Evil too, will always be part of the mystery of the Church. And when we see what men, what the clergy have done in the Church, then that is nothing short of proof that he [Christ] founded and upholds the Church. If she were dependent on men, she would long since have perished.
Distinction Matter - Subscribed Feeds
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Site: Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
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Gordon Friesen
By Gordon Friesen
President: Euthanasia Prevention CoalitionIt is a widely shared principle that, as long as our actions cause no harm to others, we might all be allowed to do as we please.
And so it is that many principled people --and even many who are personally repulsed by the idea of assisted death-- feel a visceral duty to support the "right" of others to choose the manner of their own passing. Unfortunately, however, HB 1283 would not merely create a liberty of permission for this purpose. Indeed far from it.
At the heart of HB-1283[i] lies, first, the concept of "medical assistance in dying" (even though majority patient trust has traditionally been founded on the Hippocratic Physician's promise not to kill); and second, the associated legislative assertion that MAID is not suicide (even though it plainly involves people deliberately taking poison to end their lives). Together, these extraordinary definitions herald a radical conceptual transformation of assisted death --from forbidden medical homicide to legitimate medical treatment-- and therein lies the special significance of Bills like HB 1283.
For medical care is universally seen as a positive benefit and a human right. To legally define assisted death in this way is thus to necessarily create entitlements, obligations and mandates whose implementation is entirely foreign to any fundamental notion of free choice.[ii]
Moreover, if we look to our Northern neighbour, we can already see exactly how such a medically justified regime of assisted death is destined to unfold. For since the first appearance of the term "MAID" in Canadian legislation (Province of Quebec, 2014)[iii] legal statutes and regulations have been enacted which require the performance of euthanasia in all institutions; by all medical professionals (with limited conscience-based exceptions only); and the proactive mandatory discussion of MAID with all eligible patients. Indeed, Canadian hospitals, and care teams have normalized euthanasia, to such an extent, that the vast non-suicidal majority of eligible patients are now obliged to navigate a clinical environment which has become objectively indifferent (if not hostile) to their continued survival.[iv]
Very obviously, no coherent system of individual liberty might ever have produced such a result. Quite the contrary: the simplest and most direct explanation of Canadian euthanasia lies, not in personal choice at all, but in the utilitarian budgetary advantage --to the State-- of systematically purging expensive and dependent persons from the public role.
Most certainly, also, a principled defence of death-by-choice does not require liberty-minded citizens to espouse this extreme theory of death-as-care. Both Switzerland[v] and Germany[vi], for example, recognize a general right to suicide (including assisted suicide) but explicitly refuse to accord such actions any objective validation (medical or otherwise), precisely in order to avoid the disastrous effects of entitlements, mandates and obligations as described above.[vii]
In conclusion, therefore: Although I am personally opposed to any assisted death whatsoever, I also recognize that a sincere philosophy of "live-and-let-live" may indeed inspire principled support for death-by-choice. But not with just any Bill. And certainly not with this one.
In the end, we must decide whether New Hampshire’s medical industry will be structured to prioritize typical patient satisfaction, or that of a small suicidal minority. And above all: whether the radical new paradigm of utilitarian death-medicine now seen in Canada --and so clearly echoed in HB-1283-- will be allowed to high-jack the freedom agenda entirely.
With the greatest respect, I request the defeat of this legislation.
Gordon Friesen, President, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Endnotes:
[i] "An act relative to end of life options" New Hampshire HB1283, 2024 (Link to Bill).
[ii] Constitution of the World Health Organization (1946) as amended (2005) accessed April 17, 2024 (Article Link) accessed April 17, 2024
[iii] "Act Respecting End-of-Life Care" Province of Quebec, Canada, 2014, as revised 2024 (Link to Legislation) accessed April 17, 2024
[iv] Lessons from the Canadian Euthanasia Experiment, G. R. Friesen, April 4, 2023 (Link to article) accessed April 17, 2024
[v] Swiss criminal code art. 115 (Link to Swiss Criminal Code) accessed Nov 4, 2023
[vi] German High Court decision February 26, 2020 (Article Link) accessed Oct 28, 2023
[vii] Fundamental Considerations in the Creation of a Minimally Intrusive Liberty of Assisted Death (produced for the Irish Joint Committee on Assisted Dying), G.R. Friesen, November 12, 2023, (Article Link) accessed April 17, 2024. -
Site: Zero HedgeUS Poised To Send 60 Additional 'Military Advisers' To UkraineTyler Durden Mon, 04/22/2024 - 11:05
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The US is considering increasing its small military presence in Ukraine by sending up to 60 additional military advisers, POLITICO reported on Saturday, the same day the House approved $61 billion in spending for the proxy war.
Four unnamed US officials told POLITICO that the additional troops would "support logistics and oversight efforts for the weapons the US is sending Ukraine."
Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine, just prior to the Feb. 2022 Russian invasion.
Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the potential deployment would augment US personnel based at the US Embassy in Kyiv.
"Throughout this conflict, the DOD has reviewed and adjusted our presence in-country as security conditions have evolved. Currently, we are considering sending several additional advisers to augment the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) at the Embassy," Ryder said.
Back in October 2022, the Pentagon announced that ODC and defense attaché personnel were back in Ukraine after being absent for the first few months of Russia’s invasion.
The Pentagon said at the time that the personnel were conducting "onsite" inspections of US-provided weapons.
Ryder said the ODC "performs a variety of advisory and support missions (non-combat), and while it is staffed exclusively by DOD personnel, it is embedded within the US Embassy, under Chief of Mission authority like the rest of the Embassy."
Ryder said the advisers would serve in a non-combat role, but the deployment would still mark an escalation of US involvement in the war and reflect the US’s long-term plans for the conflict. The US has sought to emphasize that they will not participate in battles.
Besides the ODC and defense attaché, the US also has a small number of special operations forces in Ukraine. The Discord leaks revealed last year that as of March 2023, 14 US special operations troops were in Ukraine.
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Site: ABYSSUS ABYSSUM INVOCAT / DEEP CALLS TO DEEP
April 22, 2024>Omega4America – The Super Bowl of Election Interference – 2024> Newt Gingrich – Biden and the ‘Blame America First’ Democrats> Richard A. Epstein – For Israel, Forbearance Could Be Fatal> Eran Ortal – Israel’s First Total War and Its Ramifications The Super Bowl of Election Interference – 2024If you dry up the Leftist ballot inventory the beast can be stopped By: OMEGA4AMERICAApril 18, 2024(Emphasis added) 2024 is lining up to be the Super Bowl of election interference to stop Donald Trump. Every nefarious technique from 2020 is on deck and a bunch of new ones are stacking up. One reality ought to be perfectly clear – and isn’t: there is no way to clean voter rolls in the swing states in the time remaining to impact 2024. The only strategy which has promise – because it works every time it’s tried – is to identify where mail-in ballots are going to be sent, note the ineligible location is a gas station or a convenience store, and challenge that ADDRESS – NOW – to stop a ballot from being sent. If you dry up the ballot inventory, the beast dies. Every day we get calls and emails – one this morning from someone who ought to know better – asking if we can determine the dead voters from death records. Wake up. The dead vote is not impacting elections. The people who vote in Wisconsin and Florida – probably by mistake – are not impacting elections. These are trivial numbers. They do NOT MATTER. Quit screwing around looking for dead voters, voters who vote in multiple states. Stop the Leftist ballot manufacturing operation – it is the heart of all voter roll fraud. The 2024 election will be decided in large part by:ü Voters, registered at ineligible locations such as convenience stores, restaurants and literally hundreds of other non-residence locations – where loose ballots accumulate.ü Illegal aliens being registered in swing states – who then move on to the next swing state – with their ballots accumulating at some NGO location.ü NGOs – religious, civic, or generally do-gooder actively recruiting new voters and stashing them in addresses where ballots will collect and be voted – not by them but by the NGO. Their funding is hidden, tax free, flowing like a river. In all three examples – BALLOTS COLLECT. Those loose ballots are the ammo dump for the Leftists to out-ballot-harvest honest citizens who think ballot harvesting is now OK.ü The first advantage of the ADDRESS DRIVEN strategy is it works. It was this little technique that saved the Senator Ron Johnson seat in Wisconsin in 2022.ü The second advantage is that it sounds great. You are making the Leftists fight having a ballot sent to a 7-11 or a Citizens Bank or Quality Laundromat – even Republicans can win that argument.ü The third advantage is it can be carried out now – with only 7 months to go until November. The lists of every ineligible location – in every county – can be generated quickly, inexpensively, to a phone.ü The fourth advantage is that this is permanent. Leftists need addresses more than names. Think that through a bit. Names can be made up. Names can come from illegal alien transients – signing a form at an NGO location – regardless of age. Names come from transients – churches, shelters, RV Parks, third parties mindlessly registering voter names for dough. (Wisconsin) Names are impossible to check because so many Leftist voters are transient. ADDRESSES are a real pain for the Lefties.· Addresses are kind of permanent.· They have attributes – like restaurant or disco.· They have photos which can be pretty nasty when shown at scale.Watch one of our videos and feel the impact of a warehouse – a dumpy one, falling apart – which is a listed voter roll location! So think through what happens when thousands of physical locations appear on an OFF LIMITS DATABASE on your phone, that tie to 250,000 Wisconsin voters? Leftists need to keep adding new fake voters at real addresses. Names are easy – addresses are hard – if their ineligibility becomes instantly visible. When you remove the ineligible addresses by OUTING them – Leftists must place the 35 people at the 1 bed, 1 bath shack. Comparing property rolls – that sticks out like a bulbous red nose! Leftists knew relational database tech was so hard to use they could stash hundreds of thousands of transient names at warehouses, empty strip malls and hundreds of other locations. Sure, some Republican sleuth might find a few, but the scale was impossible to thwart. They got greedy. Leftists put transients by the hundreds of thousands into these locations. Nobody knew. All the national voter integrity orgs use relational technology which is blind to padding voter rolls – that’s why they haven’t made a dent in 30 years! Now we know which addresses are ineligible – because we cross search property tax rolls. And once a location is identified by its corresponding property tax record as a Korean restaurant, in a stand alone building, having 12 registered voters with Spanish surnames – kind of doesn’t work any more. Now comes advantage five. Surprise! If the address-challenge strategy is implemented, at full scale – including publishing photos of these sketchy locations NOW, on every social media site – making the Left defend that ballot sent to a gas station – they are on their heels! Stop ballots going to those locations and where do the Lefties put those fake voters? It’s to late to move them – by the hundreds of thousands – to residential locations. When they try, we can tell instantly they did it. Sally and Dave on Elm Street might not be cool with the news that 18 former strip mall residents now live in their house. We know they moved there – as voters, not real residents, because we cross search voter rolls on different dates and we can congratulate Dave and Sally on their new household. Maybe send them a postcard with a photo of their address, and 20 voter IDs registered there. See, this is a game two can play. Republicans don’t have to stand back and take it – they can actually do something innovative – and surprising – and when it’s over, they will feel so much better about themselves. So wake up and stop the madness of cleaning voter rolls. You are not going to get them clean in time to impact 2024. The only people who promote this crap are the national voter integrity orgs who do not have any technology – they use obsolete relational technology – so they cannot cross search property tax rolls with voter rolls. Thus, these grifter groups, in permanent money raising mode, deny that cleaning voter rolls is a complete waste of time. It’s a waste of time for you – not for them. They can raise endless dough selling the “cleaning of voter rolls” as a solution – when it hasn’t had any impact in decades. Time is getting shorter. Now might be a great time to count the days until November 5 and evaluate what can be done to stop the steal – and seriously implement ADDRESS driven challenges to having mail-in ballots go out. After all, giving the Leftists a surprise for a change might make everyone feel a lot better. Biden and the ‘Blame America First’DemocratsBy: Newt GingrichApril 18, 2024 When President Joe Biden warned Iran not to attack Israel with the single word “Don’t,” he was setting himself up to look foolish and weak. The Iranian theocratic dictatorship pays no heed to President Biden. Iran’s leaders have taken Biden’s measure over months of proxy warfare. Iran and its proxies have killed Americans, routinely fired at American bases and ships, and enthusiastically ignored every American effort to appease them. Biden’s done nothing. When he said “Don’t,” Iran did – with 335 drones and missiles. We might have expected some serious reaction from a president who had publicly instructed Iran not to attack. Instead, we got a pathetic, desperate, all-out Biden administration effort to convince the Israelis to claim a defensive victory and do nothing. Just as Biden ignored the Chinese Communist spy balloon gradually crossing the United States, he thought the Israelis should ignore 335 drones and missiles fired at their country. Watching the bizarre performance, it hit me that the Biden Doctrine is to cripple your allies and help your enemies. Consider the facts. As soon as Biden took office, he implemented policies that helped the anti-American Iranian dictatorship. They could chant “Death to America,” but he would send them money, release them from sanctions, and tolerate their strategy of waging war through proxies with no consequence. Even then, the Iranians and their puppets fired drones and missiles at American bases – killing some American military and wounding many more. There was no strong response from Biden. When the U.S. military warned President Biden that leaving Afghanistan too quickly would collapse the pro-American government, we spent 22 years developing, he ignored the advice. He moved so quickly, it guaranteed the Taliban would win the war. Then he claimed the disaster was the best evacuation in history. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden said supportive words about Ukraine but slow walked equipment and help. Furthermore, the Biden Doctrine demonstrated it was OK for Vladimir Putin to wage war on civilians, kidnap Ukrainian children, and destroy Ukrainian infrastructure. But Biden opposed any Ukrainian response that would involve attacking Russia. Defense was OK, but a serious offensive to win the war by hitting targets inside Russia was off limits. When the Iranian planned, trained, equipped, and financed Hamas terrorist assault of Oct. 7 horrified decent people everywhere, President Biden was briefly positive about helping Israel. However, as is typical of the Biden Doctrine, once our ally began to win, Biden shifted away from Israel and expressed concern for Hamas and the people of Gaza who had sheltered and supported Hamas. Following the Biden Doctrine of undermining our allies and comforting our enemies, Biden proposed that the city of Rafah should become a sanctuary city. This would allow the remainder of Hamas and its leadership a safe place to recoup and avoid being destroyed by Israeli forces. The tension shifted into a confrontation between our ally and the American President. Meanwhile, Biden supports aid to Ukraine and Israel – so long as it is not offset by spending cuts elsewhere and nothing is done to protect the American border. Keeping the American border open is such a high priority for Biden and the left that stalling aid to Israel and Ukraine is an acceptable price. Illegal immigrants coming into the United States is of higher value to Biden than protecting our allies. Forty years ago, at the 1984 Republican Convention, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick presciently described what Biden and the Democrats have become. She called them the “Blame America first” Democrats. She said no matter what happens around the world “They always blame America first.” Kirkpatrick described the Democrat doctrine as being “Less like a dove or a hawk than like an ostrich – convinced it would shut out the world by hiding its head in the sand.” Quoting the great French analyst Jean Francois Revel, she said, “Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself.” Today, there are American fanatics in Chicago chanting “Death to America.” In four cities, there are other fanatics occupying Google offices demanding that Google drop its contract that is helping Israel defend itself. It is easy to see the damage the Democrats’ moral relativism is doing. If the Biden doctrine continues, we won’t have any more allies – and our enemies will be much stronger. For Israel, Forbearance Could Be Fatal By: Richard A. EpsteinHoover Institution – defining ideasApril 16, 2024 Drones and missiles from Iran spearheaded a large but largely unsuccessful attack in the Negev and the Golan Heights. Launched in retaliation for the attack of April 1, in which Israel took out seven generals and advisers in a military compound in Damascus, the attack came as no surprise—Iranian leaders have said for more years than one can count that their goal is the extermination of the Jewish state, along with, it appears, its entire population. But on this occasion, the Iranian objective was more muted. Iran announced in advance that at least for the short run, it would refrain from further attacks unless attacks by Israel or the United States were launched against them. But given the long-term risks, there is no time to be complacent. It is all too clear that when oligarchs make statements of that sort, they intend to execute them. This, in turn, dictates the strategies that have to be performed in reply. Thus, in dealing with potential allies and friends, the optimal strategy is—to use the common parlance—to put your best foot forward. Note