US, Philippines Working On Intel Sharing Deal Amid Clashes With Chinese Vessels

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The US and the Philippines are working on a new intelligence-sharing deal as tensions are soaring between Manila and Beijing in the South China Sea.

The Defense Post reported that US and Philippine officials discussed the potential agreement, known as the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), during talks held in Washington last week.

Illustrative: Armed Forces of the Philippines via AP

In a joint statement, the two nations said they wanted to conclude the GSOMIA by the end of 2024. The agreement would formalize intelligence sharing between the two militaries and create protocols for top-secret information.

The US and the Philippines are currently conducting the Balikatan exercise, a major military drill the two nations hold annually. This year’s iteration is being billed as the most "expansive" yet and includes exercises in Luzon, a northern Philippine province that faces Taiwan, and Palawan, a province on the South China Sea.

The South China Sea has become a potential flashpoint for a war between the US and China as Washington has committed to intervening if Philippine vessels come under attack in the waters.

Chinese and Philippine boats often have tense encounters near disputed rocks and reefs, which sometimes end in collision.

The US has been increasing its military presence in the South China Sea and is encouraging its allies, including Japan and Australia, to do the same. Alliance building in the region is a major aspect of the US military buildup that’s being done to prepare for a future war with China.

The latest clash among rival coast guard patrols happened Tuesday...

VIDEO: The Philippines said the China Coast Guard fired water cannon Tuesday at two of its vessels, causing damage to one of them, during a patrol near a reef off the Southeast Asian country. pic.twitter.com/Ro5kxk5DqW

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 30, 2024

In the joint statement released last week, the US and the Philippines committed to "expanding multilateral cooperation with likeminded countries, including through maritime cooperative activities, bilateral and multilateral exercises, and security cooperation coordination."

Tyler Durden Wed, 05/01/2024 - 00:00

Senate Passes Ban Of Russian Uranium Imports, Risking Market "Havoc" And Soaring Prices

With shares of CCJ tumbling earlier today after the company reported soggy Q1 earnings, despite its recent initiating coverage report by an enthusiastic Goldman Sachs which sees the Uranium company at the forefront of the "Next AI trade" and slapped it with a $55 price target (as we reported previously), the uranium trade suddenly found itself in need of a miracle.

It got that after hours, when the Senate voted late on Tuesday to approve legislation banning the import of enriched uranium from Russia - the same Russia which supplies 25% of the uranium used by the 90 US commercial nuclear reactors - and sending the measure to the White House which has said it supports efforts to block the Kremlin’s shipments of the reactor fuel and is expected to sign the deal, guaranteeing that uranium prices will soar.

A truck carries containers with low-enriched uranium to be used as fuel for nuclear reactors, at a port in St. Petersburg, Russia

The Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act, approved by unanimous consent and which must be sign by Biden before becoming law -  would bar US imports 90 days after enactment while allowing temporary waivers until January 2028.

Some context for what this ban would mean for the US: Russia provided almost a quarter of the enriched uranium used to fuel America’s fleet of more than 90 commercial reactors, making it the No. 1 foreign supplier, according to US Energy Department data. Those sales provide an estimated $1 billion a year to Russia, but replacing that supply could be a challenge and risks raising the costs of enriched uranium by about 20%.

The White House had called for a “long-term ban” on Russian imports, which is needed to unlock some $2.7 billion to stand up a domestic uranium industry made available by Congress earlier this year, contingent on there being limits on the import of Russian uranium in place.

“This is a national security priority as dependence on Russian sources of uranium creates risk to the US economy and the civil nuclear industry that has been further strained by Russia’s war in Ukraine,” the White House said earlier in a fact sheet. “Without action, Russia will continue its hold on the global uranium market to the detriment of US allies and partners.”

The House bill was approved by voice vote in December amid growing congressional support to cut off Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. The US has banned imports of Russian oil and worked with Group of Seven allies to impose a price cap on seaborne exports of crude and petroleum products.

To be sure, there are loopholes: the legislation, which expires at the end of 2040, permits the Department of Energy to issue waivers authorizing the entire volume of Russian uranium imports allowed under export limits set in an anti-dumping agreement between the Department of Commerce and Russia through 2027.

Without those waivers, an approximate 20% jump is possible from the current enrichment spot price of $165 per separative work unit to a record high of as much as $200 per SWU, according to Jonathan Hinze, president of nuclear fuel market research firm UxC. Enriched uranium is measured in separative work units, or SWU, which account for the volume and enrichment density of the radioactive metal.

“But if there is an immediate ban it could be even more extreme,” Hinze said. “There are very limited supplies available.”

Still, since the government is now intimately involved in every aspect of the uranium procurement, it is virtually guaranteed that prices will soar, which is why CCJ stock recouped almost all of its losses after hours.

And while the Biden admin's decision may be mostly posturing, it’s possible Russia will respond with a unilateral export ban if the US bars imports. Last December, Tenex, a Russian state-owned uranium company, warned American customers that the Kremlin may preemptively bar exports of its nuclear fuel to the US if lawmakers in Washington pass legislation prohibiting imports starting in 2028.

Tenex’s US subsidiary told electric companies including Constellation Energy Corp., Duke Energy Corp. and Dominion Energy to prepare for such an outcome.

“Tenex completely refutes as inaccurate the information regarding the alleged ‘warnings’ of a potential ‘pre-emptive’ ban on enriched uranium supplies to the United States,” Rosatom’s press office said in an emailed statement.

As Bloomberg reported at the time, "a move to bar exports would risk wreaking havoc in uranium markets, causing prices to spike for the nuclear reactor fuel that may be harder for smaller utilities to absorb."

An import ban will take some time to affect operators of US nuclear power plants. Reactors are typically refueled every 18 months to 24 months, and fuel purchases are negotiated long in advance. That means most but not all utilities have already lined up enough uranium to keep their reactors running for at least the next few years. Still, negotiations for subsequent commodity procurement take place all the time, and while there is no immediate risk of scarcity, once the 2026 refueling negotiations take place, watch as Uranium stocks explode to new all time high.

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 23:40

Meet The Lawyers Taking Big Government To The Supreme Court... And Winning

Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

As the administrative state implements more regulations on Americans, a team of legal veterans has come together to fight the expansion of unelected government agency power.

(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock, Getty Images)

Sometimes, they even win.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), which consists of a team of 27 lawyers and support staff, including former judges, had four of the cases they litigated go before the Supreme Court in 2023. One case was decided in their favor, the remaining three are pending.

Founded by Columbia Law professor Philip Hamburger six years ago, the NCLA targets cases where they believe federal agencies have blatantly overstepped their authority or violated civil liberties..

“Normally, administrative power is understood as a separation of powers question, but it’s also a civil liberties problem because it dilutes our voting rights,” Mr. Hamburger told The Epoch Times. “We all get to vote, but the ability to make legislation is no longer in the hands of the people we elect.”

The U.S. Constitution vests Congress with law-making authority. However, government agencies are not only making laws today, he said, they also enforce those laws, then act as judge and jury over alleged violations. Taking a historical view on this issue, Mr. Hamburger argues that such administrative “absolutism” is not a new phenomenon, but merely a modern expression of absolute power once wielded by medieval kings.

The group’s clients include Drs. Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorff, and Aaron Kheriaty, and Ms. Jill Hines, plaintiffs in the case of Murthy v. Missouri, which is currently before the Supreme Court. This case involves alleged violations of the doctors’ First Amendment rights by the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Surgeon General.

“It deprives us of the right to a jury; it deprives us of ordinary burdens of proof; it deprives us of having an unbiased judge,” he said. “We have ALJs and commissioners instead.”

ALJ’s are “executive judges for official and unofficial hearings of administrative disputes in the federal government,” according to a Cornell Law School definition.

“Administrative law judges are considered part of the executive branch, not the judicial branch, and ALJs are appointed by the heads of the executive agencies.”

In this way, Mr. Hamburger said, the administrative state has not only accumulated powers explicitly vested in other branches of government; it has consolidated within itself the power of all three branches.

Supreme Court Taking Notice

The NCLA’s actions have been resonating in America’s court system, particularly the Supreme Court.

A courtroom at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 17, 2021. (Sean Krajacic - Pool/Getty Images)

“In 2018, we started filing briefs at the Supreme Court and almost immediately we were having an effect on the discussions of administrative power,” Peggy Little, senior counsel at the NCLA, told The Epoch Times.

