Month: August 2024

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced that it has successfully negotiated lower prices for 10 of the most expensive and widely used drugs covered under Medicare.

“For the first time ever, Medicare negotiated directly with drug companies and the American people are better off for it,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in an Aug. 15 statement, adding that the new prices, set to take effect in 2026, are expected to save the Medicare program $6 billion in the first year and reduce out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries by $1.5 billion.

The selected drugs, which include blood thinners including Eliquis and Xarelto, diabetes medications such as Jardiance and Januvia, and treatments for heart failure and autoimmune diseases, accounted for $56.2 billion in Medicare spending in 2023 alone, per a CMS fact sheet.

Nearly 9 million of the 54 million people with Medicare Part D coverage were dispensed the 10 drugs that are the subject of the price reductions.

The negotiation process, led by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), involved discussions with pharmaceutical companies over several months.

“These negotiations will not only lower the prices of critically important medications for cancer, diabetes, heart failure, and more, but will also save billions of dollars,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement.

Before the drug prices were finalized, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that drug price negotiations could save the federal government $25 billion by 2031.

CMS said that, next year, it can select another batch of drugs for price negotiations.

“Our team is actively working on the next cycle of negotiations where we will combine what we have learned from this first cycle and apply it in negotiating prices for the next round of up to 15 selected drugs,” Meena Seshamani, CMS deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare, said in a statement.

After selecting 15 drugs covered by Medicare Part D for price negotiation for 2027, CMS will choose another 15 drugs for 2028, with plans to select up to 20 drugs each year after that.

The 10 selected drugs that will be cheaper in 2026, along with their Medicare costs from May 2022 to June 2023 and the percentage discount of the negotiated price from the 2023 list price, are as follows:

• Eliquis: A blood thinner used to reduce the risk of stroke, costing Medicare $16.5 billion, to be 56 percent cheaper.
• Jardiance: A diabetes and heart failure medication, costing $7 billion, to be 66 percent cheaper.
• Xarelto: Another blood thinner, costing $6 billion, to be 62 percent cheaper.
• Januvia: A diabetes drug, costing $4.1 billion, to be 79 percent cheaper.
• Farxiga: Used for diabetes, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease, costing $3.3 billion, to be 68 percent cheaper.
• Entresto: A heart failure drug, costing $2.9 billion, to be 53 percent cheaper.
• Enbrel: Treats autoimmune conditions, costing $2.8 billion, to be 67 percent cheaper.
• Imbruvica: A leukemia treatment, costing $2.7 billion, to be 38 percent cheaper.
• Stelara: Treats autoimmune diseases, costing $2.6 billion, to be 66 percent cheaper.
• NovoLog, Fiasp (insulin aspart): Insulin products, costing $2.6 billion, to be 76 percent cheaper.

The White House said in an Aug. 15 statement that the negotiations were made possible thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, which gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.

“For years, millions of Americans were forced to choose between paying for medications or putting food on the table, while Big Pharma blocked Medicare from being able to negotiate prices on behalf of seniors and people with disabilities,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “But we fought back–and won.”

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to join Biden at an event on Aug. 15 to announce the drug prices, which will mark their first joint speaking appearance since she replaced him at the top of the Democratic ticket.

As stocks continued to crash last week, money-market funds saw a second week of significant inflows (+$28.4BN) which together with the prior week’s $52.7BN, pushed total MM assets under management to a new record high of $6.216 TN…

Source: Bloomberg

And while bank deposits also saw (huge) inflows the prior week, the week-ending 8/7 saw seasonally-adjusted (SA) US bank deposits plunge $77BN – the biggest weekly drop since Tax Day in April…

Source: Bloomberg

Non-seasonally-adjusted (NSA) deposits also tumbled (by $74BN)…

Source: Bloomberg

Excluding foreign deposits, US bank domestic deposits (SA and NSA) plunged as stocks tumbled (-$70BN and -$78BN respectively)…

Source: Bloomberg

On an SA basis, large banks saw $73.5BN of deposit outflows (the biggest since march 2023 – SVB!) and small banks $3.5BN on inflows. On an NSA basis, large banks suffered an $82BN deposits drawdown while small banks saw $4BN in inflows…

Source: Bloomberg

Fiittingly, on the other side of the ledger, bank loan volumes plunged last week (driven by a $17.6BN drop in loans at large banks offset very modestly by a $0.8BN increase in loan volumes at small banks)…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, we note that US equity market cap rose this week while bank deposits at The Fed remained flat…

Source: Bloomberg

Will this historically-strong relationship ever re-couple?

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

“It’s all projection of their own bad desires, bad actions, personal afflictions to the point where the best way to tell what they plan to do is to see what they accuse others of.”

– El Gato Malo on Democrats

It’s fun to muse on the torrent of panicked, deranged texting between Democratic Convention delegates as a runaway train of malignant fates, bad choices, insane policies, delusional ideas, and feral emotion drives them to nominate a moron for president. The confusion and self-doubt must be epic. Are we really gonna do this? Is this really happening? You must imagine this is the same state of mind as, say, a car-full of drunken bridesmaids fishtailing down the highway at 70mph toward a telephone pole.