that this cautious strategy does not require you to lose your balance. Rather, it indicates a willingness to go forward to the next level of commitment if there is a positive response. Your potential trading partner then puts his or her best foot forward as well. In such arrangements, it is possible that after several iterations one side (perhaps even you) will choose to defect, but with each round the relationship ideally becomes more stable. Both sides have large potential gains from trade, so that a defection that brings a short-term benefit will carry with it the loss of expected future gains, and as those get larger the probability of defection goes down. One common example of the situation is in the contract at will, where it is understood from the very title that each party is allowed to pull out of any forward commitment without penalty. And yet these arrangements tend to last for long periods, through patterns of slow evolution. In international affairs, the game is far more complicated because each nation is not a single individual but a coalition of multiple groups that keep to a stable course, such that if the coalition gets fractured, the losses could be enormous. This is why bipartisan support for these deals is needed to overcome discontinuities with the shift in dominant power, and why Pax Americana, like Pax Britannia before it, is necessary to hold that coalition together. A breakdown in unity has been evident for at least a generation in the United States, which explains in part our reduced effectiveness in international affairs. In this setting, no nation has the luxury of picking out the best trading partners, as can be done in private markets (where all others are under a strict injunction not to disrupt current contracts or use force or guile to prevent formation of new ones). Instead, there is an enormous range of players, some friendly and others hostile. The use of the best foot forward has no place in dealing with hostile players, as the risk is that the moment that foot is put forward, it will be lopped off, with no gain in response. Instead, the strategic dimension is transformed so that the only moves that are made are those that leave you better off if the party on the other side accepts, and leaves you no worse off even if they decline and take a strategy intended to inflict maximum pain. As a matter of principle, any appeasement—defined here as a concession made without obtaining some strategic advantage—is sure to fail, and probably in the short term. The swarm of Iranian drones and missiles was therefore no surprise, given that the United States has adopted for many years weak positions with major concessions in the vain hope that carrots without sticks would be able to conjure an improvement. Thus, after a strong recovery in the last years of President George W. Bush in Iraq, the Obama years were marked with a general retreat when the United States negotiated the nuclear arms deal with Iran in 2015. The Obama administration showered concession upon concession to persuade Iranians to give up their nuclear weapons program, despite every breach of promises by the Iranians on inspections. Indeed, the only reason the arrangement did not disintegrate sooner was that the Israelis were able to sabotage some of the Iranian nuclear weapons as the United States continued with its carrots-only approach of sending many billions of dollars to Iran under the Obama and Biden administrations. Donald Trump may not have been perfect on these issues, but he credibly held that he would be able to arrange a better US-Iran deal than the one he canceled. Amid the return to strategic appeasement and supposed neutrality, Hamas attacked Israel with pitiless force by breaking an existing cease-fire on October 7, 2023. At that point, the only meaningful response was what Israel resolved and the United States has tried to block: a maximum effort to wipe out Hamas. There are no intermediate solutions that could prove stable, for as long as Hamas is in power, it will break the next cease-fire with the same impunity. US foreign policy has made two grave mistakes after its initial burst of support for Israel. First, it has pushed hard for a cease-fire that can accomplish nothing, for in prolonging the war the precarious position of the civilian population becomes riskier than before. Meanwhile, the prolonged fighting reduces the resources that Israel has to mount its defenses against Hezbollah and Iran, while giving Iran additional time to smuggle weapons to the West Bank in the hopes of stirring up political instability and worse. Nor does a cease-fire allow for any rebuilding to take place or any new government to form, as the choice of the corrupt Palestinian Authority is a nonstarter, and the prospect of a demilitarized state for Palestinians is but a way station on the road to the extinction of Israel. As John Spencer has long documented, the Israeli offensive in Gaza has been notable for its general precision, while Hamas has violated every requirement of the law of war in ways that increased, perhaps intentionally, the number of civilian deaths, including by using human shields, fighting out of uniforms, and locating bases of operations near hospitals and other facilities, all on top of a tunnel system that has cost billions to create and maintain. There is also a propaganda war: a power that is prepared to use barbaric force will not hesitate also to wield lies and exaggerations, including the endless accusations of Israeli “genocide” in Gaza. The current but limited hostilities between Iran and Israel have their roots in the disastrous US pullout from Afghanistan in August 2021. The bungled withdrawal set the stage by turning a stable situation into a moral and social catastrophe, which continues unabated to the present day. The signals were unmistakable, and Hamas and Iran read the tea leaves. They have gained huge leverage because US leaders think the United States can remain “neutral” by continuing to bargain with Hamas, which easily moves the goalposts with each new Western concession. None of this should have happened. The hesitation of the United States and its allies will prolong the war and result in more deaths and dislocations than a uniform, firm response by Israel and all its squeamish allies. It is therefore incomprehensible that the New York Times should be calling for the United States to limit weapons supplies to Israel until it reforms its practices in Gaza. The Times seems to think Hamas has done nothing to put its own people in danger by its endless succession of bad acts. It is perverse to claim that this drastic curtailment of arms is needed now because “the war in Gaza has taken an enormous toll in human lives, with a cease-fire still out of reach and many hostages still held captive.” Indeed, these are just the reasons why the attack on Rafeh should proceed, so that this dreadful conflict can reach a just and quick conclusion. Israel’s First Total War And Its Ramifications For the first time, Israel is committed not onlyto the defeat of the enemy’s forces but also tothe annihilation of its regime. That is one reasonthe Gaza war proves to be a long war of attrition. By: Eran OrtalThe Caravan NotebookApril 19, 2024 For the first time, Israel is committed not only to the defeat of the enemy’s forces but also to the annihilation of its regime. That is one reason the Gaza war proves to be a long war of attrition. It is the consequence of not only the Oct 7th catastrophe, and a years-long policy of appeasement but also the gradual derailment of Israel’s defense strategy. What is needed now is a reform aimed at restoring IDF’s decisive battlefield capabilities, without which we face the impossible dilemma of living with further hostilities building up on our borders or a Gaza-like war on a greater scale in Lebanon. As war is making its comeback to history everywhere, the West should take note of Israel’s endeavors. In his book, The Culture of Military Innovation (Stanford 2010), Dima Adamsky refers to the Israeli strategic culture as one of tactical excellence and innovation on the one hand and theoretical incapacity on the other. Many of us, including Adamsky, himself, saw that culture as changing for the better. Unfortunately, the multi-front Gaza war exposed the inadequacies of that change – too little too late. The war in Gaza is a showcase for the sharp contrast between IDF’s superb performance in the offensive phase in Gaza, and the clear mismanagement of the war at the higher military and political levels. While that gap is apparent for all observers to see, what is less obvious is the failings of Israel’s three-decades-long strategy which collided with the changing circumstances. Analyzing the war from that perspective does not relieve Israeli leadership today of the October 7th disaster, the protracted nature of the war, and the ongoing hostage crisis. However, It does enable a deeper look into our strategic position and hopefully provides for better learning and adaptation. Israel’s first total warBy “total war” I do not mean to say that Israel is engaged in a 20th-century style conflict between nations that involves the industrial base, cities, and population of both sides and the unlimited use of all weapons at hand. In fact, I cannot think of a more bizarre case where a nation, after experiencing an attack such as occurred on Oct 7 is fighting the enemy on one hand and seeing to the delivery of food, medicine, water, fuels, and even internet communication to the enemy’s population on the other. Needless to say, Hamas’s fighting force is the number one beneficiary of that flow of commodities. What total war here refers to is the complete contrast between Israel’s limited wars of the past and the present one. It is the first war in our history where the aim is not simply to remove the immediate military threat to Israel and end the fighting quickly, but rather it is a commitment to the annihilation of both the military force and the political regime of the enemy. Let it be clear: this is a just and necessary war. Nevertheless, it does drag Israel into a war of attrition that clearly overwhelms the capacity of the IDF and Israel to sustain military, civilian, and international efforts. So the real question at hand is how Israel cornered itself in this dead-end situation. The most apparent answers will be the failures that led directly to Oct 7 such as the lack of early warning, followed by the devastating collapse of the thinly deployed IDF forces on that day. On a strategic level, however, the question is how did we allow the build-up of the Hamas army on our border? Even the shameful policy of appeasement towards Hamas, a policy as old as Hamas’s rule over Gaza (2007) does not provide a complete answer. If we are to learn anything beyond the political blame game that is tearing Israel apart, we should search even further. Three disruptions put Israel’s traditional defense strategy out of balance. Just as Adamsky described it, while the IDF was relatively quick to adapt tactically, the strategic flaws were overlooked and the more profound military change that was needed was delayed. That is a process that originated in the days of the Israeli-held security zone in south Lebanon in the 1990s. David & GoliathThe most basic observation of Israeli strategy and doctrine in the 50’s was the fact that we cannot change the nature of the conflict by force. We cannot defeat the Arab coalition in the way the Allies defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. So the small state of Israel devised a modest strategy:ü We will only aim for a military, not a political defeat of our adversaries. ü To do that, we will concentrate all resources and personnel in a short decisive war effort that will take the war to the other side to remove the immediate threat. ü We will make all efforts to avoid protracted warfare we cannot sustain. Fast-forward to the 1990’s and circumstances seemed to have profoundly changed. The Soviet Union had just fallen, further weakening its Arab clients, Egypt had withdrawn from the Arab coalition, and the IDF was one of the most modern militaries on the planet with cutting-edge targeting and airpower precision strike capabilities. And yet, faced with guerrilla warfare in southern Lebanon, Israel’s strategy was disrupted. Protecting our northern border from within southern Lebanon has led to prolonged warfare with new Lebanese factions. Moving the battle to the other side now proved more of a problem than a solution. A new strategy was starting to emerge. Never to be officially put in words or on paper, its preferred principles were simple:· Israel’s advantage lies in airpower.· Decisive battlefield maneuvering is impractical in the new context. Fortunately, it is also unnecessary.· Israel is now the Goliath of the equation. Indeed, it is a regional power. We can and should engage in a war of attrition, rather than finding a way to remove the emerging threat.· Guerillas are inherently less sensitive to airpower. So, Israel’s strategy will be one of coercion, aimed at a “responsible state address” such as Lebanon or Syria, hosting or supporting them. Gradually, three processes took place:· Airpower coercion became the securing base for the strategic deconfliction strategy practiced with the withdrawal from Lebanon (2000) and disengagement from Gaza (2005).· The IDF became a formidable targeting machine. Later other excellent tactical adaptations to the deteriorating situation, like air-defense systems, were achieved. Seen as a thing of the past, ground forces were largely left behind.· Unaffected by the new strategic theory, the adversaries have grown from small guerrilla entities to full-scale militaries based directly on our borders. Rather than responding to Israel as a superpower, the other side simply enhanced its ability to inflict damage on our cities and disrupt peace on our borders. By the early 2000’s Israeli leadership talked about deterrence but was simultaneously deterred itself. The much-talked-of air campaign Israel has engaged in in Syria since 2012 only serves to highlight the lack of Israeli willingness to stop the entrenchment and armament of Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and Lebanon. The big disruptionsThree major disruptions led to the derailment of Israel’s traditional strategy:ü Control over foreign hostile populated areas, like South Lebanon or the Gaza Strip, has proven to drag Israel into undesired prolonged warfare.ü Rockets and missiles have proven to be the ultimate strategic equalizer working against Israel’s military superiority. ü Holding Israeli cities hostage, they have made it possible for the weaker side to deter Israel from decisive operations, allowing the unhindered build-up of forces by Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas. It also rendered the withdrawal strategy useless as the rockets were aimed and fired at Israeli civilians from deep within Lebanon and Gaza. As for Iran – we went to bed in the 90s with some small and isolated guerrillas on our borders. One day we woke up realizing these are the paws of a huge Iranian tiger. We were thinking of ourselves as a Goliath gradually degrading weaker adversaries, only to learn we are in a war of attrition with a giant via its proxies. Therefore it turns out that our main disruption was not from our adversaries but from within. Short-sighted policy from most Israeli governments helped, but the roots of the deterioration lay in false optimistic assumptions that were not challenged sufficiently: Can airpower really sustain a strategy by itself?Can Israel sustain the strategic competition with Iran while conducting attrition warfare with its growing proxies on its borders? Progressives and OrthodoxWe have favored a false theoretical framework, never to become official and truly challenged, and the comfort of doing more and better of the same. We have made huge tactical improvements but failed to make more profound adjustments to our theories and capabilities. One can make that statement based on the IDF’s concept of victory from 2020 when it was given official recognition. That concept was supposed to be a vital first step for a military modernization plan. The plan was aimed at the reconstruction of the traditional defense strategy with decisive victory on the battlefield at its focal point. A variety of capabilities and organizational changes were planned to target the enemy’s distant fire and trajectories by utilizing modernized ground forces as well as air assets. Unfortunately, it turned out to be too little too late. For too long the strategic environment and actual threats were rapidly changing for the worse. Israel’s strategic and military thinking was stuck between two opposing schools of thought. The first school created a framework of false assumptions that allowed the comfort of kicking the can down the road. The concept of engineering our adversaries’ intentions rather than preempting their capabilities failed. These schools of thought can be described as “strategic progressives“, turning wishful thinking into a strategy. Reacting against that, the other school can be labeled “military orthodoxy“, denying the change of circumstances altogether. It called for bigger ground forces and a more aggressive approach with the unpromising prospects of house-to-house fighting to clear the enemy from Lebanon. This was a twentieth-century attrition approach to deal with the twenty-first-century challenge of a dispersed enemy with long-range capability. Policymakers, from all sides of the political map, thought that cure was worse than the disease. ConclusionCornered now into a long total war against the Hamas regime, Israel can hardly sustain the effort needed and has no good solutions for the simultaneous threat from Lebanon. In contrast to its self-image as a regional power, Israel re-discovered its basic limits. As successful, flourishing, and technologically advanced as we grew up to be, we are still only David. Israel is not capable of politically engineering our neighborhood, not even in the small Gaza Strip. The failure is far from being tactical or local. Rather than adapting to a new set of military threats within the correct framework of Israeli defense strategy, we have insisted on living in a dream world where terror organizations have state-like responsibility and Israel is a regional power that cannot be beaten. From the three disruptions mentioned, the tangible one we can militarily work with is the second – arms fire, missiles, and rockets. Defeat that, and there is no Iranian ring of fire nor an adversary capable of deterring Israel from preempting threats. We can and should come up with an approach that does exactly that. That approach may be of great interest for the West as it is faced with similar military challenges. The Russian war over Ukraine has come to be a war of attrition dominated by long-range weapons. China’s strategy relies on deterring a possible US response for an armed provocation as its ranged A2AD missiles are deployed and aimed at any approaching navy and air force assets. If we can contribute valid and substantial ideas and capabilities to change that for the better, it could also facilitate a fresh restart for Israel internationally. Brigadier General (Ret.) Ortal is the author of The Battle Before the War (Modan and the Ministry of Defense 2022, Hebrew) which deals with change and the need for change in the IDF. He now teaches Defense Strategy at Reichman University, serves as a senior consultant for strategy and technology at the Israeli MOD, and is a senior fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.Plato
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Site: Padre PeregrinoHow do you maintain your convictions when your culture is smothered? https://youtu.be/1dBSLVT3XSw?si=KMYog_EzwheB0uUy
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Site: LifeNews
Apparently there is an emergency that not enough babies are being killed in California. Never mind that California allows abortions up to birth and funds abortions at taxpayer expense.