In one case, SEC v. Cochran, which Ms. Little led, appellate courts took the side of the SEC. This case challenged the lifetime tenure of ALJs, who act as judges for federal agencies.

“We battled that for five years, and we had six circuit courts of appeals against us,” she said. “We got to the Supreme Court and we won unanimously.”

Ms. Little said she is optimistic that the tide of expanding agency power can be turned back.

“I think we are in a very important time for rethinking how our government should operate,” Ms. Little said, “and restoring the separation of powers and guardrails on agency power, that limit it to what Congress has actually empowered the agency to do, not what the agency itself thinks would be a good idea.”

Mr. Hamburger said the NCLA has several advantages when arguing their cases.

“We have the truth on our side, and I think the justices understand that,” he said. “Second, we take the Constitution seriously, while many agencies view it as a minor impediment to what they want to do in regulation.”

In addition, “the administrative state has changed,” he said..

“It isn’t like the 1930s where it was just an addition to the law; it is now the primary mode of controlling us,” he said. “It may eventually unravel our republic.”

The End of ‘Chevron Deference’?

One of the pivotal court decisions behind the expansion of the administrative state was the 1984 ruling in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Supreme Court decision in that case gave broad discretion to federal agencies to interpret for themselves how much authority Congress had given them. This led to a concept known as “Chevron deference,” where courts tended to defer to agencies regarding the scope of their power.

There appeared to be a reversal of this doctrine with the 2022 Supreme Court Decision in West Virginia v. EPA, in which the court ruled that “the Government must point to ‘clear congressional authorization’ to regulate.” This case involved the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) attempt to regulate CO2 emissions by power generators, effectively compelling them to shift from coal and gas to so-called renewables, like wind and solar energy.

But while this ruling may have slowed the expansion of the administrative state, it has by no means halted it. On April 25, the EPA set down a new regime for CO2 emissions, mandating that new gas and existing coal plants cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2032.

The chimney stacks of the Capitol Power Plant, a natural gas and coal burning power plant that provides steam and chilled water for heating and cooling of the congressional buildings, sits near the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 22, 2018.

While many U.S. presidents have pushed for greater powers for the executive branch, the Biden administration has been particularly aggressive. This includes a 2021 edict from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requiring employees of large companies to take the COVID-19 vaccine; a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandate requiring all listed companies to submit audited reports on greenhouse gas emissions; EPA mandates designed to phase out coal plants and gas-fired cars and trucks; new restrictions on consumer appliances from the Department of Energy; and several executive orders to transfer student loan debt to taxpayers.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 23:00

"House Destocking": China Politburo Hints New PLan To Fix BIggest Drag On The Economy

China's Politburo meeting on economic policy took place today, and as SocGen's Wei Yao reports, the most important takeaway from the meeting is that policymakers are shifting their attention to housing destocking, as they pledged to 'study measures'.

As usual about 3 years behind the curve, Beijing policymakers - who burst China's housing bubble sparking unprecedented wealth destruction across the country once the world's largest asset class (as the chart from Goldman shows)...

... went into freefall 3 years ago, have been alarmed by the drop in housing sales and home prices in recent months, and finally sense the urgency to provide more measures to avoid a sustained downturn, which can be harmful for household wealth and confidence, not to mention can lead to sporadic revolutions which overthrow the ruling "communist" kleptocracy made up of billionaire oligarchs.

According to the SocGen strategist, "this change of attitude is important and with sufficient measures could help put a floor on housing. This may be THE catalyst to extend the recovery in confidence and equity markets, at least cyclically."

Below we excerpt several more key points from the SocGen report:

Growth has improved but it's not the time to reduce support. Policymakers acknowledged that the economy has improved, but demand remains insufficient and external uncertainty has risen notably. That is probably related to recent complaints from various countries on China's overcapacities and the upcoming US election. Hence, economic policies need to avoid tightening too quickly. So we shouldn't be concerned that policies will be less accommodative even with the improvement in 1Q GDP.

The focus is on faster implementation of announced policies. Policymakers pledge to frontload and effectively implement macro policies that have been announced. That is in line with our expectations that no fresh stimulus will be added. These involve speeding up the utilisation of special CGBs and special LGBs, flexibly using interest rates and RRR cuts to lower financing costs, as well implementing the replacement of consumer goods and equipment. Therefore, we should see a continued recovery in infrastructure investments, while the strength of replacement policies is more uncertain as it depends on local policies. We also expect the PBoC to cut the the RRR and the 5y LPR further.

Government to help on housing destocking? Beside countercyclical policies, the most important change is on the property sector. Policymakers pledge to study policies to support housing destocking, with no details announced. This is mentioned by policymakers for the first time, and follows more easing measures at a local level recently (e.g. relaxing purchase restrictions in Chengdu and promoting new home sales by tasking local SOEs to purchase existing homes from potential buyers). While it remains to be seen how the policies will be funded with local governments under fiscal pressure, this change of attitude is important, and can help reduce the chance of a sustained decline in house prices.

The statement also mentioned other key policy goals, such as resolving local government debt risks (good luck). The government is focusing on reducing debt in high risk provinces, but it also stresses on growth stability, which means it will not push too hard since all growth in China is debt-funded.

It is also interesting to note that the tasks to support low-income groups and to build a social safety net are mentioned, but without concrete details. Other tasks include promoting new productivity, resolving smaller banks' risks, promoting capital market development and implementing measures to reach peak carbon.

Separately, it was also announced that the Third Plenum, which had been delayed, will take place in July and will discuss reform directions to promote "modernization of the economy." The confirmation of the date in itself is likely to be viewed as a positive sign, even though we do not have high expectations from the plenum yet.

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 22:40

The World Health Organization’s Pandemic Treaty Ignores Covid Policy Mistakes

Authroed by Kevin Bardosh & Jay Bhattarcharya via RealClearPolicy,

The World Health Organization is urging the U.S. and 193 other governments to commit next month to a new global treaty to prevent and manage future pandemics. Current estimates suggest over $31 billion per year will be needed to fund its obligations, a cost most lower income countries cannot afford. But that isn’t the only reason to oppose it. Validating this treaty is a vote for the disastrous policies of the Covid years. Rather than taking time for deep reflection and serious reform, those pushing the pandemic treaty are set on ignoring and institutionalizing the WHO’s mistakes.

From the Spring of 2020, many experts warned that the panic begun in Wuhan’s unprecedented lockdown would cause wide-ranging damage—and indeed they did. School closures deprived a generation of children—especially poor children—of access to basic education. Businesses were shuttered. Vaccine and mask mandates made public health an authoritarian exercise of power devoid of science. Border quarantines promulgated the idea that the rest of the world is unclean.  

But few experts care to seriously dissect these errors. How many schools of public health—in America or Europe—held serious debates during the Covid response, or since? Very few.

Opposing the treaty is a signal to the WHO and global health community that they cannot whitewash these mistakes. Next time, we need to ensure a better balance between trade-offs, evidence-based policies, and democratic rights. Such a view seeks to restore the WHO’s own definition of health into pandemic response: “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

Yet the governing philosophy of the WHO emergency program is the exact opposite. Its leaders chastise the world to “move faster’ and “do more.” Bill Gates, the agency’s single largest private donor, is convinced lockdown benefits vastly outweighed their harms. He’s wrong. 

Read through the current draft of the treaty itself and you will find a whole section dedicated to “fighting misinformation.” There is no section focused on preventing harm. Those speaking out about these dangers have been subjected to harsh censorship. Once esteemed professionals were summarily fired for describing the reality of what was happening. The authors of the anti-lockdown Great Barrington Declaration—professors at Stanford, Harvard, and Oxford—were subject to a “devastating takedown” at the hands of Dr. Fauci and top scientific bureaucrats at the National Institutes of Health and the WHO. 

Public health came to resemble the police, and those pushing the new WHO treaty want to go further. It calls for more mandates, more vaccine passports, and more censorship—our new global health “Lockdown Doctrine.”

Proponents of the treaty would have you believe that it is merely a tool that countries can use to guide future pandemic response efforts, that it cannot trump national sovereignty or be used to force failed policies on entire populations. But the lifeblood of international treaties is not in the dried ink. Treaties are constantly ignored. Nonetheless, they do one thing very well: they create an illusion of consensus, signaling to those with power and influence. These priorities are then filtered down into national laws and plans where they can do tremendous damage. 