The mis-plays and subterfuges that brought them to this pass cannot be undone: the insult of letting “Joe Biden” front for a criminal blob government, the many hoaxes and the exorbitant lawfare lawlessness, the gross mismanagement of public affairs, wreckage of institutions, ruined economy, devalued dollar, destruction of households and communities, sexual lunacy and programmed mental illness — this is the party’s legacy. Are none among them even a little bit ashamed of the damage they’ve done to this nation? And maybe wondering about it between one another? Perhaps even anxious to make it stop?

And so, the delegates head to Chicago, a city in civic freefall, to either pretend to celebrate the capricious selection of utterly dubious leaders imposed on them by unseen hands, or, just maybe, to revolt against the evil cabal affecting to “defend our democracy” by squashing it. Of course that’s inside the convention. Lord knows what hijinks are being concocted for outside the United Center arena by the various tribes that run on hot yellow bile these dog days of summer — the Hamas mob, the sex freaks, Antifas, BLMs, assorted Bolsheviks, anarchists, utopians, climate change sob-sisters, Gramscian culture stompers, Spartacists, Trotskyites, Jacobins, Fabians, and plain old riffraff out for fun and loot. The gigantic parking wasteland surrounding the United Center on West Madison Street has the look of a perfect battlefield.

All that commences on Monday.

In the meantime, much misdirection zings around the Trumpian opposition and the outlier Robert F Kennedy, Jr., as the intel blob that runs mainstream media attempts to seed dissension and confusion amongst them. It includes rumors that Mr. Trump made “a deal” with the blob to go all flabby in exchange for getting let off the hook on his many blob-contrived lawfare problems. The chance of that being true must be zero, even though New York Judge Juan Merchan has an opportunity to send the former president to jail on September 18. I would like to see him try that. It will surely prompt the most momentous and memorable tableau of symbolic resistance in US history since John Paul Jones yelled to the British ship Serapis requesting his surrender, “I have not yet begun to fight.”

As for RFK, Jr., stories circulate that Mr. Trump tried (and failed) to make a deal that would have got Bobby on-board as veep, or some other juicy assignment, if he would drop out of the race. But it’s hard to see exactly how that discredits either of them, since just about everybody expects Mr. Trump, if elected, to employ Bobby for, at least, cleaning up the public health and pharma sectors of the blob — an epic task he’s ideally suited for.

Then, there was malicious chatter late this week that Bobby had approached Kamala Harris with a proffered endorsement in exchange for a key position in her government — assuming that massive ballot fraud ensures her victory November fifth. Mr. Kennedy denied the rumor and went on to denounce the current incarnation of the Democratic Party as utterly inimical to everything it used to represent when his father and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, were in office, especially on matters of free speech and censorship.

As that quarrel rolled out, Judge Christina Ryba kicked Bobby off the New York ballot for supposedly mis-stating that he was a New York resident on his own voter registration. He intends to appeal. New York has become a judicial sewer under Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul.

So, stand by now to see whether Kamala Harris and Tim Walz come out of next week’s convention Mixmaster the same way they went in: as bona fide candidates. At some point Ms. Harris will have to demonstrate some fitness for high office besides being a go-go dancer and a laugh riot. Tim Walz acts so unhinged in front of every audience that I expect the campaign to stuff him in a broom closet when the convention is over — should he actually still be on the ticket when all is said and done.

It seems at this point that the brooding Matron of Chappaqua will never get her “turn” in the White House after all. It must gall Hillary to see history change her out for an equity hire with half a brain. Politics is a cruel business. You’ll see just how cruel the next time they try to whack Mr. Trump in this No Prisoners, End of the Road election campaign. It will almost certainly get crazier from here.

*  *  *

Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page or Substack

We are sure it’s just a coincidence…

…but on the day that Kamala Harris unveils her price-fixing, vote-buying agenda for economic growth…

…the dollar plunged to 5-month lows…

Source: Bloomberg

… and gold soared to a record high, topping $2500 for the first time…

Source: Bloomberg

US equities also soared this week to their best week since 2023, led by a a 5%-plus surge in the Nasdaq (up 12% from last Monday’s lows)…

Nasdaq rallied up to a key technical resistance level – at its 50DMA and the last July high…

Which mirrors the rebound in Mag7 stocks (as they rallied up to the late-July highs, but couldn’t break it)…

Source: Bloomberg

Small Caps were lifted by an ongoing short-squeeze…

Source: Bloomberg

VIX was clubbed like a baby seal on the week, extending its largest/fastest retracement ever…

The collapse of implied vol this week leaves a massive discount to the realized vol of the last month…

Source: Bloomberg

Credit markets rallied hard this week, adjust back from “hard landing” to “soft landing” scenarios…