Now, Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing “emergency” legislation to allow Arizona abortionists to come to California to kill more babies in abortions.
The move comes after the Arizona Supreme Court upheld an abortion ban that protects babies from abortions but allows an abortion if needed to save a woman’s life in an emergency. Hence, there is no emergency – because all emergency care is allowed in Arizona for pregnant women, including the very rare case of an abortion to save a woman’s life.
Newsom said on MSNBC, “We’ll be providing doctors from Arizona the ability to come into California through emergency legislation we’ll introduce with our Women’s Caucus this week.”
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, who supports abortion, is working with California to pass the legislation, which would allow Arizona abortionists to be licensed in California.
On Sunday, Mayes posted about the plan and said, “My office will continue to do everything we can to support our medical professionals as they work to provide care for their patients.”
Last week, the Arizona legislature defeated a measure to that would repeal the state’s abortion ban that protects women and unborn babies. On Wednesday, following two attempts to bring up the pro-abortion bill that would repeal the ban and allow killing babies in abortions, lawmakers defeated the measure.
“The last thing we should be doing today is rushing a bill through the legislative process to repeal a law that has been enacted and affirmed by the legislature several times,” House Speaker Ben Toma said during debate.
Had the ban been repealed, babies would lose almost all protection in the state. A 15-week abortion ban would go into place that only allows protecting babies up to that point – meaning 90% of more abortions would become legal.
The pro-life group Center for Arizona Policy celebrated the vote.
“All but one AZ pro-life representative kept their word today and stood for the unborn & women! The attempt to repeal the pre-Roe law limiting abortion to when the women’s life is at risk failed to make it to the floor. Thank you @RepBenToma and all lawmakers who stood for life,” it said on X (Twitter).
SUPPORT LIFENEWS! If you want to help fight abortion, please donate to LifeNews.com!
Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jake Warner also applauded the vote in an email to LifeNews:
“Life is a human right, and the Arizona Legislature has again reaffirmed that fundamental right. Life begins at conception. At just six weeks, unborn babies’ hearts begin to beat. At eight weeks, they have fingers and toes. And at 10 weeks, their unique fingerprints begin to form. Arizona’s pro-life law has protected unborn children for more than 100 years, and the people of Arizona, through their elected representatives, have repeatedly affirmed that law, as they did again today. We commend the Arizona Legislature for protecting the lives of countless, innocent, unborn children.”
Arizona Democrats are campaigning on abortion and hoping to use the vote to capture the legislature and pass a bill to force abortions up to birth on the state.
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday to uphold the state’s pro-life law as written by overturning a lower court decision that misinterpreted the law.
“We conclude that [Arizona’s law] does not create a right to, or otherwise provide independent statutory authority for, an abortion that repeals or restricts [the law], but rather is predicated entirely on the existence of a federal constitutional right to an abortion since disclaimed by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,” the court wrote in its opinion in Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Mayes. “Absent the federal constitutional abortion right, and because [the law] does not independently authorize abortion, there is no provision in federal or state law prohibiting [the law’s] operation. Accordingly, [Arizona’s law] is now enforceable.”
After the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the state’s abortion ban, one of the big attacks against it is that the 1864 law supposedly doesn’t represent the will of the people and is antiquated. Trump referred to that in his post.
But that contention is not true.
First, the judges on the Arizona Supreme Court represent the people. The seven justices on the state’s highest court are initially appointed by the governor to serve. They then stand for a retention vote for regular terms of six years and that is a ballot vote cast by Arizona voters. As a result, the justices represent the people via electing the governor and electing them directly.
Secondly, the law was affirmed twice after it was initially approved in 1864. As CatholicVote notes in an article:
The over century-and-a-half-old law is set to replace the state’s existing pro-life law which only protects most unborn children after 15 weeks gestation.
Republican then Gov. Doug Ducey signed the significantly weaker legislation into law in March 2022. Less than three months later, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe v. Wade.
The Arizona Supreme Court held that the 2022 law “is predicated entirely on the existence of a federal constitutional right to an abortion since disclaimed” by the Dobbs decision.
Axios reported that “[a] provision of the 2022 law had affirmed it wasn’t repealing the 19th-century law.”
FOX News noted that the 1864 law “was codified in 1913 after Arizona became a state” and “includes an exception in cases where the mother’s life is at risk.”
Planned Parenthood was challenging the potential reinstatement of the state’s near-total abortion ban from 1864, which has exceptions for life-threatening emergencies, but had been blocked by 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The Dobbs ruling should allow it to go into effect but the nation’s biggest abortion business challenged it.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represented Dr. Eric Hazelrigg, an obstetrician and medical director of Choices Pregnancy Center in Arizona, who filed a petition last March asking the state’s high court to review an Arizona Court of Appeals ruling.
The appellate court’s ruling misinterpreted state law, against its plain meaning, to allow abortion in circumstances where the Arizona Legislature prohibited it. It also enjoined officials from fully enforcing the state’s pro-life law to protect unborn children. The Arizona Supreme Court reversed this ruling, allowing the law to be enforced as written.
“Life is a human right, and today’s decision allows the state to respect that right and fully protect life again—just as the legislature intended,” said ADF Senior Counsel Jake Warner, who argued before the court. “Life begins at conception. At just six weeks, unborn babies’ hearts begin to beat. At eight weeks, they have fingers and toes. And at 10 weeks, their unique fingerprints begin to form. Arizona’s pro-life law has protected unborn children for over 100 years, and the people of Arizona, through their elected representatives, have repeatedly affirmed that law, including as recently as 2022. We celebrate the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision that allows the state’s pro-life law to again protect the lives of countless, innocent unborn children.”
In September 2022, the Arizona Superior Court in Pima County appointed Dr. Hazelrigg as the substitute guardian ad litem to legally represent the best interests of unborn children in Arizona, a role Arizona courts have recognized for over 50 years.
The post Gavin Newsom Proposes “Emergency” Bill to Let Arizona Abortionists Kill Babies in California appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles
When future historians go searching for the final nail in the US coffin, they may well settle on the date April 20, 2024.
On that day Congress passed legislation to fund two and a half wars, hand what’s left of our privacy over to the CIA and NSA, and give the US president the power to shut down whatever part of the Internet he disagrees with.
The nearly $100 billion grossly misnamed “National Security Supplemental” guarantees that Ukrainians will continue to die in that country’s unwinnable war with Russia, that Palestinian civilians will continue to be slaughtered in Gaza with US weapons, and that the neocons will continue to push us toward a war with China.
It was a total victory for the war party.
The huge spending bill is all about politics for Biden, yet so many Republicans simply went along with it. The last thing the people running Biden’s White House want to see as a close election approaches are ads blaming Biden for “losing Ukraine.”
The US and its allies have already sent over $300 billion to Ukraine and the country is still losing its war with Russia. Nobody believes another $60 billion will pull a victory from the jaws of defeat. But this additional money is meant to keep up appearances until November at the expense of Americans who are forced to pay for it and Ukrainians who are forced to die for it.
Speaker Johnson could not have passed these monstrosities without the full support of House Democrats, as the majority of Republicans voted against more money for Ukraine. So in the worst example of “bipartisanship,” Johnson reached across the aisle, stiffed the Republican majority that elected him Speaker, and pushed through a massive gift to the warfare/(corporate) welfare state.
After the House voted to send another $60 billion to notoriously corrupt Ukraine, Members waved Ukrainian flags on the House Floor and chanted “Ukraine, Ukraine.” While I find it distasteful and disgusting, in some way it seemed fitting. After all, they may as well chant the name of a foreign country because they certainly don’t care about this country!
Along with sending $100 billion that we don’t have to fund more overseas war, Speaker Johnson threw in another version of the Tik Tok ban, which gives Joe Biden and future presidents the power to shut down websites at will by simply declaring them to be “foreign adversary controlled.”
Not to be outdone, the US Senate on that same day passed the extension of Section 702 of the FISA Act, which not only allowed the government to continue spying on us without a warrant, but also contained new language massively expanding how they can spy on us.
Many conservative voters are asking what the point of Republican control of the House is if the agenda is determined by Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is even reported to have bragged to his colleagues about how easily Speaker Johnson gave Democrats everything they wanted and asked for nothing in return.
What is the silver lining in all this bad news? Most Republicans in the House voted against continuing the Ukraine war. That’s a good start. Our ideas are growing, not only across the country but even in the DC swamp. Take courage and don’t give up! Work for peace!
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Site: RT - News
Poland’s Andrzej Duda has contradicted Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who had claimed that Western Europe is heading for war
There is no imminent threat of a military conflict breaking out in Europe, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said, contradicting the country’s prime minister. Late last month, Donald Tusk claimed that the continent was in a “pre-war era.”
The prime minister argued at the time that “literally any scenario is possible.” Tusk also warned that “no one in Europe will be able to feel safe” if the West fails to provide Ukraine with enough weapons, allowing Russia to prevail in the conflict.
When asked whether he shared the prime minister’s grim outlook during an interview with Poland’s Fakt media outlet on Monday, Duda replied in the negative. “If we act responsibly, and we are acting responsibly so far, there will never be a war, because we will always be powerful enough to not be worth attacking,” he said.
According to the Polish president, credible deterrence helped the West to prevent the Cold War from turning into a military confrontation. He suggested that the West today should emulate this strategy by arming up.
Read more
NATO creates ‘joint mission’ in Ukraine – Poland
He also said his country was ready to host the nuclear weapons of NATO allies as part of a sharing scheme within the bloc if such a decision were made.
Earlier this month, UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps echoed Tusk’s assessment, claiming that “we have moved from a post-war to a pre-war world.” He argued that the West needed to beef up its defense spending.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell also subsequently stated that the “possibility of a high-intensity conventional war in Europe is no longer a fantasy.”
Moscow has repeatedly denied having any intention of attacking NATO member states. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed such claims as “nonsense,” suggesting that Kiev’s backers were using the supposed threat of a Russian attack to “extract additional expenses from people, to make them bear this burden [of funding Ukraine] on their shoulders.”
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Site: RT - News
Poland’s Andrzej Duda has contradicted Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who had claimed that Western Europe is heading for war
There is no imminent threat of a military conflict breaking out in Europe, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said, contradicting the country’s prime minister. Late last month, Donald Tusk claimed that the continent was in a “pre-war era.”
The prime minister argued at the time that “literally any scenario is possible.” Tusk also warned that “no one in Europe will be able to feel safe” if the West fails to provide Ukraine with enough weapons, allowing Russia to prevail in the conflict.
When asked whether he shared the prime minister’s grim outlook during an interview with Poland’s Fakt media outlet on Monday, Duda replied in the negative. “If we act responsibly, and we are acting responsibly so far, there will never be a war, because we will always be powerful enough to not be worth attacking,” he said.
According to the Polish president, credible deterrence helped the West to prevent the Cold War from turning into a military confrontation. He suggested that the West today should emulate this strategy by arming up.