How can national governments seriously endorse an international agreement when their own domestic Covid evaluations are ongoing? The UK Covid Inquiry is set to end in 2026. Australia’s commission is ongoing. Italy and Ireland have only recently announced them. Most have none planned. 

The rush needs to slow down. The U.S. should avoid signing until a thorough, bipartisan review of WHO’s Covid pandemic management is accomplished. Until then, a vote for a pandemic treaty is a vote against real, positive change. 

Kevin Bardosh is Director and Head of Research at Collateral Global. Jay Battacharya is a Professor at Stanford School of Medicine.

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 22:20

Meet The Lifelong Felon Who Killed Four Cops In North Carolina 

A neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina, was transformed into a warzone on Monday afternoon when a lifelong felon, illegally owning firearms, ambushed a US Marshals Fugitive Task Force and police officers as they were serving a warrant. 

Three US Marshals and an officer from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department were killed in the shootout. Additionally, four police officers and one Marshal were injured.

During a Monday evening press conference, police identified lifelong felon 39-year-old Terry Clark Hughes, Jr., who was also killed in the shootout. 

Meet the deceased Charlotte shooting suspect: Terry Clark Hughes, Jr. pic.twitter.com/UjOjVZ33Si

— Unbiased Crime Report (@UnbiasedCrime) April 30, 2024

Has leftist corporate media identified the felon? Maybe not, because it doesn't fit the narrative. 

CNN has not. Fox News has. 

According to police, US Marshals attempted to serve Hughes a warrant for firearm possession. He was also wanted for two counts of felony flee to elude out of the Charlotte area. 

Police believe there were two other shooters in the home. A 17-year-old and a woman, both of them, were taken into police custody. 

"We have two people of interest at the police station that are being questioned right now," Police Chief Johnny Jennings told reporters. 

Jennings said, "And we have confirmed that the individual that was set up that we were serving the warrant on was the individual who fired the initial shots and was deceased in the front yard at the end of all of this." 

America needs to restore law and order, and leftist corporate media outlets must report the news fairly. Perhaps this is why their ratings are imploding, as everyday Americans begin to see through their narrative control of misinformation and disinformation.

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 22:00

Health Canada Asked Pfizer For DNA Fragments Size In COVID Shots, Linked To 'Probability' Of Genomic 'Integration'

Authored by Noé Chartier via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Canada’s drug regulator asked Pfizer to provide data on the size of DNA fragments in its COVID-19 vaccine, due to genomic integration concerns, shortly after learning the pharma giant withheld information on DNA sequences contained in its product.

“Concerning the residual plasmid DNA in the drug substance, provide data/information characterizing [...] the size distribution of the residual DNA fragments [and] residual intact circular plasmid,” says a request for clarification Health Canada issued to Pfizer on Aug. 4, 2023.

A sign is displayed in front of Health Canada headquarters in Ottawa in a file photo. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

The information was released as part of records obtained through an access-to-information request. It shows, in part, that a Health Canada official was keeping the department’s counterparts in the United States and Europe apprised of the department’s interactions with Pfizer, in a bid to harmonize the regulators’ approaches regarding the recently discovered DNA fragment impurities.

“As you are aware, the fragment size is related to the probability of integration, and the WHO guidance assumes a fragment size of generally less than 200 bp,” Dr. Dean Smith, a senior scientific evaluator in Health Canada’s Vaccine Quality Division, wrote in an October 2023 email to counterparts at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

DNA plasmids are used in the manufacturing process of mRNA vaccines and residual elements are supposed to be cleaned out below a certain threshold. Pfizer said DNA in its products is below the 10ng/dose guideline established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and followed by Health Canada, according to the official records.

This assertion has been challenged by independent scientists, who found quantities of DNA in the vaccines to be above the threshold. They have also found the DNA fragments are larger than 200 base pairs (bp).

Virologist Dr. David Speicher, who has studied Canadian mRNA vials, told The Epoch Times the average size of fragments his study found is 214 base pairs (bp), with some as large as 3.5 kilobase (kb).

While small fragments frequently integrate spontaneously into the genome, these mutations are stopped through either DNA repair mechanisms or cellular death, Dr. Speicher said.

“Larger fragments are much more problematic, especially if attached to an SV40 enhancer, because they can integrate into the genome where they can get transcribed and then translated into proteins,” he added. Independent scientists like Dr. Speicher found the undisclosed SV40 enhancer in Pfizer shots, a piece of biotechnology used to drive gene expression.

Depending on the DNA fragment size, it can produce functional or aberrant proteins, Dr. Speicher explains. “These proteins can affect cellular metabolism, an immune response, as well as an increased risk for cancer. The risk of integration and associated health problems increases with the number of shots.”

The Florida State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo has called for a halt of mRNA shots, citing concern about these risks. Dr. Philip Buckhaults, professor of cancer genomics and director of the Cancer Genetics Lab at the University of South Carolina, has initiated a study to investigate the risks.

Health Canada has not studied those risks, but told The Epoch Times last summer “the presence of residual plasmid DNA in the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines does not change the safety assessment of these vaccines.”

Seeking Clarifications

Despite providing this answer to media in the summer of 2023, Health Canada scientists were privately discussing working with international partners to have Pfizer remove DNA fragments and SV40 sequences from its vaccines and they prepared several requests for clarification to the company.

In an August 2023 email to a colleague providing information to relay to Pfizer, Health Canada senior biologist evaluator Dr. Michael Wall said his department would “continue to work with international regulatory partners to achieve harmonization regarding removal of these sequence elements from the plasmid for future strain changes.”

Records show Health Canada was blindsided by the presence of undisclosed genetic substances in the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, almost four years after the initial emergency authorization.

After Pfizer filed its submission for the authorization of its updated Omicron XBB.1.5 shot on July 21, 2023, Health Canada sent the company several Quality Clarifax—requests for additional information if deficiencies are identified in drug submissions—with the first one dated Aug. 4, 2023.

Regarding the residual plasmid DNA in the COVID-19 vaccines, Health Canada asked Pfizer to provide data on the size distribution of the DNA fragments and on residual intact circular plasmid.

Pfizer said this data was “not readily available and will require time to generate,” in a response on Aug. 11, 2023. The pharma giant added that Pfizer, the drug sponsor, and BioNTech, the manufacturer, had not been previously requested to provide this data across global markets.

Pfizer committed to provide the data by Dec. 1, but the response is not captured in the information package released under the access-to-information regime.

In a subsequent request for information sent on Aug. 22, 2023, Health Canada noted Pfizer’s commitment to provide the information and added a request by asking Pfizer to address “whether the residual DNA plasmid is capable of replication in bacteria.”

Virologist Dr. Speicher, commenting on the agency’s request, noted that plasmids need to be circular to be replicated in a bacterial host, and that fragments can’t do so.

“So if they were intact circular plasmids and injected, they could be taken up by our host bacteria, especially in the gut,” he said. “If the plasmid could propagate in bacteria into our body it could lead to a bacterial spike factory and drive kanamycin/neomycin resistance.”

“This would cause an increase in antibiotic resistance of the bacteria including pathogens and increase spike production, and we know that spike is toxic on so many levels,” he said.

Dr. Speicher added that Pfizer should have tested for this before putting its products to market. The fact that it did not have the data indicates it did not test for it, he said.

SV40 Enhancer

The request for information that Health Canada sent to Pfizer mainly focused on the presence of the Simian Virus 40 (SV40) enhancer-promoter in the Pfizer-BioNTech shots.

Health Canada and other regulators like the FDA and EMA were not aware of its presence, since Pfizer “chose not to” disclose it, according to a separate email from Health Canada scientist Dr. Smith.

Many sections of the Clarifax are redacted under the Access to Information Act, with reasons such as content containing proprietary information or which could lead to a material gain or loss for a third party, in this case Pfizer and BioNTech.

The information disclosed shows that Health Canada challenged Pfizer on SV40 and asked for a “justification for the SV40 regulatory elements in the plasmid.”

Pfizer responded that the “SV40 regulatory region sequences [redacted] in the submission since this [redacted] is relevant neither for plasmid production in E. coli nor for production of mRNA.”

This is the position that has been adopted by Health Canada. In response to questions by the media and parliamentarians, the regulator has stated the SV40 enhancer-promoter is “inactive” and has “no functional role.”

