnerabilities in basic infrastructure for Taiwan, one of the world’s most important sources of the advanced chips that power everything from cars to smartphones, computers and servers to games consoles.

    Lin Faa-Jeng, dean of the college of electrical engineering and computer science at National Central University and adviser to the Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s administrative organ, told Nikkei Asia that Taipower had not anticipated the impact of climate change in making the weather so hot at this time of year.

    “The power company has to adjust all the planning for annual maintenance and take into account some new factors that they had not considered… But I think the power supply will be alleviated when some annual maintenance on power generators is completed from next week.”

    Chen Chao-shun, chair professor at I-Shou University and a specialist on power infrastructure, told Nikkei Asia the two massive blackouts were both due to a sudden loss of power supply that triggered the system’s automatic under-frequency load shed to protect the power grid.

    “The two power outages were all related to the supply and the incidents highlight that Taipower needs to improve its capability to schedule backup generators to quickly support the system,” Chen said. “Taipower also has to readjust the system to keep vital equipment such as traffic lights and elevators operating. You can’t unexpectedly cut off the power and trap people in elevators.”

    “Before Taipower can improve its agility to schedule power generation and respond to any sudden supply loss, we are likely to face a power suspension triggered by the automatic under-frequency load shed again this summer,” Chen said.

    By way of contingency plans, the government has been drilling wells and building new water pipes to draw water from the north of the island to the south. But, while suppliers in the science parks are minimizing their use of water, the change is far from sufficient.

    The water level is extremely low in the Nanhua Reservoir in the mountainous area of southern Taiwan — one of the key water reserves for Kaohsiung and Tainan Science Park. Areas of sand that used to be under water have been exposed under the tropical sun and are now sand dunes.

    “It’s really too hot…the temperature can reach more than 40 Celsius around noon now and we haven’t seen a drop of rain in months,” a local resident told Nikkei Asia. “We are all worried that the water reserves here can only last for about a month.”

    Multiple cities across Taiwan welcomed heavy rain on Monday afternoon, however, as of evening, the water reserve rate at the Nanhua Reservoir stood at just 8.8%, suggesting the water supply from this reservoir could last only 19 days without any rainfall, according to open data provider Taiwanstats, citing data from the Water Resources Agency.

    Soldiers in protective suits disinfect a metro station in Taipei on May 20.  

    Tsengwen Reservoir, another key water resource for Tainan Science Park and the largest in Taiwan, had a water reserve rate of just 6% as of Thursday, the data showed. The rate at Shihmen Reservoir, one of the key reservoirs that supplies northern Taiwan, dipped to 11.1% as of Thursday.

    Wu Ray-shyan, executive vice president of the National Central University and a hydrology and water resources expert, said if the monsoon season did not bring sufficient rain this month, then Taiwan would have to wait until the typhoon season, which generally starts in July, to ease the drought.

    “I don’t mean to be alarmist, but if typhoons are delayed, as they were last year, we will have to rely on groundwater resources,” Wu told Nikkei Asia. “Water supply not only needs management and conservation measures, but also an increasing capacity of storage facilities to meet demand, which is rising in tandem with economic growth.

    “Taiwan is not like Israel, where the rainfall is really scarce. We [in Taiwan] sometimes on the one hand deal with floods in typhoon season and on the other hand deal with droughts…Taiwan’s problem is that we don’t have enough storage capacity to really store this rainfall,” Wu said.

    Taiwan’s First Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City used to be one of the pillars for Taiwan’s power generation. The plant was retired in 2019.

    On power infrastructure, the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen plans to phase out nuclear power by 2025 and to use natural gas and coal-fired power to fill the gap before the planned installation of solar and offshore wind power comes online.

    The government is building a third and large natural gas terminal off the coast of Taoyuan to increase the use of liquefied natural gas as a key source of electricity. Local environmental groups, however, oppose the plan, meaning it could be delayed by years or forced to locate elsewhere on the island.

    In 2020, Taiwan’s power usage reached 271.1 billion kilowatt-hours, up 2.1% from the previous year, while total power generation was 279.8 billion kilowatt-hours, according to Economics Ministry data released this month. Coal-fired electricity contributed 45% of the total power generated last year, while natural gas accounted for 35.7% and nuclear power 11%. Renewable energy, however, contributed a mere 5.4%.

    The government forecasts that electricity demand will grow by 2.5% each year from 2021 to 2027, after factoring in inbound investments amid the U.S.-China trade war and the massive investment plans by semiconductor companies.

    National Central University’s Wu said Taiwan needed better infrastructure planning for the long run.

    “The last time Taiwan built large infrastructure for either power plants or reservoirs was a very long time ago,” Wu said. The last time a large reservoir was created was in 1994 when the Nanhua Reservoir, which supplies the Tainan Science Park, was dug, he added.

    “Large infrastructure takes 10 or even 20 years from planning to completion,” he said. “What Taiwan needs is long-term development planning — undisrupted by the rotation of political parties — for utilities over the next 30 to 50 years.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 19:20

  • Are Chinese Stocks Ready To Outperform?
    Are Chinese Stocks Ready To Outperform?

    By Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at SaxoBank

    Summary: Chinese equities were rallying 3.6% today on signals from the Chinese government to curb inflationary pressures from rising commodity markets reducing inflation expectations and boosting the earnings outlook. US equities are currently valued at a valuation premium to Chinese equities which suggest historically that Chinese equities could outperform over the next 26 weeks. The two country’s technology sectors are equally valued on a 2-year forward basis on EV/EBITDA but with a valuation skew on Chinese technology mega caps making them more attractive on valuation. The long-term growth outlook is better for Chinese technology companies and thus we expect the market to begin leaning into Chinese technology stocks.

    As we alluded to in today’s podcast, CSI 300 futures (tracking mainland China equities) broke out higher up 3.6% during the session. The Chinese government’s signaling that it would curb excesses in commodity prices pulled technology stocks globally higher as lower commodity inflation means less pressure on interest rates which in turn means less pressure discount rates on future cash flow. Lower input prices also lift future profit margins and earnings growth.

    Chinese companies operate generally at lower profit margins and thus respond more to expectations about inflation and interest rates as the marginally change on profits are bigger for low margin businesses. China’s stimulus has also been limited this year as the country is enjoying the tailwind from stimulus in the US and Europe, but it is our expectation that as that growth momentum slows down the Chinese government will take over a launch more stimulus to keep the economy humming. This should underpin the earnings growth outlook for Chinese equities.

    Last Friday, we wrote about how cheap mega cap Chinese technology stocks have become measured on FY22 free cash flow yield which is almost twice some of the largest US technology stocks. On a 2-year horizon Chinese technology stocks (Hang Seng TECH) are valued at the same equity valuation as US technology stocks (Nasdaq 100) which is cheap in a historical context because of the better growth outlook for Chinese technology companies. Broadening out the scope US equities are right valued at a 6% valuation premium to Chinese equities compared to a historical 5% discount for US equities.

    Chinese equities were beginning to get back to their historical valuation premium over US equities in the beginning of the year, but the hedge fund Archegos’ collapse and the Chinese crackdown on the technology sector have for now negatively impacted investor sentiment. The current US equity valuation premium suggest that Chinese equities could outperform over the coming 26 weeks, but this prediction comes with a wide prediction interval and the key assumption of this trade is that Chinese equities will move back into premium. Helped by better growth outlook and a weaker USD we believe that is most likely the trajectory.

    For inspiration on Chinese technology and consumer stocks looks at our China consumer and technology equity theme basket consisting of 40 stocks.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 05/26/2021 – 19:00

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