Read more
NATO creates ‘joint mission’ in Ukraine – Poland
He also said his country was ready to host the nuclear weapons of NATO allies as part of a sharing scheme within the bloc if such a decision were made.
Earlier this month, UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps echoed Tusk’s assessment, claiming that “we have moved from a post-war to a pre-war world.” He argued that the West needed to beef up its defense spending.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell also subsequently stated that the “possibility of a high-intensity conventional war in Europe is no longer a fantasy.”
Moscow has repeatedly denied having any intention of attacking NATO member states. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed such claims as “nonsense,” suggesting that Kiev’s backers were using the supposed threat of a Russian attack to “extract additional expenses from people, to make them bear this burden [of funding Ukraine] on their shoulders.”
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Site: RT - News
Poland’s Andrzej Duda has contradicted Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who had claimed that Western Europe is heading for war
There is no imminent threat of a military conflict breaking out in Europe, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said, contradicting the country’s prime minister. Late last month, Donald Tusk claimed that the continent was in a “pre-war era.”
The prime minister argued at the time that “literally any scenario is possible.” Tusk also warned that “no one in Europe will be able to feel safe” if the West fails to provide Ukraine with enough weapons, allowing Russia to prevail in the conflict.
When asked whether he shared the prime minister’s grim outlook during an interview with Poland’s Fakt media outlet on Monday, Duda replied in the negative. “If we act responsibly, and we are acting responsibly so far, there will never be a war, because we will always be powerful enough to not be worth attacking,” he said.
According to the Polish president, credible deterrence helped the West to prevent the Cold War from turning into a military confrontation. He suggested that the West today should emulate this strategy by arming up.
Read more
NATO creates ‘joint mission’ in Ukraine – Poland
He also said his country was ready to host the nuclear weapons of NATO allies as part of a sharing scheme within the bloc if such a decision were made.
Earlier this month, UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps echoed Tusk’s assessment, claiming that “we have moved from a post-war to a pre-war world.” He argued that the West needed to beef up its defense spending.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell also subsequently stated that the “possibility of a high-intensity conventional war in Europe is no longer a fantasy.”
Moscow has repeatedly denied having any intention of attacking NATO member states. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed such claims as “nonsense,” suggesting that Kiev’s backers were using the supposed threat of a Russian attack to “extract additional expenses from people, to make them bear this burden [of funding Ukraine] on their shoulders.”
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Site: Zero HedgeHedge Fund CIO: "That's Why I See Us Headed Into A 1970s-Style Inflation"Tyler Durden Mon, 04/22/2024 - 10:05
By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management
“I tried to jump into the Potomac when I was young and my mother nearly killed me,” said the CIO.
“Now you could drink from our rivers if you had to, which is great, but the cleanup has meant everything is more expensive.”
The Environmental Protection Agency was founded in 1970 by Nixon to protect human health and the environment. We’re all better for it.
“Across an economy, we make both public and private investments. In the 1970s, we made big public investments.”
The returns accrue to society, but rarely to capital owners, and often at the expense of them.
“I would argue that the investments we made back then were good, but the tradeoffs we made included upward inflationary pressure and lower real rates of returns on private investments.”
The S&P 500 peaked in Nov 1968 and swung in a wild range through the 1970s, ending the decade unchanged in nominal terms.
In real terms, it lost roughly 50% of its value during that period.
From 1980 to present, the S&P 500 is roughly 42x higher in nominal terms and 10x higher in real terms (none of these returns include dividends). It’s been a great run for capital owners since 1980.
“The government will most likely continue to borrow and print to subsidize societal preferences for renewable energy and reliable supply chains,” he said.
“It is near-term uneconomic in that windmills and solar plants don’t cover their costs to private investors without federal subsidies. But they satisfy our collective preferences. They help insure us against risks we see geopolitically and environmentally,” he said.
“That’s why I see us headed into a 1970s-style inflation. Three, four, five percent inflation is probably where we’ll settle in.”
Anything above five percent tends to see equity multiple compression.
“It’s probably good for investors who measure their returns in nominal terms, but real returns will be lower looking forward, and inflation will continue to be tough for everyday people.”
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Site: RT - News
General Aharon Haliva’s resignation is expected to be the first among many of the Jewish state’s top security brass after the October 7 attack
The head of Israel’s military intelligence agency, Major General Aharon Haliva, has stepped down over the failure of his department to prevent the October 7 Hamas attack, the Jewish state’s military announced on Monday.
Haliva’s resignation is expected to be the first of many among Israel’s top military brass following the deadly assault last year, which saw Palestinian militants break through border defenses in Gaza, killing over 1,100 people on Israeli territory and taking some 250 hostages. The Jewish state has since launched a relentless assault on Gaza, vowing to eliminate Hamas.
“The intelligence directorate under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with. I carry that black day with me ever since, day after day, night after night. I will carry the horrible pain of the war with me forever,” Haliva wrote in his resignation letter.
Following the October 7 attack, Haliva repeatedly acknowledged his blame in failing to prevent the assault, as did a number of other top Israeli military officials.
His resignation was met with approval from Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, who called it “justified and dignified.” He further claimed that it would be “appropriate” for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to similarly step down.
Read more
Israel promises ‘painful blows’ to Hamas
The Israeli leader has so far refused to accept direct responsibility for allowing the attack to unfold and has not indicated any intent to voluntarily resign over the failure. He has insisted that all investigations into accountability should be saved for when the war with Hamas is over.
“This debacle will be investigated. Everyone will have to give answers, including me,” Netanyahu said following the attack. “The only thing that I intend to have resign is Hamas. We’re going to resign them to the dustbin of history.”
So far, Gaza health authorities have estimated that more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed amid Israel’s siege of the enclave, which has included extensive bombardment as well as a ground incursion.
Despite international criticism of Israel’s response, Netanyahu vowed over the weekend to increase military and diplomatic pressure on Hamas to free the remaining hostages, while threatening to “land additional and painful blows” against the Palestinian militants.
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Site: AsiaNews.itAn exceptional heat wave linked to El Niño is negatively impacting the cost of food staples. Rice now costs 52 pesos per kilo, an anomaly at this time of the year, harvest season. By presidential order, the head of state gives the green light to streamline sanitary procedures for other agricultural products as well.
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Site: Mises InstituteNot surprisingly, neoconservatives have tried to rehabilitate the British Empire, calling it benign and a civilizing force in Africa and Asia. Like all other empires, however, it was held together by violence and subjugation.
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Site: Steyn OnlineThe endangered species no one cares about...
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Site: Steyn OnlineHere we go with Part Four of our latest audio diversion: The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie's 1922 caper set in a London seething with Bolshevists and labour unrest. Linda Powers, a Kansas member of The Mark Steyn Club, writes of Saturday's episode:
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Site: RT - News
The launchers that Warsaw does possess are under American control, the prime minister said
Poland doesn’t have any US-made Patriot missile systems available to donate to Ukraine, unlike some other NATO nations, Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated on Monday.
The long-range air defense system emerged this month as a priority item on Kiev’s wish list after Russia began targeting Ukrainian power stations with missile strikes in what it called retaliation for drone attacks on its oil infrastructure.
After an EU summit last week, Germany promised to provide an additional Patriot battery, which costs over a billion dollars. Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged other NATO members to donate more Patriot systems to Kiev.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg suggested that members of the US-led military bloc should prioritize arming Ukraine over meeting their own defense obligations to the organization, when he discussed the situation with air defense systems last Wednesday.
“We do not have such an option,” Tusk told journalists on Monday. The battery deployed near the city of Rzeszow “is under the control and disposal of the Americans” and protects southeastern Poland. Warsaw has no such systems to spare, according to the prime minister.
Read more
Kiev asks to ‘lease’ Patriot missile systems
He touted Poland’s record of supporting Kiev against Moscow in other ways, calling it a job “done perfectly” and stating that there are many other weapons systems that can benefit Ukraine.
Senior Ukrainian officials have criticized Western arms donors for failing to deliver enough Patriot systems to defend their country. President Vladimir Zelensky has said that Kiev needed at least six to seven units, while Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has called out the US specifically, stating in an interview that “nobody in Ukraine would believe that the huge US Army doesn’t have at least one Patriot battery” to send.
“Behind closed doors, I tell all of our partners: ‘My dears, anything you want. You want to lease them, so be it. You want them to protect your border, they will. Just give them [to us],’” Kuleba explained last week.
READ MORE: Send more Patriots to Ukraine – Germany
Moscow, which perceives the Ukraine conflict as a US-led proxy war against Russia, has warned that no amount of Western weaponry will change the outcome and that the arms supplies merely prolong the bloodshed and stand in the way of achieving peace.
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Site: RT - News
The launchers that Warsaw does possess are under American control, the prime minister said
Poland doesn’t have any US-made Patriot missile systems available to donate to Ukraine, unlike some other NATO nations, Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated on Monday.
The long-range air defense system emerged this month as a priority item on Kiev’s wish list after Russia began targeting Ukrainian power stations with missile strikes in what it called retaliation for drone attacks on its oil infrastructure.
After an EU summit last week, Germany promised to provide an additional Patriot battery, which costs over a billion dollars. Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged other NATO members to donate more Patriot systems to Kiev.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg suggested that members of the US-led military bloc should prioritize arming Ukraine over meeting their own defense obligations to the organization, when he discussed the situation with air defense systems last Wednesday.
“We do not have such an option,” Tusk told journalists on Monday. The battery deployed near the city of Rzeszow “is under the control and disposal of the Americans” and protects southeastern Poland. Warsaw has no such systems to spare, according to the prime minister.
Read more
Kiev asks to ‘lease’ Patriot missile systems
He touted Poland’s record of supporting Kiev against Moscow in other ways, calling it a job “done perfectly” and stating that there are many other weapons systems that can benefit Ukraine.
Senior Ukrainian officials have criticized Western arms donors for failing to deliver enough Patriot systems to defend their country. President Vladimir Zelensky has said that Kiev needed at least six to seven units, while Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has called out the US specifically, stating in an interview that “nobody in Ukraine would believe that the huge US Army doesn’t have at least one Patriot battery” to send.
“Behind closed doors, I tell all of our partners: ‘My dears, anything you want. You want to lease them, so be it. You want them to protect your border, they will. Just give them [to us],’” Kuleba explained last week.
READ MORE: Send more Patriots to Ukraine – Germany
Moscow, which perceives the Ukraine conflict as a US-led proxy war against Russia, has warned that no amount of Western weaponry will change the outcome and that the arms supplies merely prolong the bloodshed and stand in the way of achieving peace.
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Site: LifeNews
Two national pro-life organizations have reacted to Planned Parenthood’s 2022-23 annual report, denouncing the abortion giant’s actions as going “above and beyond the law” for receiving government funding.
American Life League’s Planned Parenthood watchdog division, STOPP, released a statement condemning abortions and the use of taxpayer dollars to fund them.
“This report should be the centerpiece of criminal investigations into misconduct by Planned Parenthood and its board. You cannot mix, mingle, and misuse nonprofit money for improper purposes, and Planned Parenthood continues to do so to the tune of nearly $1 billion in donations and another $700 million in taxpayer money,” STOPP said in the statement.
According to the Planned Parenthood report, the organization killed 392,715 babies in the last year and received nearly $700 million in government health services reimbursements and grants—34% of their total annual revenue.
Live Action pointed out in a news release that the number of abortions nationwide has increased 5% since the last report and 100% since 2000. Abortions across the country have never been higher.
Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com
Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action, added that Planned Parenthood’s adoption referrals have fallen by 5% since the last report.
“Planned Parenthood commits 228 abortions for each adoption referral and 62 abortions for each prenatal care service it provides,” she stated. “On a national scale, the corporation killed an average of 1,076 children daily through abortion, with approximately 45 dead children every hour, and one destroyed child every 80 seconds during 2022-23. Meanwhile, it received over $1.9 million in taxpayer funding daily, serving fewer clients with dwindling legitimate health services.”
She continued:
These numbers demonstrate that Planned Parenthood prioritizes killing preborn children over everything else … I call on our leaders in Congress and the White House to come together to defund and shut down Planned Parenthood. Only by defunding every cent of money entrusted to the public good can we take the first step toward justice. Planned Parenthood must be defunded and shut down.
LifeNews Note: Hannah Hiester writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
The post Planned Parenthood Kills 288 Babies in Abortions for Every Adoption Referral It Makes appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: RT - News
Despite ambitious plans to phase out Russian gas, the EU increased purchases in 2023, Reuters reported earlier this month
The predominance of fossil fuels in global energy output is nearing its end, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has claimed, adding that his country aims to produce 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
German industry had for decades relied on relatively inexpensive Russian gas, and to a lesser extent oil. However, following the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, energy imports from Moscow fell dramatically, adversely affecting the competitiveness of many German businesses.
In 2020, the European Union unveiled its Green Deal strategy for the bloc to become climate-neutral by the middle of the century.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Hanover trade fair on Sunday, Scholz said that the “era of fossil fuels is coming to an end.” German industry will have to reorganize its operations, but not all technological processes allow for swift decarbonization, according to the chancellor.
Read more
Bank of America issues $130 oil warning
The German leader stated that “modern, highly-flexible and climate-friendly power plants” were currently being built across the country to replace traditional power sources. Scholz also said that Norway would provide Germany’s industry with “clean energy from wind and hydropower.”
Eighty percent of the nation’s electricity is expected to come from renewables by 2030, including solar power and both onshore and offshore wind, he added.
Scholz said the two years since the start of the Ukraine conflict have been “turnaround years” for Europe, allowing it to “address the necessary changes” to its energy supply.
The EU aims to completely wean itself off Russian fossil fuels by 2027. Last Friday, however, the bloc’s Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators released a report warning against drastic reductions of imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia.
In 2023, Russia emerged as the EU’s second-biggest LNG supplier after the US, accounting for 16% of the bloc’s imports.
Earlier this month, Reuters cited calculations based on the EU’s trade statistics as showing that Brussels increased natural gas purchases from Russia in 2023.
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Site: LES FEMMES - THE TRUTH
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Site: LifeNews
In December 2022, Congress passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), a pro-life bill that aimed to make the workplace more accessible to pregnant women by requiring employers to provide accommodations to pregnant workers under The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This bill was implemented at the end of June 2023.