But Pfizer and Health Canada have not addressed why the SV40 enhancer-promoter is present in the vaccine if it is not used in the production of mRNA and has no functional role. Genomics expert Kevin McKernan has questioned this when faced with responses from regulators.

Mr. McKernan made the initial DNA and SV40 fragments discovery and published his study in April 2023. His pre-print paper on the matter appears twice in the Health Canada information package released via access-to-information.

Mr. McKernan has pointed out that regulators could have discovered the SV40 sequences themselves had they run the plasmid through a computer annotation tool.

“If you ever used plasmid annotation tools, they annotate everything on the map and they don’t leave anything unannotated,” he told the International Covid Summit in February. 

He provided his assessment to the summit of why Pfizer went this route. “They’re hiding the fact that this tool [SV40 enhancer] is used as a gene therapy tool and would classify their system as a gene therapy,” he said. “Because it’s a nuclear targeting sequence it moves DNA directly to the nucleus within hours in all cell lines.”

The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) classifies the mRNA injections as gene therapy, whereas Health Canada does not.

“The mRNA from the vaccines does not enter the cell nucleus or interact with the DNA at all, so it does not constitute gene therapy,” said Health Canada in a response to a parliamentarian on Dec. 13. The ASGCT also says the mRNA doesn’t alter the “recipient’s generic material” and is only present in the body “transiently.” However, because the vaccine introduces “new genetic material into cells for a short period of time to induce antibodies,” the American organization considers it gene therapy.

Pfizer said in a response to the Aug. 4 Health Canada request for information that the “SV40 promotor/enhancer DNA does not contain known oncogenes, infectious agents, or regions that could lead to functional transcripts, the DNA does not present any specific safety concerns.”

Health Canada also said in a document tabled in Parliament in March that “any claims the presence of the SV40 promoter enhancer sequence is linked to an increased risk of cancer are unfounded.” Health Canada itself has not studied the risks.

‘Drive Gene Expression’

A senior Health Canada’s scientist’s view on the role of SV40 fragments is captured in an Oct. 26 email written in response to questions from Chief Medical Officer Dr. Supriya Sharma.

Dr. Tong Wu of Health Canada’s Vaccine Quality Division responded that the “SV40 promoter enhancer is widely used to drive gene expression in mammalian cells.” He added, however, that it “serves no purpose in the manufacturing of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.”

Dr. Wu said it was unexpected to find the sequence in the finished product, since “Pfizer did not identify the presence of SV40 promoter enhancer on the plasmid template used to produce mRNA, in their original filing.”

Dr. Wu also said that “to the best of our knowledge,” no other vaccine approved in Canada contains the SV40 sequence.

Pfizer was contacted for comment, but the company hasn’t responded to inquiries.

Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 21:40

Employers Must Honor Preferred Pronouns, Bathrooms For Employees Identifying As Transgender: Feds

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Biden administration has rolled out a set of new guidelines, under which an employer would be deemed liable for harassment for referring to a worker by an unwanted pronoun or requiring the worker to use a restroom that aligns with his or her biological sex.

Signage identifies the men’s and women’s restrooms at a business in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Jan. 13, 2023. (Jackson Elliott/The Epoch Times)

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published the new workplace harassment guidelines on Monday after approving them in a party-line 3–2 vote on Friday. The new document enshrines gender identity as a category protected against harassment, just like sex, race, religion, or disability.

“Harassing conduct based on sexual orientation or gender identity includes ... repeated and intentional use of a name or pronoun inconsistent with the individual’s known gender identity (misgendering) or the denial of access to a bathroom or other sex-segregated facility consistent with the individual’s gender identity,” the new guidelines state.

Joining Chairwoman Charlotte Burrows to vote in favor of the updated harassment guidance were two other Democrat commissioners, Jocelyn Samuels and Kalpana Kotagal. The two Republican members, Keith Sonderling and Andrea Lucas, voted against the changes.

“Women’s sex-based rights in the workplace are under attack—and from the EEOC, the very federal agency charged with protecting women from sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination at work,” Ms. Lucas said in a statement on Monday.

“The commission’s guidance effectively eliminates single-sex workplace facilities and impinges on women’s rights to freedom of speech and belief,” she added, accusing her Democrat colleagues of disregarding “biological realities, sex-based privacy and safety needs of women.”

Legal Implications

A guideline is not legally binding in the same way as laws passed by Congress or rules issued by government agencies. The EEOC website describes guidance as “official agency policy and explains how the laws and regulations apply to specific workplace situations.”

However, Monday’s guidance communicates the EEOC’s position on legal issues, meaning an employee could potentially refer to the new guidelines in the event of a restroom or pronoun dispute.

“Harassment, both in-person and online, remains a serious issue in America’s workplaces,” said Ms. Burrows in a statement Monday. “The EEOC’s updated guidance on harassment is a comprehensive resource that brings together best practices for preventing and remedying harassment and clarifies recent developments in the law.”

The new federal guidance comes about three years after the EEOC suffered a legal defeat in its attempt to create exceptions for employees identifying as LGBT from workplace policies on restrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes.

In August 2021, a coalition of attorneys general from 20 states sued to have the LGBT exception blocked, arguing that authority over such policies “properly belongs to Congress, the States, and the people.”

“The guidance purports to resolve highly controversial and localized issues such as whether employers ... may maintain sex-separated showers and locker rooms, ... and whether individuals may be compelled to use another person’s preferred pronouns,” the complaint read. “But the agencies have no authority to resolve those sensitive questions, let alone to do so by executive fiat without providing any opportunity for public participation.”

The lawsuit was led by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery. He was joined by attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

In July 2022, a federal judge in Tennessee ruled in favor of the coalition to enjoin the EEOC guidance from going forward. Later that year, a separate federal court in Texas vacated and set aside the proposed guidance, determining that the EEOC misinterpreted the scope of the U.S. Supreme Court landmark 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which concluded that it is unconstitutional for sexual orientation and gender identity to be considered as factors in employment decisions.

The EEOC did not appeal those rulings.

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 21:00

Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy Caught Trafficking Fentanyl For Sinaloa Cartel

A former Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy, who was apprehended last year as part of an investigation into the Sinaloa cartel, has been found to have been working for "El Chapo" himself. 

25 year old Jorge Oceguera-Rocha resigned from his position with the Sheriff after being caught with over 100 pounds of fentanyl pills and a firearm during a traffic stop in Calimesa, in September of last year, KTLA reports.

Authorities did not specify how they discovered his alleged involvement in drug trafficking, but he was identified as a “corrupt Riverside County Correctional Deputy” mentioned in a press release about Operation Hotline Bling.

Operation Hotline Bling "culminated last week with 15 arrests and significant drug seizures, including methamphetamine and quantities of fentanyl that potentially could produce 10 million lethal doses," according to the DEA:

In March 2023, the Drug Enforcement Administration Riverside District Office and the Riverside Police Department, with assistance from the United States Postal Inspection Service, initiated Operation “Hotline Bling.” During the investigation, agents seized a total of approximately 376 pounds of methamphetamine, 37.4 pounds of fentanyl, 600,000 fentanyl tablets, 1.4 kilograms of cocaine, and seven firearms. The drugs seized in this investigation have an estimated “street value” of $16 million.

This operation targeted Sinaloa cartel activities in the Inland Empire, resulting in 15 arrests and the seizure of $16 million worth of narcotics. The Sinaloa cartel, once led by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, is renowned for its influence akin to that of Pablo Escobar in the 1980s and early ’90s.

Oceguera-Rocha faces multiple local felony charges and the Sheriff’s Department confirmed his involvement in trafficking narcotics within Riverside County while off duty.

Although federal prosecutors didn't press charges, Riverside County officials charged him with possession and transportation of narcotics, with enhancements for the drug's weight, and possession of a firearm in connection with narcotics.

The initial report on the arrest noted he was being detained at the John Benoit Detention Center with a $5 million bail, justified by the drug's weight and potential flight risk. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in jail.

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 20:40

First Cases Of HIV Transmitted Through Cosmetic Needles Identified: CDC

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Multiple people contracted human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through cosmetic needles after receiving facials at an unlicensed spa in New Mexico, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

An ampule with Botox, with the European name "Vistabel," at a cosmetic treatment center in Berlin in this Jan. 29, 2007, file photo. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

Three women who received platelet-rich plasma (PRP) microneedling facials, also known as vampire facials, at the spa contracted HIV and an investigation pointed to the facials as the method of transmission, a new paper from CDC scientists states.