The PWFA requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodations to a worker’s known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation will cause the employer an undue hardship.” However, the bill does not define what is considered a “reasonable accommodation,” or what is considered a “related medical condition.”
Although the measure was meant to help and support pregnant women, Biden officials are manipulating it to promote abortion.
As a result, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced a new rule last week that would warp and twist the federal law to impose pro-abortion regulations on virtually every employer in the country, even those whose religious beliefs dictate that life begins at conception.
Now, America’s Catholic bishops are blasting Biden’s new pro-abortion rule, which is set to take effect 60 days from its publication on Friday.
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Responding to the new rule on Friday, Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, Bishop Kevin Rhoades said in a statement that “no employer should be forced to participate in an employee’s decision to end the life of their child.”
“The bipartisan Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, as written, is a pro-life law that protects the security and physical health of pregnant mothers and their preborn children,” Rhoades, the chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, said in the statement.
“It is indefensible for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to twist the law in a way that violates the consciences of pro-life employers by making them facilitate abortions,” the prelate argued.
The USCCB had last year submitted comments on the proposed rule in which the bishops, along with the Catholic University of America, argued that the PWFA “does not require the provision of any benefit for purposes of facilitating an abortion.”
“The intent of the PWFA is to require accommodations for ‘pregnancy,’ ‘childbirth,’ and ‘related medical conditions’ — in other words, to assist pregnant workers and workers giving birth to a child by providing accommodations that would permit them to continue to remain both gainfully employed and healthily pregnant,” the bishops and the school argued in the comments.
“Abortion is neither pregnancy nor childbirth,” they argued. “And it is not ‘related’ to pregnancy or childbirth as those terms are used in the PWFA because it intentionally ends pregnancy and prevents childbirth.”
A leading pro-life legal group also condemned Biden’s pro-abortion rule.
“This rule is just the latest example of the Biden administration abusing its power to advance abortion,” Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Julie Marie Blake told LifeNews.com.
She said, “The new rule seeks to punish the speech of pro-life employers and restrict their hiring practices. The Biden administration and the EEOC don’t have the legal authority to smuggle this illegitimate rule into a law that was created to protect and support women and that had nothing to do with abortion.”
Here’s more on what the Biden administration is doing:
In the case of the PWFA, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was given rulemaking authority. In July, the rules were released, and they directly contradicted the intent of Congress. Not only was “reasonable accommodation” interpreted to include additional paid leave, but the EEOC included abortion in the definition of “related medical conditions.” The PWFA would now essentially require employers to provide medical leave for women to end the life of their child through an abortion.
Such rulemaking directly contradicts the intent of Congress and the pro-life advocacy groups who hoped the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would help mothers choose life.
The bill’s primary Democratic sponsor, Sen. Casey, assured pro-life organizations that the bill was “straightforward … [and would] allow pregnant workers to request reasonable accommodations so that they can continue working safely during pregnancy and upon returning to work after childbirth.”
The bill’s primary Republican sponsor, Sen. Cassidy, echoed those assurances and strongly opposed the EEOC’s actions saying, “These regulations completely disregard legislative intent and attempt to rewrite the law by regulation…The decision to disregard the legislative process to inject a political abortion agenda is illegal and deeply concerning.”
These statements alone should unequivocally eliminate abortion from being considered a pregnancy related medical condition.
It is clear that the intent of Congress in passing the PWFA was to help pregnant mothers have healthy pregnancies and babies, not to expand access to abortion.
The post Catholic Bishops Blast New Biden Rule Forcing Employers to Fund Abortions appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Zero HedgeHead Of Climate Research At Hedge Fund Andurand Expresses Skepticism Over Carbon-Credit BoomTyler Durden Mon, 04/22/2024 - 08:45
The head of climate research at commodities hedge fund firm Andurand Capital Management says now is not the time to bet on a bull market for carbon credits. There is growing pessimism in the voluntary carbon markets amid turmoil within the world's top arbiter of corporate climate targets for allowing controversial carbon credits to offset Scope 3 emissions.
"I don't think you're going to find people stampeding to buy credits to offset their Scope 3 emissions," Andurand's Mark Lewis told Bloomberg in an interview. Scope 3 is emissions not owned or controlled by the reporting organization but released in the supply chain owned by other companies, such as transportation and leased assets. These types of emissions can account for nearly 90% of total emissions, depending on the industry.
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a globally recognized certifier of corporate emissions goals, made an announcement on April 9. This decision, which allowed the use of offsets for Scope 3 emissions, sent shockwaves through the carbon markets. Wind farm companies can now sell carbon offset credits to other companies to offset their pollution, without necessarily reducing their own emissions.
Lewis noted that too many risks remain for companies to dramatically increase their reliance on carbon credits.
Luiz Amaral, the chief executive of SBTi, has taken a nuanced stance on Scope 3 emissions, stating that "not all Scope 3 emissions are created equal." He emphasized the need for "difficult" discussions to determine the most effective course of action, acknowledging the complexity of the issue.
Lewis at Andurand explained any relaxation of rules guiding the use of carbon credits, such as those outlined by SBTi, is "clearly bullish for the voluntary market — at the margin — because clearly it means there are potentially more buyers now than there were before."
But here's the caveat: "I don't think there's a stampede out of the door today to rush into the market," he said.
Furthermore, several multinationals, including Shell, Europe's largest oil company, and the world's number four iron ore producer, Fortescue Metals Group, along with other companies, have quietly shelved or at least reduced carbon offset plans amid mounting concerns carbon offsets are prone to 'greenwashing' and most credits don't actually benefit the climate.
A few years ago, Elon Musk posted on X, "ESG is a scam. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors."
Last year, we noted, "Carbon Credits Are The Biggest Scam Since Indulgences... How You Can Avoid Being Fleeced."
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Site: AsiaNews.itThe island nation exports more than 50 per cent of its tea to Iran, Iraq, and Palestine. Attacks in the Red Sea have already slowed deliveries, but exporters have not noticed major price increases for now. However, as the war continues, small farmers will likely pay a heavy price.
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
Has Donald Trump Worn Down by the Deep State Collapsed?
Mike Whitney Reports
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/trump-sold-out-his-base-to-shovel-95-billion-to-ukraine-and-israel/
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
Increasingly medical studies show that the Covid Vaccinated people suffer higher than normal rates of dangerous and deadly illnesses.
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
Three Medical Studies Prove the Chronic Illnesses of American Children and Adults Are the Consequence of Vaccinations
https://www.globalresearch.ca/do-vaccines-make-us-healthier/5855358
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
Remember the Medical Authorities, “our” government, and our doctor, and our media told us the Covid vaccine was safe and would protect us.
They lied through their teeth.
Epidemic of 15-19 Year Olds Dropping Dead in Schools and Dorms Across USA and Canada in April 2023
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
Tucker Carlson Reports Congress Is Run by the Intelligence Agencies
Having kiddie porn put on their computers is the fear of all who dissent from the police state agenda.
https://www.rt.com/news/596361-tucker-congress-child-porn-blackmail/
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
Tucker Carlson Reports that Congress Is Terrified of the Intel Agencies and Is Unable to Protect Our Liberty
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
The Republicans Again Served the Establishment and Failed the People
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Site: Zero HedgeHow You Know The Joker Is Running Things...Tyler Durden Mon, 04/22/2024 - 08:25
Sheetz Convenience Stores Accused Of Discriminating Against Minority Job Seekers By Refusing To Consider Applicants With Criminal Record
A popular US convenience store chain has been hit with a civil rights lawsuit accusing it of discriminating against minority job seekers because it requires applicants to have no criminal record.
On April 18, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Sheetz Inc., accusing the 24/7 convenience store chain of having discriminatory hiring practices that targeted minority applicants.
According to the lawsuit, Sheetz has maintained a longstanding practice of screening all job applicants for records of criminal conviction and then denying them employment based on those records.
As a result, the EEOC is accusing Sheetz of “disproportionately screening out Black, Native American/Alaska Native and multiracial applicants.”
This is despite the fact that the lawsuit does not allege that Sheetz’s hiring practices were motivated by race.
According to the EEOC press release, Sheetz’s hiring practices violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion and national origin. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Northern Division, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
“Federal law mandates that employment practices causing a disparate impact because of race or other protected classifications must be shown by the employer to be necessary to ensure the safe and efficient performance of the particular jobs at issue,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Debra M. Lawrence.
“Even when such necessity is proven, the practice remains unlawful if there is an alternative practice available that is comparably effective in achieving the employer’s goals but causes less discriminatory effect.”
The EEOC began its probe into Sheetz after two job applicants filed civil rights complaints alleging employment discrimination.
The agency then found that Black job applicants were deemed to have failed the company’s criminal history screening and were denied employment at a rate of 14.5%, while multiracial job seekers were turned away 13.5% of the time and Native Americans were denied at a rate of 13%.
By contrast, fewer than 8% of white applicants were refused employment because of a failed criminal background check, the EEOC’s lawsuit states.
Sheetz is a chain of gas stations and convenience stores primarily located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, particularly in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.
The franchise is most well-known for its customizable food options similar to WaWa, with a number of made-to-order dishes, frozen desserts, and milkshakes available.
We give Elon Musk the last word...
You know The Joker is running things when the law-abiding are being prosecuted by the government for not hiring criminals!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 22, 2024
[Insert Sheetz pun] -
Site: Zero HedgeFutures Rebound As Geopolitical Fears Fade, Fed Enters Blackout PeriodTyler Durden Mon, 04/22/2024 - 08:10
US equity futures rose, putting the S&P on pace for its first gain after 6 straight days of losses, as focus shifted from Middle East tensions to a raft of company earnings this week, including four of the Mag7 tech megacaps which got hammered last week. At 7:40am, S&P emini futures gained about 0.5% after the index recorded its worst week since March 2023; Nasdaq futures were 0.6% higher while Europe was green across the board. Demand for havens eased as traders took comfort from the absence of further escalation from Iran following Israel’s retaliatory strike. A Bloomberg dollar index was steady as geopolitical tensions eased and the Fed entered a blackout period before its May 1 policy decision, while the yield on 10-year US Treasury yields rose three basis points. Oil reversed an earlier slide while gold dropped around 1.4% as demand for haven assets fades.
In premarket trading, Nvidia rebounded almost 3% after the artificial intelligence favorite shed nearly $212 billion of its market capitalization in Friday’s broad tech selloff. Salesforce rose 3.6% after Bloomberg reported that takeover talks with Informatica have cooled. Retail wireless provider Verizon advanced after an earnings beat. On the downside, Tesla, which is set to report earnings on Tuesday, dropped 3% as the automaker’s decision over the weekend to slash prices across its range in China risks sparking another round in the nation’s bruising electric-vehicle price war. Here are some other notable premarket movers:
- Crypto-linked companies rise as Bitcoin’s quadrennial halving completed late on April 19. Bitcoin advocates expect the halving to be a positive catalyst, with the cryptocurrency on the rise for three consecutive days, and currently at $66,044.35. Coinbase (COIN) +2%, Riot Platforms (RIOT) +5%, Marathon Digital (MARA) +4%
- Informatica (INFA) slips 6% after Salesforce’s takeover talks with the data-management company were said to have cooled, with the parties struggling to agree to terms. Meanwhile, Salesforce (CRM) rises 3%.
- Verizon Communications (VZ) rises 2% after beating analysts’ estimates for profit while boosting wireless service revenue.
Even though a military base in Syria belonging to a US-led coalition came under rocket-fire late on Sunday, in the first attacks against US bases in the Middle East since early February, the lack of further escalation between Isreal and Iran eased fears about military conflict in the Middle East accelerating.
“We are seeing a relief rally underway this morning as geopolitical risks subside,” said Kyle Rodda, a senior market analyst at Capital.com in Melbourne. “The move basically squares the ledger now and allows the markets to go back to focus on macroeconomic and corporate fundamentals."
Robust earnings from corporate America are expected to pull the S&P 500 Index out of its latest morass, despite rising concerns about a significant jump in bond yields, according to Bloomberg’s latest Markets Live Pulse survey. Nearly two-thirds of 409 respondents said they expect earnings to give the US equity benchmark a boost. That’s the highest vote of confidence for corporate profits since the poll began asking the question in October 2022.
Profits for the seven biggest growth companies in the S&P 500 — Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon.com Inc., Nvidia Corp., Meta and Tesla — are on course to surge 38% in the first quarter, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. When excluding them, the rest of the benchmark index’s profits are anticipated to shrink by 3.9%.
Traders are also recalibrating their positions after a solid run of US data forced the Fed to reset the clock on its first interest rate cut. Data prints later in the week are likely to help finesse policy bets, with both US growth and the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation due.
In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 gained about 0.4%, recovering some of last week’s slide as retail and personal care sectors leading gains, while automobiles & parts as well as utilities shares are the biggest laggards. Prosus NV shares jumped as much as 5% as Tencent, in which it is a major shareholder, rallied after nailing down an earlier-than-anticipated debut of one of the year’s most eagerly-awaited mobile games. Among other individual movers, Galp Energia SGPS SA surged as much as 19% after the Portuguese oil company provided an update on a commercial oil find off the coast of Namibia. Sandoz Group AG climbed more than 4% to a record after the Swiss pharma company confirmed the European Commission’s approval of its Pyzchiva psoriasis drug. Here are the biggest movers Monday:
- Galp Energia’s shares jumped as much as 21% after the Portuguese oil company said a well test “potentially” indicates Mopane could be an important commercial find in Namibia
- Embracer shares soar as much as 18%, the most since February 2020, after CEO Lars Wingefors unveiled a plan for the Swedish gaming group to split into three listed companies to unlock potential
- Telefonica shares gain as much as 1.6% after JPMorgan resumes coverage with a neutral rating, ending a long-standing underweight call
- Royal Unibrew shares rise as much as 4.1%, adding to last week’s jump, with trading volume almost quadruple the 20-day average for this time of day
- Sandoz shares soar as much as 4.4% and hit a record after the Swiss pharma company confirms the European Commission’s approval of Pyzchiva, a biosimilar value driver for the company, according to Vontobel
- Alstom shares gain as much as 6.7% as analysts cheer the sale of the Signaling North America businesss as a “key step” in debt reduction
- Tyman gains as much as 30% to 385p after Quanex bid at about 400p/share, in a deal seen as attractive by Jefferies
- Dr. Martens shares advance as much as 8.7%, the biggest intraday gain since January 25, after the Mail on Sunday reported that the bootmaker had attracted takeover interest
- RWE shares slide as much as 1.4% after New York ended contract negotiations with three offshore wind developers, including one co-developed by a RWE unit, because the companies couldn’t reach agreements on terms
- Mobico Group shares fall as much as 6.8% after the bus and rail company’s earnings came in lower than hoped, despite having reset expectations less than a month ago
Earlier in the session, Asian stocks rose, with gains in Hong Kong on Beijing’s latest market support measures helping offset declines in tech hardware shares. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed as much as 1.1%, with Tencent and Alibaba among the biggest boosts. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index jumped 1.8%, with notable gains also seen in Japan, Australia and South Korea. Chinese regulators announced five measures to optimize stock connects and bolster Hong Kong’s position as a financial hub. That helped improve sentiment along with the absence of further escalation in the conflict between Israel and Iran. Meanwhile, chip and AI shares declined after Nvidia’s biggest drop in four years drove US stocks lower Friday.
In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is flat while the antipodean currencies top the G-10 FX pile, rising 0.3% versus the greenback respectively. The Australian and New Zealand dollars climbed as fast-money funds continued short-covering that began in London on Friday, according to Asia-based FX traders. There could be temporary relief on the horizon from the recent volatility in currencies as there has already been “a considerable scaling back of Fed rate cut expectations,” according to Paul Mackel, global head of FX strategy at HSBC Holdings Plc. “It is hard to think Friday’s US PCE data will change this picture much,” he wrote in a note to clients.
In rates, Treasuries are slightly cheaper across the curve, following similar losses across European rates as demand for haven assets fades in the absence of major escalation in Middle East conflict. Meanwhile, investors are looking ahead to a heavy slate of Treasury and corporate new-issue supply this week. US long-end yields are higher by as much as 3.5bp on the day, with 2s10s and 5s30s spreads steeper by 2.4bp and 1.2bp as front-end outperforms; 10-year around 4.66% is 4bp cheaper on the day with bunds lagging by additional 1bp in the sector.
A hefty slate of Treasuries auctions will be a major test of whether yields have peaked for the year. Higher-than-expected interest rates amid persistent inflation are perceived as the biggest threat to financial stability among market participants and observers, the Fed said in its semiannual Financial Stability Report published Friday.
In commodities, Brent fell 0.6% to trade near $86.70 while spot gold falls 1.8% to around $2,342/oz. Treasuries dip as investors look ahead to a hefty slate of auctions. US 10-year yields rise 3bps to 4.65%. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is flat while the antipodean currencies top the G-10 FX pile, rising 0.3% versus the greenback respectively. Bitcoin rises 2%.
Bitcoin climbs higher post-halving and now holds just above USD 66k; Ethereum also firmer and back at 3.2k.
Looking at today's calendar, US economic data slate includes March Chicago Fed national activity index at 8:30am; ahead this week are April preliminary PMIs, March new home sales and durable goods orders, first estimate of 1Q GDP, and March personal income and spending (with PCE deflator). Fed members have entered quiet period ahead of May 1 policy announcement.
Market Snapshot
- S&P 500 futures up 0.6% to 5,032.50
- STOXX Europe 600 up 0.2% to 500.52
- MXAP up 1.0% to 169.02
- MXAPJ up 0.8% to 518.96
- Nikkei up 1.0% to 37,438.61
- Topix up 1.4% to 2,662.46
- Hang Seng Index up 1.8% to 16,511.69
- Shanghai Composite down 0.7% to 3,044.60
- Sensex up 0.5% to 73,490.15
- Australia S&P/ASX 200 up 1.1% to 7,649.16
- Kospi up 1.4% to 2,629.44
- German 10Y yield little changed at 2.52%
- Euro little changed at $1.0653
- Brent Futures down 1.5% to $85.99/bbl
- Gold spot down 1.4% to $2,359.10
- US Dollar Index little changed at 106.13
Top Overnight News
- Blinken will travel to China on Apr 24-26 and plans to warn Beijing the US will take punitive steps unless weapons-related shipments to Russia are halted. FT
- China’s state fund Central Huijin purchased ~$41B worth of stocks in Q1 as part of a government-coordinated campaign to bolster the country’s equities market. RTRS
- SNB increases the minimum reserve requirement for banks from 2.5% to 4%, a move aimed at reducing the amount of money the central bank has to pay out to lenders. BBG
- Israel had planned a much larger counterstrike against Iran last week, but dialed back the mission in part because of pressure from the US and other allies. NYT
- Iran continues to significantly downplay the Israeli strike from Thurs night/Fri morning, the latest sign of Tehran’s desire to deescalate tensions in the region. WaPo
- Paris apartment rental demand for the upcoming Olympics has been sluggish, disappointing owners hoping for a large boost around the games. FT
- TSLA slashed prices on vehicles and FSD (full self-driving) software over the weekend as the company aims to bolster sales amid myriad pressures. BBG
- The UAW scored a major win when workers at VW’s Tennessee factory voted to join the union (this is the first time a southern plant outside of GM/Ford/Chrysler has been organized), and the group is hoping for similar success at a Mercedes plant next month. NYT
- Trump’s national lead over Biden head-to-head cut to two points in a new NBC poll, down from 5 points in Jan, and Biden actually pulls ahead by 2 points if Kennedy is included (as RFK Jr captures more from Trump than Biden). NBC News
A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk
APAC stocks were mostly positive following the lack of any major geopolitical escalations over the weekend. ASX 200 was underpinned amid gains in nearly all sectors and with the advances initially led by outperformance mining stocks as copper prices approached closer to the USD 10,000/ton level and with firm gains in South32 following its quarterly output update.Nikkei 225 gained but is well off intraday highs after the index briefly wiped out all its earlier spoils before recovering again with price action choppy after last Friday's comments from BoJ Governor Ueda who suggested a hike is very likely if underlying inflation increases.Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp. were mixed in which the latter outperformed with strength in biopharma, tech and consumer stocks front-running the gains in the index. Conversely, the mainland lagged amid US-China frictions after the US House passed a bill that could lead to a total TikTok ban, while China's benchmark Loan Prime Rates were maintained at their current levels, as expected.
Top Asian News
- US Secretary of State Blinken will visit China on April 24th-26th to meet officials in Shanghai and Beijing, while Blinken will be joined by top State Department official for Asia Kritenbrink, top narcotics official Robinson and cyberspace and digital policy ambassador Fick. Furthermore, a US official said Blinken will express US intent to have China curtail its support for Russia’s defence industrial base and it was also stated that the US is prepared to take steps against firms acting against US interests, according to Reuters.
- BoJ Governor Ueda said the BoJ will reduce JGB purchases at an unspecified time in the future but the extent of the reduction remains undetermined, while he reiterated to expect accommodative financial conditions to continue for the time being and that they need to take time to consider what to do with their ETF holdings. Ueda said the weighted average of medium and long-term inflation expectations indicates a rising trend but remains slightly below 2% and noted that raising interest rates is very likely if underlying inflation increases. Furthermore, he said the BoJ will proceed cautiously and is watching wages and will see the effect of possible wage increases on prices, especially service prices, while he added that they may change the short-term policy rate depending on the incoming data.
- Earthquake has been felt in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, according to witnesses cited by Reuters; reports suggest it could be a 4.2 magnitude earthquake.
European bourses are mixed, Stoxx 600 (+0.2%), having initially opened with a clear positive bias. In catalyst-thin trade, equities have ebbed lower, and off best levels, though generally hold a positive bias. European sectors are mostly positive; Retail is found at the top of the pile after Jefferies upgraded several Cos from within the sector. Autos are the clear underperformer, after Tesla (-3.2% pre-market) cut prices for some of its models, as such, European peers are suffering. US Equity Futures (ES +0.4%, NQ +0.5%, RTY +0.6%) are entirely in the green, with the NQ and ES attempting to pare back some of the hefty losses seen in the prior session. Elsewhere, UBS downgraded Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT) and Nvidia (NVDA) to Neutral from Overweight
Top European News
- UK government rejected an EU proposal to negotiate a post-Brexit deal to relax travel and allow young adults to move across the Channel more easily, according to Bloomberg.
- UK Chancellor Hunt is reportedly considering lowering stamp duty in his final autumn statement before the general election, according to The Times; the threshold at which homebuyers pay stamp duty from GBP 250l to GBP 300k.
- S&P affirmed Greece at BBB-/A-3; Outlook revised to Positive on ongoing debt stock reduction.
- ECB governors reportedly fear that publishing rate forecasts, or Fed-style "dot plot", would invite pressure from governments to gauge if the ECB was serving its domestic agenda, according to Reuters sources. A few governors are open to discussing the proposal at the next review due to start next year.
- The Swiss National Bank is raising the minimum reserve requirement for domestic banks from 2.5% to 4%, and to this end is amending the National Bank Ordinance as of 1 July 2024; will not affect the current monetary policy stance.
FX
- Mixed performance for the USD; softer vs. risk-sensitive peers but faring better vs. traditional havens. DXY has been able to hold above the 106 mark and stick within Friday's 105.84-106.34 parameters.
- EUR is flat vs. the USD with the pair pivoting around the 1.0650 mark and respecting Friday's 1.0610-1.0677 range.
- JPY is steady vs. the USD with comments from BoJ Governor Ueda overnight unable to help the Yen gain ground against the Dollar. As such, USD/JPY continues to eye the multi-year peak at 154.78.
- Antipodeans are both firmer vs. the USD amid the more favourable risk environment. AUD/USD has gained a firmer footing above the 0.64 mark, advancing to a high of 0.6455 after printing a YTD low at 0.6362 on Friday.
- SNB’s Jordan said it is very important that monetary policy remains geared towards price stability rather than being used to finance debt, otherwise it will not end well, while he added that structural reforms are needed to increase competitiveness so that growth can increase which is one of the biggest challenges, according to Reuters.
Fixed Income
- USTs have been contained within a 107.25-17+ range, given the lack of geopolitical escalations over the weekend. From a yield perspective, 4.696% remains the recent peak for the US 10-year with a current level of circa 4.65%.
- Bund price action has followed USTs; the benchmark hit a fresh YTD trough earlier in the session at 130.64, before scaling back losses. German 10-year yield now at levels not seen since last November, and eyes 2.55%.
- Gilts are leading peers as the fallout from dovish comments by BoE Deputy Governor Ramsden continues to reverberate around the market with the central banker confident that inflation is returning to target; Gilts are trading on either side of 97.00 mark with a session high of 97.13 eclipsing Friday's peak at 97.05.
Commodities
- Crude is softer but off worst levels as a lack of major geopolitical escalations over the weekend unwinds geopolitical premium in the complex. Brent Jun'24 slipped from a USD 87.15/bbl high to a USD 85.79/bbl intraday trough before trimming overnight losses.
- The geopolitical unwind is also reflected in precious metals prices amid a lack of escalation over the weekend; XAU declined from a USD 2,392/oz high to a USD 2,351.60/oz intraday low.
- Mixed trade across base metals within relatively tight ranges, in fitting with the price action seen in the greenback.
- UBS said it is targeting an increase in Brent to USD 91/bbl by mid-year; continues to see the oil market as being undersupplied.
- Nornickel said the Co. plans to gain access to Chinese battery technology and produce them in Russia
- Chile imposed temporary anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese steel products used in mining to support the local industry, according to Bloomberg.
Geopolitics: Middle East
- "Another attack on US forces in the region in the last hours, now on Al Assad base in Iraq", according to Walla News' Elster.
- Iran said nuclear weapons have no place in its nuclear doctrine.
- An explosion at a military base in Iraq used by the pro-Iranian militant group Iraqi Mobilization Forces south of Baghdad killed one person and wounded eight people, while the explosion was said to have been caused by an unknown air attack although Iraq’s military reported there were no drones or fighter jets in the area, according to Reuters.
- Five rockets were fired from the northern Iraqi town of Mosul towards a US military base inside of Syria, according to two security sources cited by Reuters. Furthermore, a US official said a coalition fighter destroyed a launcher in self-defence after reports of a failed rocket attack near the coalition base at Rumalyn, Syria.
- Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said it downed a drone that was attacking locations in southern Lebanon. It was separately reported that Hezbollah targeted two buildings used by enemy soldiers in the settlement of Metula and achieved a direct hit.
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei thanked the Revolutionary Guards for the April 13th attack on Israel and said the key issue is how Iran displayed its power in attacking Israel not how many missiles were launched or hit their target, while he called on Iranian armed forces to ceaselessly pursue military innovation and learn the ‘enemy’s tactics’, according to state media.
- Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah announced a resumption of operations against US forces citing a lack of progress on US troop withdrawal during the Iraqi PM's Washington visit.
- US is expected to sanction an IDF unit for human rights violations in the West Bank, while Israeli Defence Minister Gallant spoke with US Secretary of State Blinken and urged the US to reconsider the decision to sanction the IDF, according to Axios.
- US State Department said Secretary of State Blinken discussed with Israel's Gantz the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of detainees, according to Reuters.
- German Chancellor Scholz had a telephone call with Israeli PM Netanyahu and stressed the importance of avoiding escalation of regional hostilities, while Scholz explained the decision of the EU to impose further sanctions against Iran, according to Reuters.
- Turkish President Erdogan discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza with Hamas leader Haniyeh during a meeting in Istanbul, according to Reuters.
- Palestinian Authority President Abbas said they will reconsider bilateral relations with the US after its veto against the Palestinian bid for UN membership, according to Reuters.
Geopolitics: Other
- US House passed a USD 95bln aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, while the bills include legislation on TikTok that would force it to be sold or face a national ban in the US, according to Reuters.
- Ukrainian President Zelensky US aid will send a signal that it will not be a second Afghanistan and that the US will stay with Ukraine, while he said Ukraine will have a chance for victory and needs long-range weapons not to lose people on the front line. Furthermore, he responded that Ukraine is preparing when asked about a possible major offensive by Russia, according to Reuters.