The spa in question, the since-shuttered VIP Salon, was dubbed spa A in the paper.

“This investigation is the first to associate HIV transmission with nonsterile cosmetic injection services. A common exposure to spa A among clients without behaviors associated with HIV acquisition helped identify a possible cluster association, and analysis of additional data suggested that HIV transmission likely occurred via receipt of PRP with microneedling facial procedures,” said the scientists, who worked with New Mexico health officials.

The source of the contamination remains unknown, they said.

PRP microneedling facials involve taking blood from a person and separating out PRP. Then, a microneedle makes holes in the person’s skin, and the PRP is applied to the holes.

The procedure is said to help treat acne and have other health benefits.

New Mexico authorities announced in 2019 that they were investigating the VIP Spa after people contracted HIV following visits to the spa. Officials were providing free testing of any people who received treatments, including the microneedling facials, at the spa.

An inspection by authorities led to the closure of VIP Spa after the identification of unsafe practices.

Maria de Lourdes Ramos de Ruiz, former owner of the spa, was later hit with felony charges, including practicing medicine without a license. She pleaded guilty in 2022 to five counts.

“This is a warning to those who place profit over the health and safety of New Mexico consumers, and I remain highly concerned that these procedures are not being regulated at the state and federal level,” New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said at the time.

Investigation

New Mexico officials described two HIV cases among spa visitors previously. A wider investigation identified additional patients, scientists with the state and the CDC said in the new paper.

Through calls, surveys, and other methods, authorities found five people with HIV, four of whom received microneedling at the spa in 2018. The fifth was in a sexual relationship with a spa client. Analysis of the patients’ blood showed that their cases were all related to the facility.

The cases involving the man and woman in a sexual relationship were stage 3 or chronic HIV, which suggests “that their infections were likely attributed to exposures before receipt of cosmetic injection services,” according to the scientists.

But no alternative explanations for the infections among the other three female patients were discovered.

“The other three patients in this cluster had no known social contact with one another, and no specific mechanism for transmission among these patients was confirmed,” scientists said. “Evidence suggests that contamination from an undetermined source at the spa during spring and summer 2018 resulted in HIV-1 transmission to these three patients.”

HIV is a virus that attacks immune systems and can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) if not treated. Symptoms include sore throat, fatigue, and ulcers in the mouth. Most people who contract the illness are gay or bisexual. While there is no cure for HIV, it can be controlled through available treatments.

Nearly 200 other spa clients and their sexual partners were tested through 2023 as part of the investigation but none tested positive for HIV, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C, according to the paper.

The findings highlight the importance of looking at “novel sources of HIV transmission among persons with no known HIV risk factors,” the scientists said.

They also encouraged facilities to implement practices to control infections to try to prevent the transmission of bloodborne pathogens.

Inspection Results

When the spa was inspected in 2018, authorities saw troubling practices.

Lying on a kitchen counter, for instance, were a centrifuge, a heating dry bath, and a rack of unlabeled tubes containing blood.

In a refrigerator, stored with food, authorities found tubes of blood without labels, as well as medical injectables such as Botox.

Unwrapped syringes were located in multiple places, including in drawers.

No steam sterilizer was present and certain items designed to be disposable were cleaned and reused by staffers at the spa, authorities said.

The investigation was hindered by disorganized records, including the lack of a system for scheduling appointments, according to the paper. Such systems usually include contact information for clients. Investigators combed through handwritten records and other documents to identify people who may have undergone the microneedling procedure.

“Incomplete spa client records posed a substantial challenge during this investigation, necessitating a large-scale outreach approach to identify potential cases, as opposed to direct communication with all clients,” researchers said. “Requiring maintenance of sufficient client records to ensure adequate traceback by regulated businesses that provide injection services could ensure adequate capability to conduct traceback.”

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 20:20

Independent Candidate RFK Jr. Clinches Spot On California Presidential Ballot

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. secured his spot on the California presidential ballot after receiving a nomination from the American Independent Party (AIP).

Mr. Kennedy said in a video released Tuesday that he and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, are officially qualified to appear on the ballot in California, the most populous state in the United States.

Huge news! Kennedy-Shanahan on the California ballot! Watch the video below to hear how it happened ⬇️ #KennedyShanahan24 pic.twitter.com/wV2R4P9y8Q

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) April 29, 2024

He said that “ironically” the AIP was initially the party of Alabama’s former Gov. George Wallace, known for his segregationist politics in the 1960s, but that the party had undergone “its own rebirth” before he came along.

“It’s been reborn as a party that represents not bigotry and hatred, but rather compassion and unity and idealism and common sense,” Mr. Kennedy said in the video posted on social media platform X.

“When they learned about my candidacy, they had just drafted a new charter for their reborn party where they could use their battle line for good for helping independent candidates to unite America without being blocked by the two-party duopoly,” he added.

The AIP is California’s third-largest qualified political party, with more than 835,000 registered voters in the state, according to the party’s press release.

AIP state chairman Victor Marani said he had filed all the necessary paperwork with the California Secretary of State to put Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Shanahan on the state’s ballot.

“Our party is pleased to provide the opportunity for all 22 million voters in California to vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for President. Voters crave a real leader who will unite America,” he said in a statement.

Joe Cook, the regional field director-west for the Kennedy Campaign, said the AIP has “redefined its purpose and offers inspirational candidates a pathway to elected office outside the major parties.”

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the perfect candidate to embody this new shift to independent leaders that serve the common good,” he added.

Since announcing last October that he would leave the Democrat Party’s presidential primary and run as an independent, Mr. Kennedy has said multiple times that he would appear on the general election ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

To combat anticipated challenges from Democrats and Republicans regarding the validity of signatures, Mr. Kennedy’s campaign has said they are collecting 60 percent more signatures than required in every state.

Some members of Mr. Kennedy’s family have previously denounced his decision to run for president as an independent candidate, calling it “perilous” and “dangerous to our country.”

During an interview with CNN on March 25, his sister, Rory Kennedy, explained that they viewed his independent bid as dangerous because they believed his campaign was “siphoning” votes from President Joe Biden, potentially bolstering former President Donald Trump’s chances of winning.

2024 presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks with his vice presidential pick Nicole Shanahan in Oakland, Calif., on March 26, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

“I feel strongly that this is the most important election of our lifetime. And there’s so much at stake, and I do think it’s going to come down to a handful of votes and a handful of states,” she told the news outlet.

“And I do worry that Bobby just taking some percentage of votes from Biden could shift the election and lead to Trump’s election,” said Ms. Kennedy, the youngest daughter of late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 19:40

South Korea's Central Bank Says May Buy Gold In The Mid To Long-Term

Back in 2011, around the time gold hits its previous cycle high, South Korea surprised the fiat world when it revealed that it had spent more than a billion dollars in its first gold purchase in more than a decade, as uncertainty about global growth and sovereign debt push central banks around the world to diversify foreign reserves. It then proceeds to buy a lot more gold (relatively speaking) for the next year and a half before halting purchases indefinitely once again in 2013. It now holds 104.4 tonnes of gold in its foreign exchange reserves, or $4.8 billion, accounting for 1.1% of its total $419.3 billion in reserves at the end of March.

That may change soon, however, because with gold hitting a new all time high in recent weeks, South Korea’s central bank may consider buying more gold in the mid- to long-term, even if it is not thinking of immediately buying more after a recent surge in prices of the precious metal, a bank official said on Tuesday.

The bank’s rare comments come after this month’s record high of $2,431.29 an ounce in spot gold as growing Middle East tension drove investors to seek safe-haven assets. The metal has risen 13% this year, building on a gain of 13% in 2023.

“We don’t have any immediate plans to buy gold now,” Kwon Min-soo, head of the Bank of Korea’s reserve management group told Reuters, adding that numerous factors needed to be weighed to ensure the right circumstances for such purchases.

“Foreign exchange reserves must be on a sufficiently increasing trend, and the foreign exchange market must be stable in order to ‘consider’ purchasing additional gold as an asset, which is why we would consider them only in the mid- to long-term,” he said.

Translation: South Korea will buy more gold, but only after spot prices have jumped another several hundred dollars.

In a blog post earlier, the bank’s Reserve Management Group said it needed to be cautious when investing in gold, but advantages offered by the precious metal included its role as a hedge against inflation and an alternative to the US dollar.