- Ukraine sources said a large-scale drone attack was conducted against Russia which targeted energy facilities that support Russian military-industrial production in which at least three power substations and a fuel depot were hit in the attack, according to Reuters.
- Kremlin spokesman Peskov said the House passage of the Ukraine bill will make the US richer and further ruin Ukraine, resulting in more deaths, while he added the bill’s provision on confiscation of Russian assets will tarnish the image of the US and that Russia will take measures in response, according to Reuters.
- Russian Foreign Ministry said the US is using Ukrainians as cannon fodder and is fighting a hybrid war against Russia, while it added that deeper US immersion in a hybrid war against Russia will turn into a fiasco like its wars in Vietnam or Afghanistan, according to Reuters. In relevant news, the Russian Defence Ministry said Russia took full control over Bohdanivka in the Donetsk region, according to IFAX.
- China’s Foreign Ministry said any attempt to provoke camp confrontation in the South Pacific region does not serve the urgent needs of South Pacific island countries and the region should not become an arena for a major power rivalry, according to Reuters.
- North Korea said it conducted a test firing of missiles on Friday.
- North Korea fired would could be a ballistic missile on Monday, via Japanese Government; missile flew towards the sea off the East coast, according to South Korean military; missile believed to have fallen outside of Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
- Poland is "ready" to have nuclear weapons on its territory, according to the President cited by AFP. Russia's Kremlin on reports Poland is ready to host US nuclear weapons, said "our military will analyst this and take the necessary steps".
US Event Calendar
- 08:30: March Chicago Fed Nat Activity Index, est. 0.09, prior 0.05
DB's Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap
It's a bit of a messy picture for markets at the moment with huge uncertainty around events in the Middle East, US tech seeing its biggest sell-off for around 18 months, and with yields climbing as rate cuts gets increasingly pushed out. The lack of further escalations in tensions over the weekend in the Iran and Israel situation is helping Asia get off to a better start this morning though.
In terms of this week, we’ll have to wait for Friday for the main macro event namely the US core PCE print within the income and spending report. Our economists expect the core PCE deflator to come in at +0.30% vs. +0.26% last month. This would drop the YoY rate to 2.7% but within a whisker of rounding up to 2.8%, a level that both Chair Powell and Vice Chair Jefferson suggested that the Fed staff’s estimate had pencilled in.
In equity markets all eyes will be on earnings with a whopping 178 of the S&P 500 reporting including four of the Magnificent Seven namely Tesla (after Tuesday’s close), Microsoft, Alphabet (Thursday) and Meta (Wednesday). The final three are the 1st, 4th and 6th largest S&P 500 firms by market cap and make up nearly 14% of its market cap. Tesla is down -41% YTD and under a lot of pressure so it’s an important release for them. This all comes off the back of the worst week for the S&P 500 (-3.05%) since the US regional banking stress last March, and the worst week for the Nasdaq 100 (-5.36%) and the Magnificent Seven (-7.73%) since November 2022. A -3.47% decline on Friday marked a sixth day of consecutive losses for the Mag-7.
With three consecutive weeks of losses, the longest such streak since last September, the S&P 500 is now -5.5% from its recent peak. The VIX volatility index rose +1.4 points (and +0.7 points on Friday) to 18.71, to its highest weekly close since last October.
Nvidia (which doesn't report for another month) fell exactly -10% on Friday (-13.59% on the week), contributing around half of the -0.88% loss in the S&P 500 on Friday, and is now down -25% from its highs on 25 March. One catalyst appeared to be their hardware partner Super Micro Computer announcing its earnings date (April 30th) but without preliminary guidance as they have previously tended to do. They fell -23.1%. Everything else related to chips and AI also got stung with Advanced Micro Devices dropping -5.4%, and Arm Holdings -16.9% to 87.19 as examples. By contrast, the Dow Jones index was largely resilient last week, up +0.56% on Friday and flat (+0.01%) over the week. The Europe STOXX 600 also suffered in the risk-off environment but outperformed the tech heavy US market, falling -1.18% (and -0.08% on Friday).
Bonds did not benefit much from the risk-off tone, as markets became more sceptical about US rate cuts. Investors dialled back the number of rate cuts expected by year-end by +7.6bps to 39bps (+0.2bps on Friday). Off the back of this, 2yr Treasury yields jumped +8.8bps last week (unchanged on Friday). The story was similar for 10yr Treasury yields, which rose +9.9bps on the week to 4.62%, though they fell -1.2bps on Friday as markets sought haven assets. In Asia this morning they are back up +3.9bps to 4.66%. In Europe, 10yr bund yields were up +14.1bps on the week (+0.3bps on Friday), reaching the 2.50% level for the first time since November.
In commodities, oil prices initially surged following the news of a retaliatory Israeli missile strike against Iran on Friday, before unwinding most of the gains as details emerged suggesting no further imminent escalation. Brent crude fell -3.49% last week to $87.29/bbl (+0.21% on Friday), and WTI slipped -2.94% to $83.14/bbl (and +0.50% on Friday), also weighed down by stronger US crude inventories data earlier in the week. This morning in Asia, Brent futures are lower again, trading -0.62% as I type.
On the other hand, gold continued its ascent to another record high, rising +2.03% to $2392/oz (and +0.16% on Friday). It's losing a bit of safe haven demand this morning though (-0.9%). Ahead of its major halving event on Saturday, Bitcoin rose +0.72% to $64,034 on Friday after a volatile week. It is up at $64,800 this morning. For more detail on the halving, see here.
In Asia the Hang Seng (+1.67%) is outperforming following a regulatory boost as China’s market regulator pledged support to bolster Hong Kong’s status as a financial hub. Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 (+0.87%), the KOSPI (+0.77%) and the Nikkei (+0.72%) are also edging higher. Meanwhile, Chinese stocks are bucking the trend (down around a quarter to a half percent), after the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) kept the loan prime rates steady. Outside of Asia, S&P 500 (+0.26%) and NASDAQ 100 (+0.36%) futures are trading higher.
Overnight, French central bank chief Francois Villeroy de Galhau stated in an interview that Middle East tension are unlikely to drive up energy prices and should not derail the ECB plans to start cutting interest rates in June.
Coming back to this week, the other main highlights by day are the global flash PMIs and US new home sales tomorrow, US durable goods and the German IFO (Wednesday), and US GDP and pending home sales (Thursday). Alongside the core US PCE print, Friday also sees the latest BoJ meeting and Tokyo CPI. Our Japan economist previews the BoJ here and expects no change in their monetary policy stance. However, he forecasts that the BoJ will remove its JGB purchasing guidelines from its statement or revise them to make its purchasing operations more flexible. He also sees the central bank raising its inflation forecast for FY24 amid the strong wage growth data already available as of the March meeting. Elsewhere, the Fed is now on its pre-FOMC media blackout but the ECB speakers will be in full force as you'll see in the week ahead calendar at the end, alongside all the main earnings and macro highlights. 112 Stoxx 600 companies will report this week alongside the 178 for the S&P 500 we mentioned above.
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Site: Rorate CaeliBeing a Catholic in 2024 is no easy endeavour. The West is undergoing a massive de-Christianization, so much so that Catholicism appears to be vanishing from the public sphere. Elsewhere, the number of Christians being persecuted for their faith is on the rise. What’s more, the Church has been struck by an internal crisis that manifests itself in a decline in religious practice, a downswing in New Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04118576661605931910noreply@blogger.com
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Site: Novus Motus LiturgicusNLM is grateful to S.K., a seminarian from the Midwest, for sharing this recent paper with us. – PAKJordan River as it runs through northern Israel“Aquae Sanctae Terrae”: The Spiritual Signification of the Waters of the Holy LandPart 1: The Jordan’s Sources and Lake HulaIntroduction In the Fourth Book of Kings, Naaman the Syrian, derides the Jordan River when Elisha tells him to wash in it. He Peter Kwasniewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02068005370670549612noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: southern orders
It is the destruction of the pre Vatican II churches and Mass for a sterile, dumbed down Mass and sanctuary!
Sacred Heart Toledo before:
And after:
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Site: RT - News
Moscow has previously warned that such a move would undermine “the legal foundations of European and international law”
The EU is “close to a political agreement” on seizing the profits generated by Russia’s central bank reserves that remain frozen in connection with Ukraine-related sanctions, Belgian Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem said on Sunday.
The West immobilized around $300 billion in assets belonging to the Russian central bank following the start of hostilities in February 2022, a move denounced by Moscow as “theft.” Around $280 billion of this sum is held in the EU, primarily in the Belgium-based depositary and clearing house Euroclear.
While the US and UK have called for outright seizure of those funds, numerous reports suggest that EU countries are taking a more cautious approach, citing the lack of a legal basis for such a drastic move as well as fears of Russian retaliation.
Meanwhile, EU officials have been mulling a plan to apply a windfall tax on the profits generated by the assets. According to Eurostat, the reserves frozen in the EU generated €4.4 billion ($4.7 billion) in interest income in 2023 alone. In March, a senior EU official projected, as quoted by Reuters, that €15-20 billion ($16-21 billion) would be generated in after-tax profits by 2027.
Read more
EU poised to destroy international law – Kremlin
The same month, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, proposed handing over 90% of those profits to the European Peace Facility to be used for procurement of arms for Ukraine. The rest would be transferred to EU budgets to support Kiev’s defense industry.
Now, according to Peteghem, EU nations appear to be close to finding common ground on this plan. The minister said, as quoted by Bloomberg, that the first tax collection could take place as early as July 1.
However, Politico reported last month that Hungary, Slovakia, Malta, and Luxembourg have challenged the idea of using the funds to aid Ukraine. While the first two countries are opposed to procuring weapons for Kiev altogether, the latter two have reportedly voiced misgivings about not being consulted on such a far-reaching plan.
Moscow has vehemently denounced the West’s push to use its immobilized funds to support Ukraine. Commenting on Borrell’s proposal last month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that it could destroy “the legal foundations of European and international law.”
He also noted that transferring the Russian funds to Kiev would tarnish the bloc’s image and cautioned that those advancing the EU’s plan “will be subject to legal prosecution for many decades to come.”
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Site: RT - News
A bill that would force China’s ByteDance to divest ownership of the popular app has been passed by the House of Representatives
TikTok is reportedly planning to legally challenge the US government if it passes a law that would require the app’s Chinese parent company to divest its ownership or face a complete ban of the platform, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
Over the weekend, the US House of Representatives tied the bill that could see TikTok banned to an emergency bill providing aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The legislation ultimately passed by a vote of 360 to 58. If approved by the Senate, the app’s Chinese owner ByteDance would have nine months to sell its business or have it barred from US app stores.
“This is an unprecedented deal worked out between the Republican speaker and President Biden,” Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s head of public policy for the Americas, told the company’s US staff in a memo seen by Bloomberg.
“At the stage that the bill is signed, we will move to the courts for a legal challenge,” he reportedly wrote.
Beckerman had previously insisted that the divest-or-ban demands on TikTok were a violation of the First Amendment rights of the app’s 170 million users in the US and that such legislation, if passed, would have “devastating consequences” for the nearly 7 million businesses using the platform.
“This is the beginning, not the end of this long process,” the executive said in Saturday’s memo, vowing to “continue to fight.”
China has also blasted the efforts to ban TikTok in the US, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin arguing that such a step would violate international trade rules.
“[The bill] runs contrary to the principles of fair competition and international economic and trade rules,” Wang said last month, accusing the US of “bullying behavior” and of “leveraging state power” against ByteDance.
Read more
Beijing slams proposed US TikTok ban as ‘bandit logic’
“When someone sees a good thing another person has and tries to take it for themselves, this is entirely the logic of a bandit,” he said.
A number of American lawmakers have insisted for years that TikTok poses a “national security threat” due to its Chinese ownership, and have insisted on forcing it to sever ties with its parent company ByteDance.
However, some in the US Congress have opposed the legislation targeting the Chinese app, with Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky arguing that the “cure” presented in the bill is “worse than the disease,” as it would give the White House the power to ban other websites and apps.
Billionaire and owner of X (formerly Twitter) Elon Musk has warned that the bill is “about censorship and government control,” while the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has denounced the legislation as “violating the free speech rights of millions of Americans” who use the platform daily.
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Site: Mises InstitutePeople have come to believe that only the state is morally qualified to create and maintain a system of justice. However, given that the state itself acts unjustly, perhaps it is time to look outside of the state.
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Site: Zero HedgeThe Three Oil And Gas Stocks Most Sensitive To Oil Price SwingsTyler Durden Mon, 04/22/2024 - 06:30
By Alex Kimani of OilPrice
Following a strong rally amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, oil prices have pulled back sharply in the current week as demand worries outweigh geopolitical concerns. WTI crude for May delivery has declined 5.1% from the Friday close to trade at $83.15 per barrel while Brent crude June contract has retreated 4.9% to change hands at $87.50, marking the first time it has slipped under $90 in more than a week.
However, several commodity analysts believe the markets are unduly discounting the risk of a full-blown war between Iran and Israel. According to Standard Chartered, Iran’s revised position is that any future attacks on Iranian interests anywhere will draw significant retaliation, with the IRGC seizure of a cargo ship on 13 April intended as a related signal of Iran’s ability to influence regional shipping flows. StanChart has warned that the market is understating the risk of further escalation due to miscalculation, miscommunication or other human error. Meanwhile, oil prices have declined after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson lined up four bills providing assistance to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific. Bank of America estimates that an all-out war between the two countries could lead to a $30-$40 spike in the price of crude.
"The market was waiting to sell off on indications of calming of tensions in the Middle East ... progress on these bills and a three-day delay in Israel's response to Iran is helping today," John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC, told CNBC.
"We're leaving our price forecasts unchanged for now and still expect ICE Brent to average US$96 over the second half of this year. The macro outlook continues to be a more important driver for prices than fundamentals at the moment," analysts at ING have said.
Bank of America has analyzed stocks in the MSCI AC World Index (ACWI) Energy, Materials and Industrials sectors for oil price sensitivity. BofA defines Oil Price Sensitivity for each stock as the regression coefficient from regressing 60 months of monthly price returns against the 3-month change in the Oil Price - Brent Crude. Here are 3 of the most sensitive oil and gas stocks to oil price changes.