Recent gains in gold prices were due mostly to purchases by central banks of countries such as China, Russia and Turkey, which are trying to become less dependent on the US currency or guard against war, the bank said.

The thaw in sentiment toward gold is a reversal from the BOK's June 2023 position when the central bank said it was more desirable to maintain dollar liquidity than boost its gold holdings, after its first inspection of gold holdings at the Bank of England.

 

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 19:20

Appeals Court Says State Health Policies Excluding Transgender Surgeries Violate Constitution

Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled against two state-level health policies that exclude so-called “gender-affirming” treatments, teeing up potential review by the U.S. Supreme Court...

Judge Roger Gregory, an appointee of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, wrote in his majority opinion that the policies’ exclusion of surgeries such as vaginoplasties for certain diagnoses violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

“The coverage exclusions facially discriminate on the basis of sex and gender identity, and are not substantially related to an important government interest,” he said.

The 8–6 decision affirmed lower court decisions against West Virginia’s Medicaid policy and the North Carolina State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees. Both aimed to preclude coverage of procedures or treatments pursuant to attempts at changing one’s gender.

During oral arguments in September, at least two judges said it’s likely the case will eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Judge Gregory’s opinion rejected the idea that the policies didn’t discriminate on the basis of gender identity merely because they focused on diagnoses rather than individuals experiencing that condition.

“Appellants argue that the district courts’ equal-protection analyses were flawed because, they say, the exclusions distinguish on the basis of diagnosis,” he said.

He added that “in this case, discriminating on the basis of diagnosis is discriminating on the basis of gender identity and sex.”

Later in the opinion, Judge Gregory wrote that “gender dysphoria is so intimately related to transgender status as to be virtually indistinguishable from it. The excluded treatments aim at addressing incongruity between sex assigned at birth and gender identity, the very heart of transgender status.”

He later added that in “addition to discriminating on the basis of gender identity, the exclusions discriminate on the basis of sex.”

“Certain gender-affirming surgeries that could be provided to people assigned male at birth and people assigned female at birth are provided to only one group under the policy. Those surgeries include vaginoplasty (for congenital absence of a vagina), breast reconstruction (post-mastectomy), and breast reduction (for gynecomastia).”

Criticism

Judge Gregory’s opinion encountered three separate dissents, including one in which Judge Harvie Wilkinson, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, argued “the science behind gender dysphoria care is far from settled.”

He suggested the majority overstepped its authority in encroaching on state decisions about health care.

“Providing the best possible care to adults and youth struggling with gender dysphoria is a challenging task for our States,” he said.

“But it is one that they are entitled to perform without premature judicial interference.”

Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, director of the Conscience Project, said in a statement to The Epoch Times that the decision “cries out for reversal from the Supreme Court.”

She warned that Judge Gregory’s reasoning “surely will be cited in attempts to force private insurance plans to do the same.”

Judge Marvin Quattlebaum, an appointee of President Donald Trump, said the majority “improperly” declared statements from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health “to be facts.”

“Individually and combined, these missteps improperly stack the deck, effectively ignoring the fair-minded debate about the medical necessity and efficacy of the treatments the plaintiffs seek,” he added.

Lambda Legal, which challenged both states’ policies, declared victory.

“We are pleased with the Court’s decision, which will save lives. It confirms that discriminating against transgender people by denying critical medical care is not only wrong but unconstitutional,” Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Tara Borelli said in a press release.

“No one should be denied essential health care, but our clients in both cases were denied coverage for medically necessary care prescribed by their doctors just because they’re transgender.”

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 19:00

Apollo Slapped With Lawsuit Alleging "Widespread Fraudulent Human Life Wagering Conspiracy" 

Apollo Global Management has been entangled in a scandalous lawsuit and accused of acquiring illegal life insurance policies on senior citizens through a complex web of shell trusts. 

The company allegedly used an affiliate, Financial Credit Investment, to manage about a $20 billion portfolio of stranger-originated life insurance policies, effectively engaging in what the lawsuit claims:

"In short, Apollo has been carrying out a widespread fraudulent human life wagering conspiracy designed to not only hide its involvement, but to create the false appearance that the policies it owns are somehow legitimate." 

The complaint continues:

"Worse still, when Apollo senses a claim is going to be brought, it attempts to dissolve its shell entities to give itself yet another layer of protection."

This scheme was designed to give the policies the illusion of legitimacy. Martha Barotz's estate initiated the legal action filed in Delaware's Chancery Court last Friday. It raises serious questions about Apollo's ethical practices.

"In this way, the senior citizens have no idea who owns a policy on their life, and who wants them dead," the suit said, adding, "Apollo was fraudulently and illegally using these shell entities to perpetuate human life wagers not only on the life of Mrs. Barotz, but on the lives of hundreds (if not thousands) of other senior citizens."

Bloomberg first reported on the lawsuit. Responding to BBG's note, Joshua Rosner, a  Graham Fisher & Co. managing partner, wrote on X that Apollo's actions are "mind-bending and horrifying." 

Even as a co-author of “These are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs and Wrecks America”, which details how rapacious Apollo is… this is mind-bending and horrifying! They should be fried. https://t.co/6NxzpaXRSR pic.twitter.com/TPx2GUvnpS

— joshua rosner (@JoshRosner) April 30, 2024

"Apollo should have its insurance licenses pulled in every state by the @naic. They predate retirees and pensioners through pension risk transfers and now we find they take out life insurance policies against seniors. @AARP," Rosner said. 

#athene #appollo should have its #insurance licenses pulled in every state by the @naic. They predate #retirees and #pensioners through #pension risk transfers and now we find they take out life insurance policies against seniors. @AARP https://t.co/OdthIMcrCo

— joshua rosner (@JoshRosner) April 30, 2024

Rosner asks one heck of a question: "With Apollo managing hospitals, nursing & hospice facilities & also the retirement accounts of seniors, are they essentially taking a straddle position on seniors by buying life insurance policies on them?" 

One has to ask: with Apollo managing hospitals, nursing & hospice facilities & also the retirement accounts of seniors are they essentially taking a straddle position on seniors by buying life insurance policies on them? @naic @AARP @BenSasse @HawleyMO @GovRonDeSantis… https://t.co/OlTYQop1t4

— joshua rosner (@JoshRosner) April 30, 2024

One X user asks: "Did they take out life insurance on Alfred Villalobos and Jeffrey Epstein?" 

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 18:40

DoJ Charges 'Bitcoin Jesus' With Tax Fraud

Authored by Turner Wright via CoinTelegraph.com,

The early crypto investor, often called ‘Bitcoin Jesus,’ faces extradition to the U.S. after being charged with evading nearly $50 million in taxes.

Officials with the United States Department of Justice announced charges against early Bitcoin investor Roger Ver, known by many as ‘Bitcoin Jesus.’ 

In an April 30 notice, the Justice Department said authorities in Spain had arrested Ver based on criminal charges in the United States, including mail fraud, tax evasion and filing false tax returns.

The U.S. government alleged Ver defrauded the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) out of roughly $48 million with his failure to report capital gains on his sale of Bitcoin and other assets.

According to the indictment filed on Feb. 15 but unsealed on April 29, Ver allegedly took control of roughly 70,000 BTC in June 2017 - before the now famous bull run - and sold many of them for $240 million. U.S. officials said they planned to extradite Ver from Spain to the United States to stand trial.

Reactions to Ver’s arrest on social media were mixed.

However, Bitcoiner Dan Held, the former growth lead at Kraken, claimed Ver “deserves everything that he’s about to get” after he “nearly destroyed Bitcoin.”

“Roger attacked my livelihood by trying to get me fired, called up others to hurt my relationships, and attacked my reputation,” said Held on X.

“He misaligned expectations around Bitcoin so much that it led to a civil war.”

A cryptic message was Ver's most-recent post on X, reading:

Source: Roger Ver

Ver was also a proponent of Bitcoin Cash.

In 2022, he became embroiled in a scandal with crypto investment platform CoinFlex, which claimed he owed them $47 million in USD Coin.

He had not commented on social media regarding the Justice Department charges at the time of publication.

Ver has previously pleaded guilty and served time for selling explosives on eBay.