APA Corp.
Market Cap: $12.1B
12-Month Returns: -17.9%
APA Corp. (NASDAQ:APA) is an independent energy company. It explores, develops and produces natural gas, crude oil and natural gas liquids. At a time when the oil sector has been rallying, APA stock has managed to decline nearly 20% over the past 12 months, and was the most shorted energy name in March.
That said, back in January, Fitch affirmed its 'BBB- credit rating for APA Corp, saying, “The $4.5 billion acquisition of Permian pure play Callon Petroleum should improve APA Corp's business profile by adding scale to the company's Permian operations. Callon will contribute 145k net acres in the Permian, split between the Delaware (82%) and Midland basins (18%), with Delaware acreage primarily in Ward, Reeves, and Winkler counties. The acquisition also adds 102kboepd of Permian production, boosting APA's pro forma size by around one-quarter to over 500kboepd, and increasing its portfolio tilt towards the U.S.’’
Further, APA holds a 50% stake in Suriname’s Block 58 alongside operator TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE). Block 58. The block has been compared to the Guyana-Suriname basin, with analysts comparing it to Exxon Mobil”s (NYSE:XOM) Liza find in the Stabroek Block.
Marathon Oil Corp.
Market Cap: $15.8B
12-Month Returns: 11.2%
Marathon Oil Corp. operates the United State's largest refining system, with 3 million barrels per calendar day of crude oil refining capacity across 13 refineries. Recently, equity analysts at Goldman Sachs, headed by Jenny Ma, picked MRO amongst a basket of stocks expected to benefit from high operating leverage, adding that companies with a high degree of operating leverage can generate more sales without increasing their costs. MRO has an operating leverage of 6.9.
However, JPMorgan has picked MRO stock thanks to an attractive call overwriting opportunity,
“The call overwriting signal will be triggered if the sell signals are greater than the buy signal, and if the volume richness signals are greater than the cheapness signals,” they said.
Targa Resources Corp.
Market Cap: $25.0B
12-Month Returns: 45.6%
Texas-based Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE:TRGP) owns general and limited partner interests in a limited partnership that provides midstream natural gas and natural gas liquid services. The company gathers, compresses, treats, processes, and sells natural gas. On Tuesday, TRGP was one of the stocks that earned a Buy recommendation from Goldman Sachs thanks to a strong return on equity (or ROE).
“Stronger-than-expected economic growth represents the clearest upside risk to ROE. [It] would create upside to asset turnover through faster sales growth and to profit margins through operating leverage. Stronger growth has recently coincided with hotter-than-expected inflation, however,” wrote GS analyst David J. Kostin. “
GS estimates that Targa Resources will be able to grow its ROE by 17% in the current year.
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Site: RT - News
The apparent short-range weapons test comes days after Pyongyang claimed a successful trial of a new cruise missile warhead
North Korea launched several ballistic missiles into the sea on Monday, according to officials in South Korea and Japan.
Several projectiles that appeared to be short-range ballistic missiles were fired towards the Sea of Japan from the vicinity of Pyongyang and flew roughly 300km before splashing down, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported. The military branded the incident “a clear provocation” threatening stability and security on the Korean Peninsula.
The Japanese Defense Ministry likewise reported a ballistic missile fired from North Korea and landing off the coast outside of the country’s exclusive economic zone. The Coast Guard said it detected no damage, while the office of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida promised further updates, after analysis of available information is complete.
Read more
North Korea fires new type of ballistic missile – Seoul
According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, it was the fourth ballistic missile test by North Korea this year. In early April, Pyongyang fired what is believed to be a new type of a solid-propellant intermediate-range projectile that can potentially deploy a hypersonic glide vehicle. North Korean state media touted the new platform in mid-March.
Last Friday, Pyongyang reported testing a new type of warhead for a cruise missile and a new anti-aircraft weapon.
In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced a major policy shift when he stated that his government is no longer seeking peaceful reunification with the South, a goal that he described as misguided. He said that since Seoul considers itself an enemy of Pyongyang, the peoples governed by the two governments cannot be treated as separated parts of the same nation.
READ MORE: US House speaker announces ‘new axis of evil’
The North says it needs advanced weapons systems to protect itself from a possible invasion by the US and its regional allies, including South Korea and Japan.
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Site: RT - News
Numerous districts are struggling with overstretched resources, the head of a local councils’ association has said
Communities across Germany cannot take in more refugees, particularly those arriving from Ukraine, the president of a local councils’ association has told the Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung newspaper.
Germany hosts an estimated 1.15 million Ukrainian refugees, the largest number in Europe, followed by Poland, the Czech Republic, and the UK, according to figures from the UN Refugee Agency dated from last month.
While roughly two-thirds of Ukrainian refugees are employed in Poland and the Czech Republic, that number stands at only 20% in Germany, Deutsche Welle reported earlier this year.
In an interview with Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung on Saturday, local councils’ association president Reinhard Sager, who is also a member of the opposition Christian Democratic Union party, warned that a “number of districts and communities are overstretched by legal and illegal migration.”
“The integration of all the people is no longer possible,” he added.
Read more
EU country’s huge bill for Ukrainian refugees’ pets revealed – media
Sager pointed out that the federal government has slashed funding for municipalities which are faced with formidable costs associated with migrant and refugee accommodation. “If the number of refugees doesn’t quickly decrease noticeably and enduringly, the problems will become ever bigger, and they will come back to bite,” Sager predicted. This could lead to growing support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) party, he claimed.
Sager demanded that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government abolish the so-called citizen’s benefits currently granted to Ukrainian refugees, echoing statements made earlier this year by Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soder. At present, Ukrainian nationals in Germany are entitled to more than €500 ($545) a month, and children between €357 and €471. This level of assistance is higher than the support provided to other categories of asylum seekers and refugees.
“With all due solidarity, we pose the question to Ukraine whether so many people from the country attacked by Russia must come to us,” Sager stated. He emphasized that the southern German region of Baden-Wuerttemberg alone hosts twice as many Ukrainian refugees as France. Refugee camps could instead be established in western Ukraine, or Poland might be willing to take in more people with the EU’s support, Sager suggested.
According to a poll in February, nearly 50% of respondents said the German government was giving Ukrainian refugees “too much support,” while more than half believed that efforts to integrate newcomers had failed.
Another survey conducted on behalf of the broadcaster ZDF earlier this month showed that less than half of Germans want their government to send more military aid to Ukraine. A poll commissioned by FOCUS magazine last month revealed that 53% of respondents backed Pope Francis’ call for Ukraine to engage in peace negotiations with Russia without any preconditions.
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Site: Zero HedgeCommercial Real Estate Foreclosures Soar To Levels Not Seen In Nearly A DecadeTyler Durden Mon, 04/22/2024 - 05:45
Larger cracks are appearing in the US commercial real estate market at a time when uncertainty around the regional bank industry flashes red.
The latest report from real estate data provider ATTOM shows CRE foreclosures topped 625 in March, up 6% from February and 117% from the same period last year.
ATTOM has been tracking commercial foreclosures since 2014. The number of foreclosures is approaching the peak of 889 in October 2014.
"California began experiencing a notable rise in commercial foreclosures in November 2023, surpassing 100 cases and continuing to escalate thereafter," the report said.
New York, Florida, Texas, and New Jersey also showed increases in CRE foreclosures last month.
Regional banks provide a bulk of the financing for the space. The ongoing mess in the lending space due to tighter conditions adds pressure to the CRE downturn. Banks are expected to set aside more money to cover potential CRE losses.
Last month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified on Capitol Hill, "We have identified the banks that have high commercial real estate concentrations, particularly office and retail and other ones that have been affected a lot," adding, "This is a problem that we'll be working on for years more, I'm sure. There will be bank failures, but not the big banks."
Data from a recent Treasury Department's Financial Stability Oversight Council warned office vacancy rates have climbed sharply in recent years, reaching a record of 13.1% at the end of 2023.
CoStar analyst Phil Mobley recently noted the "reset in office demand has rocked US markets."
Morgan Stanley warned earlier this year that office prices could plunge 30% due to sliding demand.
With sliding demand comes a massive amount of supply. Morgan Stanley pointed out that most of the oversupply is in offices and apartments.
Source: Morgan Stanley
For those wondering why the excess supply of office towers can't be converted into affordable housing, Goldman also noted that prices must drop 50% for housing conversions to make sense.
Powell has a rolling crisis on his hands. And the goal is to save the fireworks for after the election.
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Site: AsiaNews.itNot only Gaza and the war in Ukraine: the global arms race is also driven by Chinese pressure on Taiwan.. The 6.8% growth represents "the highest year-on-year growth since 2009". China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia among the world's top five with the United States. Beijing's investments are affecting the other Asia-Pacific nations, especially Japan and Taiwan. Israel recorded an increase of 24%.
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Site: AsiaNews.itIn the state shaken by ethnic conflict for a year now, even the vote for the federal parliament has become an occasion for confrontation with assaults and accusations of fraud against the local government led by the BJP. Extraordinary re-opening of the polls today in 11 polling stations. In tribal-inhabited areas, many polling stations remained completely deserted in protest.
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Site: Voltaire NetworkDespite the Israeli propaganda campaign to persuade Western media that the Iranian response didn't cause any damage, the truth is emerging. Tehran did not seek to attack the Israeli civilian population, but to test the IDF defenses. For the first time, it used hypersonic missiles that neither Israel's allies nor its own army were able to intercept.
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Site: Fr Hunwicke's Mutual EnrichmentMany people will know that Oxford has three terms (Michaelmas; Hilary; Trinity); each of them contains eight weeks of "Full Term", in which undergraduates are expected to be resident. Each week is a Sunday-Saturday week, and is known as First week ... etc.. Increasingly, Colleges expect undergraduates to come back before First Week so as to get geared up and write Collection Papers to prove that Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com6
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Site: RT - News
Papua New Guinea’s prime minister has downplayed the US president’s comments on his uncle’s presumed death in the country
US President Joe Biden’s recent remarks in which he implied that his uncle was eaten by cannibals in Papua New Guinea during World War II were uncalled for, the prime minister of the Southwest Pacific nation has said.
Last Wednesday, Biden recounted the story of Ambrose Finnegan, his mother’s brother, who is recorded by the US military as missing in action off New Guinea, after a plane he was on crashed in the Pacific Ocean, leaving only one survivor. According to the president, his uncle’s plane was shot down and his body was never found because “there were a lot of cannibals − for real − in that part of New Guinea.”
“Sometimes you have loose moments,” Prime Minister James Marape said in an interview on Sunday, reacting to Biden’s remarks. He added that he has met with the US leader on four different occasions, and “he’s always had warm regards for Papua New Guinea” and never mentioned cannibalism.
”President Biden’s remarks may have been a slip of the tongue; however, my country does not deserve to be labeled as such,” Marape said.
Read more
Biden condemned for cannibalism comments
Papua New Guinea was dragged into World War II, which was not its fight, the prime minister said. He urged Washington to help clean up PNG and the Solomon Islands, which are “littered with the remains of WWII, including human remains, plane wrecks, ship wrecks, tunnels and bombs,” which still pose a threat to people who live there. If this is done, then perhaps “the truth about missing servicemen like Ambrose Finnegan can be put to rest,” he suggested.
The US is vying for influence in Papua New Guinea as it competes with China in the region. Last year, Washington signed a defense cooperation agreement with the island nation. Beijing reached a similar deal with the neighboring Solomon Islands.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Marape in the capital, Port Moresby on Sunday in an effort to foster better economic relations.
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Site: Crisis Magazine
In a recent essay, I argued that Americans—both secular and, increasingly, Catholic ones—experience a “flattened” sense of time. Time just simply “passes by” with little to distinguish it, with our increasingly attenuated civil holidays (including those shorn of their religious and/or historical content) trying to contend against a brutally “immanentized” approach to time. To remedy this…
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Site: Crisis Magazine
“I once thought it would be amusing,” writes Albert Jay Nock, “to attempt an essay on how to go about discovering that one is living in a dark age.” His answer, which is not at all amusing, is simply to watch all the lights go out and see if anyone noticed. And, of course, no one did. At least not among the so-called educated elites, the thought police swarming about in our midst…
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Site: RT - News
Andrzej Duda has admitted he discussed the issue with Washington
Poland is open to hosting US nuclear weapons amid the stand-off with Russia over Ukraine, President Andrzej Duda has said.
In an interview with the Polish daily Fakt on Monday, the leader acknowledged that the issue of bringing US nukes to his country, much closer to Russian territory, “has been a topic of Polish-American talks for some time.” The US currently has nuclear weapons stationed in five fellow NATO members: Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Türkiye.
“I have already talked about this several times,” Duda continued. “I must admit that when asked about it, I declared our readiness.”
He argued that the reason for such a stance is that “Russia is increasingly militarizing” its exclave of Kaliningrad bordering Poland and Lithuania, adding that Moscow has also deployed its nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Read more
Russia tests top secret nuclear-capable missile (VIDEO)
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the decision to place tactical nuclear weapons in the neighboring state, which is also Moscow’s key ally, last year. At the time, he argued that the move had been triggered by Britain’s decision to supply Ukraine with depleted uranium ammunition. The president also pointed out that the US has kept nukes in Europe for decades.
Duda further explained that “if our allies decide to deploy nuclear weapons as part of nuclear sharing also on our territory to strengthen the security of NATO’s eastern flank, we are ready for it.”
He recalled that as a NATO member, Poland has certain obligations, and “in this respect, we simply implement a common policy.”
In response to Duda’s statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that if the US does indeed place its nuclear weapons in Poland, the Russian military would “take all necessary countermeasures to ensure our security.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in January that Moscow views the nuclear assets of the US, UK and France as a “single nuclear arsenal aimed at the Russian Federation,” since NATO had declared it the “main threat.” He added that Russia takes this reality into account in its nuclear policy.
Moscow has repeatedly said that a nuclear war must never be fought, and that it has never threatened to use its atomic arsenal.
Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine, just prior to the Feb. 2022 Russian invasion.
Source: Morgan Stanley
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