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 18:20

Blackrock's Larry Fink Jumps On "Next AI Trade", Warning World Will Be "Short Power"

At the start of April, we penned a lengthy report for premium subs discussing why artificial intelligence data centers, the electrification of the economy, and onshoring trends will result in a major upgrade of the nation's power grid. We followed the note up on Monday with a report titled Everyone Is Piling Into The "Next AI Trade." 

Now , BlackRock Chairman and Chief Executive Larry Fink has jumped on the "Next AI Trade" theme at a World Economic Forum event on Monday. 

"I do believe to properly um build out AI. We're talking about trillions of dollars of investing. So data centers today could be as much as 200 megahertz - and they're now talking about data centers being one gigawatt. That powers a city," Fink told the audience. 

He pointed out that he spoke with the head of one tech company, who said their data centers currently require about 5 gigawatts of power. By 2030, the person told Fink that number could jump to 30 gigawatts. 

"The amount of power that's needed to use AI has a huge impact on society," Fink said. 

He then asked: "So where's that power going to come from? Are we going to take it off the grid? What does that mean for elevated energy prices?" 

Fink then said the surge in power demand because of AI data centers is a "huge investment opportunity." 

He warned: "The world is going to be short power - short power - and to power these data companies you cannot have this intermittent power like wind and solar." 

"You need dispatchable power because they can't turn off and on these data centers," he continued. 

So what kind of clean, reliable energy could Fink be hinting at? 

Well, nuclear, as we've explained to readers as early as December 2020: "Buy Uranium: Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze."

This week, the nuclear power industry appears to be gaining a major comeback. The federal government is expected to continue restarting shuttered nuclear power plants in the coming years, according to Jigar Shah, director of the US Energy Department's Loan Programs Office, who spoke with Bloomberg on Monday. 

In March, Shah's office approved a loan to Holtec International Corp. to reopen the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan. This was a historical shift, and it was the first nuclear power plant to be reopened in the US, setting a precedent for atomic energy to make a triumphal comeback. The plant could begin producing power as early as the second half of 2025.

Shah said, "A lot of the other players that have a nuclear power plant that has recently shut down and could be turned back on are gaining that confidence to try." He declined to give specifics about which plants were slated to reopen. 

Now, the head of the world's largest asset manager, with $10 trillion in assets under management, is a believer in the "Next AI Trade," as everyone is seriously piling in. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 18:00

Unification Of CBDCs? Global Banks Are Telling Us The End Of The Dollar System Is Near

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

World reserve status allows for amazing latitude in terms of monetary policy. The Federal Reserve understands that there is constant demand for dollars overseas as a means to more easily import and export goods. The dollar’s petro-status also makes it essential for trading oil globally. This means that the central bank of the US has been able to create fiat currency from thin air to a far higher degree than any other central bank on the planet while avoiding the immediate effects of hyperinflation.

Much of that cash as well as dollar denominated debt (physical and digital) ends up in the coffers of foreign central banks, international banks and investment firms where it is held as a hedge or used to adjust the exchange rates of other currencies for trade advantage. As much as one-half of the value of all U.S. currency is estimated to be circulating abroad.

World reserve status along with various debt instruments allowed the US government and the Fed to create tens of trillions of dollars in new currency after the 2008 credit crash, all while keeping inflation under control (sort of). The problem is that this system of stowing dollars overseas only lasts so long and eventually the consequences of overprinting come home to roost.

The Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 established the framework for the rise of the US dollar and while the benefits are obvious, especially for the banks, there are numerous costs involved. Think of world reserve status as a “deal with the devil” – You get the fame, you get the fortune, you get the hot girlfriend and the sweet car, but one day the devil is coming to collect and when he does he’s going to take EVERYTHING, including your soul.

Unfortunately, I suspect the time is coming soon for the US and it may be in the form of a brand new Bretton Woods-like system that removes the dollar as world reserve and replaces it with a new digital basket structure. Global banks are essentially admitting to the plan for a complete overhaul of the dollar-based financial world and the creation of a CBDC-centric system built on “unified ledgers.”

There have been three recent developments all announced in succession that suggest the dollar’s replacement is imminent (before this decade is over).

The IMF’s XC Model – A Centralized Policy For CBDCs

The IMF’s XC platform was released as a theoretical model in November of 2022 and matches closely with their long discussed concept of a global Special Drawing Rights basket, only in this case it would tie together all CBDCs under one umbrella along with “legacy currencies.”

It’s promoted as a policy structure to make cross-border payments in CBDCs “easier” and this model is focused primarily on currency exchanges between governments and central banks. Of course, it places the IMF as the middle-man in terms of controlling the flow of digital transactions. The IMF suggests that the XC platform would make the transition from legacy currencies to CBDCs less complicated for the various nations involved.

As the IMF noted in a discussion on centralized ledgers in 2023:

“We could end up in a world where we have connected entities to some degree, but some entities and some countries that are excluded. And as a global and multilateral institution, we’re sort of aiming to, you know, provide a basic connectivity, a basic set of rules and governance that is truly multilateral and inclusive. So, I think that is—the ambition is to aim for innovation that is compatible with policy goals and that is inclusive relative to the broad membership of, say, the IMF.”

To translate, decentralized systems are bad. “Inclusivity” (collectivism) is good. And the IMF wants to work in tandem with other globalist institutions to be the facilitators (controllers) of that economic collectivism.

Bank For International Settlements Unified Ledger

Not more than a day after the IMF announced their XC platform goals, the BIS announced their plans for a unified ledger for all CBDCs called the ‘BIS Universal Ledger.’ The BIS specifically notes that the project is meant to “inspire trust in central bank digital currencies” while “overcoming the fragmentation of current tokenization efforts.”

While the IMF is focused on international policy control, the BIS is pursuing the technical aspects for the globalization of CBDCs. They make it clear in their white papers that a cashless society is in fact the end game and that digital transactions need to be monitored by a centralized entity in order to keep money “secure.” As the BIS argues in their extensive overview of Unified Ledgers:

“Today, the monetary system stands at the cusp of another major leap. Following dematerialisation and digitalisation, the key development is tokenisation – the process of representing claims digitally on a programmable platform. This can be seen as the next logical step in digital recordkeeping and asset transfer.”

“…The blueprint envisages these elements being brought together in a new type of financial market infrastructure (FMI) – a “unified ledger”. The full benefits of tokenisation could be harnessed in a unified ledger due to the settlement finality that comes from central bank money residing in the same venue as other claims. Leveraging trust in the central bank, a shared venue of this kind has great potential to enhance the monetary and financial system.

There are three major assertions made by the BIS in their program – First, the digitization of money is unavoidable and cash is going to disappear primarily because it makes moving money easier. Second, decentralized payment methods are unacceptable because they are “risky” and only central banks are qualified and “trustworthy” enough to mediate the exchange of money. Third, the use of Unified Ledgers is largely designed to track and trace and even investigate all CBDC transactions, for the public good, of course.

The BIS system deals far more in the realm of private transactions than the IMF example. It is the technical foundation for the centralization of all CBDCs, governed in part by the BIS and the IMF, and it is scheduled to go into wider use in the next two years. There are already multiple nations testing the BIS ledger today. It’s important to understand that whoever acts as the middle-man in the process of the global exchange of money is going to have all the power, over governments and over the populace.

If every movement of wealth is monitored, from the shift of billions between governments to the payment of a few dollars from an individual to a retailer, then every aspect of trade can be throttled on the whims of the observer.

SWIFT Cross Border Project – Another Way To Control The Behavior Of Countries

As we’ve seen with the attempt to use the SWIFT payment network as a bludgeon against Russia, there is an ulterior motive for globalists to have a high speed large scale monetary transaction hub. Again, this is all about centralization, and whoever controls the hub has the means to control trade…to a point.

Locking Russia out of SWIFT has done minimal damage to their economy exactly because there are alternative methods for transferring money to keep the flow of trade running. However, under a CBDC based global monetary umbrella, it would be impossible for any country to work outside the boundaries. It’s not only about the ease of shutting a nation out of the network, it’s also about having the power to immediately block the transfer of funds on the receiving end of the exchange.

Meaning, any funds from any Russian source could be tracked and cut off before they are allowed to get into the hands of, say, a recipient in China or India. Once all governments are completely under the thumb of a centralized monetary system, a centralized ledger and a centralized exchange hub, they will never be able to rebel and this control will trickle down to the general population.

I would also remind readers that the majority of nations are going right along with this program. China is most eager to join the global currency scheme. Russia is still part of the BIS, but their involvement in CBDCs is still unclear. The point is, don’t expect the BRICS to counteract the new monetary order, it’s not going to happen.

CBDCs Automatically Require The End Of The Dollar As World Reserve

So what do all these globalist projects with CBDCs have to do with the dollar and its venerated position as the world reserve currency? The bottom line is this: A unified CBDC system completely excludes the need or use-case for a world reserve currency. The Unified Ledger model takes all CBDCs and homogenizes them into a puddle of liquidity, each CBDC growing similar in characteristics over a short period of time.

The advantages of using the dollar disappear in this scenario and the value of currencies becomes relative to the middle-man. In other words, the IMF, BIS and other related institutions dictate the properties of CBDCs and thus there is no distinguishing aspect of any CBDC that makes one more valuable than the others.

Sure, some countries might be able to separate their currency to a point with superior production or superior technology, but the old model of having a big military as a way to ensure Forex and trade favors is dead. Eventually the globalists will make two predictable arguments:

1) “A world reserve currency under the control of one nation is unfair and we as global bankers need to make the system “more equal.””

2) “Why have a reserve currency at all when all transactions are moderated under our ledger anyway? The dollar is no longer any more easy to use for international trade than any other CBDC, right?”

Finally, the dollar has to die because it’s an integral part of the “old world” of material exchange. The globalists desire a cashless society because it is an easily controlled society. Think of the covid lockdowns and the attempts at vaccine passports – If they had a cashless system in place at that time, they would have gotten everything they wanted. Refuse to take the experimental vaccine? We’ll just shut off your digital accounts and you will starve.

This was even partially attempted (think Canadian trucker protests), but with physical cash there’s always a way around a digital embargo.  Without physical cash you have no other options unless you plan to live completely off the land and barter goods and services (a way of life most people in the first world need a lot of time to get used to).

I believe that a sizable percentage of the American populace will go to war before they accept a cashless society, but in the meantime, there is still the inevitability of a dollar crash to deal with. Globalist organizations are pushing CBDCs to go active VERY quickly, and as this happens along with the centralized ledgers the traditional dollar will swiftly lose favor. This means that those trillions in greenbacks held overseas will start flooding back into America all at once causing an inflationary disaster well beyond what we are witnessing today.

As much as the economy has benefited from world reserve status in the past it will suffer equally as the dollar fades, only to be replaced by a framework even worse than fiat. That is, unless there’s a dramatic upheaval that removes the globalist order from the equation entirely…

*  *  *

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Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 17:40

"A Lack Of Job Security": White-Collar Job Growth Stalls Hard

While hiring rates for those in the bottom-third of US income distribution has been on a tear (and largely going to part time workers, most of whom are illegal immigrants), white collar jobs hiring is stalling out across much of the US, with industries such as finance, technology, media, and professional services such as law and accounting all suffering despite the national unemployment rate hovering near historic lows.

To wit, nearly 120,000 corporate positions have vanished from San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago combined over the past year, according to an analysis by Bloomberg. White-collar payrolls have also declined in various metros such as Phoenix and Seattle, as well as in pandemic boomtowns such as Miami and Austin, which have seen white-collar growth flatline.

Nationally, payrolls for white-collar types of jobs were up just 0.6% from a year ago in March, about a third of the overall pace of job creation, according to data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wage growth for high-paid workers has also largely cooled from its peaks.

Banks, consulting firms and tech companies all went on hiring sprees at the height of the pandemic, when low interest rates, easy access to credit and government support made it easier to expand. Many of those incentives have since faded, paving the way for layoffs. Citigroup, McKinsey and Tesla are among the high-profile employers slashing jobs in recent weeks. -Bloomberg

"We’re not seeing the big post-Covid booms anymore," said Alexandra-Dana Gusita​​​​, who heads the New York office of Tiger Recruitment. "Employers are more cautious in hiring."

"Even though the labor market looks strong, there’s a lack of job security, especially in tech," said Jack Benedict, 25, who learned that he and 42 other YouTube Music employees had been laid off in February. "All these massive companies are trying to downsize or replace people with AI," he continued, adding that he worries college degrees are "not enough when companies are asking for 10 years of experience."

According to jobs website Indeed, the number of openings in banking, finance, media / communications, and software development are all running below levels seen in February 2020, as the pandemic was kicking into high gear.

Part-time white collar?

According to the report, part of the white-collar weakness is the result of a large pullback in 'temporary-help employment' according to the BLS. The category, considered something of an economic bellwether, indicates that businesses are shedding part-time positions before full-time ones. Since the sector peaked two years ago, 420,000 of those jobs have vanished.

In March note, Vanguard's chief global economist, Joe Davis, wrote that demand is greatest for workers making under $55,000 per year, as hiring rates for those in the bottom-third of the US income distribution far outpaced that of higher-income workers.

Source: Vanguard, as of October 2023.

"Many higher-income workers accepted slower wage growth as a trade-off for remote work flexibility," wrote Davis. "These dynamics have all contributed to the faster rise in wages for lower-income workers."

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 17:20

Patrick McHenry Slams SEC's Gary Gensler For Misleading US Lawmakers Over Ether

Authored by Turner Wright via CoinTelegraph.com,

United States House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry has alleged Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler “knowingly misled Congress” over the regulator’s alleged attempts to classify Ether as a security.

In an April 30 X post, Representative McHenry claimed that Gensler intentionally misled lawmakers in testimony before the Committee.

The U.S. lawmaker referred to claims made in a recent court filing by software development firm Consensys, which filed a lawsuit against the SEC on April 25.

Source: Representative Patrick McHenry

Consensys’s initial complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas highlighted public inconsistencies in the SEC’s approach to digital assets as securities, specifically Ether. Unredacted sections of the filing appeared on the court docket on April 29, suggesting that the SEC launched an investigation into ETH as security in March 2023.

Gensler appeared before the House Financial Services Committee in April 2023, pivoting or ducking direct questions from McHenry on whether Ether fell under the SEC’s or Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC’s) purview. The timing of his testimony suggested that the SEC may have already considered Ether a security.

“Clearly, an asset cannot be both a commodity and a security,” said McHenry in the Committee hearing.

“I’m asking you, sitting in your chair now [...] is Ether a commodity or a security?”

If the SEC is pursuing a path that could put it at odds with the CFTC over Ether, it could have ramifications for approving or denying spot Ether exchange-traded funds on U.S. exchanges. The SEC began approving investment vehicles tied to ETH futures in October 2023, with many experts speculating that the Commission will decide on a spot Ether ETF in May.

McHenry used the opportunity to urge lawmakers to support the passage of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) to establish clear rules of the road between the CFTC and SEC.

The legislation moved out of Committee in July 2023 and is set for a full floor vote in the House.

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 17:00

WTI Extends Losses After API Reports Unexpected Crude Build

WTI ended April on a down-note (closing lower on the month, as opposed to Brent which saw its fourth straight monthly gain) as hopes for cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas dampened fears of a wider conflict that could threaten crude supplies.

The recent declines come as a "relief to both central bankers and consumers alike," Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, told MarketWatch.

There's been a notable decrease in speculation about the possibility of U.S. benchmark WTI surpassing the $100-a-barrel threshold, at least for now, he said. This shift in sentiment can be attributed, in part, to "reduced concerns about disruptions to Iranian production, following Israel's measured response to previous drone attacks."

Meanwhile, "attention should also be directed towards peace talks, as progress in this area could further contribute to a decrease in oil prices," said Innes.

But, after last week's big crude draw, analysts expect another drawdown in stocks this week.

API

• Crude +4.91mm (-1.5mm exp)

• Cushing +1.48mm

• Gasoline -1.48mm (-1.2mm exp)

• Distillates -2.19mm (+400k exp)

Crude stocks unexpectedly rose almost 5mm barrels last week while distillates inventories declined notably...

Source: Bloomberg

WTI was hovering around $81.65 ahead of the API print and extended losses modestly after...

Despite the reprieve in oil prices, crude-oil markets are expected to remain volatile, said Innes, partly due to uncertainty surrounding the pace of global oil demand growth, the rise in non-OPEC+ and U.S. oil production, the potential for supply disruptions in regions like Russia and the Middle East and, critically, OPEC+'s future production strategy.

"These dynamics underscore the ongoing challenges and complexities within the oil market landscape," Innes said.

Tyler Durden Tue, 04/30/2024 - 16:38