Source: Bloomberg

Despite all the focus on jobless claims, CPI, and retail sales, this week was actually a ‘weak’ one for US macro surprises…

Source: Bloomberg

…and that sparked a hawkish drop in rate-cut expectations – back to pre-payrolls levels (less than 200bps of cuts to end-2025)…

Source: Bloomberg

That prompted weakness at the short-end (+1bps) of the Treasury curve on the week (but the long-end ended 7bps lower on the week). The obvious shift was the bearish rise in yields after CPI…

Source: Bloomberg

The yield curve flattened significantly on the week, with 2s10s re-inverting…

Source: Bloomberg

Another choppy week for crypto but today saw Bitcoin surge back up to $60,000 as Kamala spoke. to end the week unchanged…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices were flat on the week after some volatile days…

Source: Bloomberg

The other side of the AI-trade – copper – is not buying the euphoria in AI stocks…

Source: Bloomberg

Also worth noting is that the yen carry trade was not fully embraced to lift stocks…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, the plunge in the dollar and surge in stocks and gold all took place since Kamala overtook Trump in the prediction markets…

Source: Bloomberg

Coincidence?

Authored by Jesse Coghlan via CoinTelegraph.com,

San Francisco’s City Attorney has filed a lawsuit against the owners of 16 websites that have allowed users to “nudify” women and young girls using AI.

The office of San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu on Aug. 15 said he was suing the owners of 16 of the “most-visited websites” that allow users to “undress” people in a photo to make “nonconsensual nude images of women and girls.”

A redacted version of the suit filed in the city’s Superior Court alleges the site owners include individuals and companies from Los Angeles, New Mexico, the United Kingdom and Estonia who have violated California and United States laws on deepfake porn, revenge porn and child sexual abuse material.

The websites are far from unknown, either. The complaint claims that they have racked up 200 million visits in just the first half of the year.

One website boasted that it allows its users to “see anyone naked.” Another says, “Imagine wasting time taking her out on dates when you can just use [the website] to get her nudes,” according to the complaint.

Source: SF City Attorney

The AI models used by the sites are trained on images of porn and child sexual abuse material, Chiu’s office said.

Essentially, someone can upload a picture of their target to generate a realistic, pornographic version of them. Some sites limit their generations to adults only, but others even allow images of children to be created.

Chiu’s office said the images are “virtually indistinguishable” from the real thing and have been used to “extort, bully, threaten, and humiliate women and girls,” many of which have no ability to control the fake images once they’ve been created.

In February, AI-generated nude images of 16 eighth-grade students — who are typically 13 to 14 years old — were shared around by students at a California middle school, it said.

In June, ABC News reported Victoria Police arrested a teenager for allegedly circulating 50 images of grade nine to 12 students who attended a school outside Melbourne, Australia.

“This investigation has taken us to the darkest corners of the internet, and I am absolutely horrified for the women and girls who have had to endure this exploitation,” said Chiu.

“We all need to do our part to crack down on bad actors using AI to exploit and abuse real people, including children,” he added.

Chiu said that AI has “enormous promise,” but there are criminals that are exploiting the technology, adding, “We have to be very clear that this is not innovation — this is sexual abuse.”

Authored by David Harsanyi via PJMedia.com,

The past month has likely been the most eventful in American political history. Yet the two top officials of the most powerful nation in the world won’t answer any genuine questions.

Three weeks have passed since Joe Biden was pushed out of the 2024 presidential race over deteriorating physical and mental abilities, and he has yet to publicly clarify with any specificity why he took this unprecedented step — or why, if he’s incapable of campaigning for the presidency, he’s fit to serve out his term in the White House.

Then again, not one journalist in the corporate or legacy media has explained how Biden’s obvious senility could turn from a democracy-corroding MAGA misinformation operation into an accepted reality in a single day.

If they were fooled for three years, how can we trust them? If they weren’t fooled, and they didn’t tell us, how can we trust them?

Well, we can’t. Because they’re back at it.

The Democrats’ new presidential candidate, who has never won a single primary vote, might have been crowned but hasn’t given a real interview or even an extemporaneous political statement since Democrat bigwigs pushed Biden aside.

In a functioning liberal “democracy,” this would be pretty big news.

The last time the vice president of the United States had a press conference was December 2023. The last time she sat down with any media was June 24, when she was interviewed by the sycophants on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Before that was the “Momala” Harris interview with Drew Barrymore, which might be the most cringeworthy display of fawning in recorded history.

“What is the incentive for her [to take more questions]?” a person close to Kamala Harris’ campaign told Politico recently. “She’s getting out exactly the message she wants to get out.”

Indeed, it’s quite the paradox. The media continue to baby Harris and get her message out to the public, so Harris doesn’t feel the least bit of urgency in clarifying her record.

If they were so inclined, the navel-gazing media could probably get Harris out of her shell by doing some honest deep dives into her history and positions. If her lack of transparency were a daily top-of-the-fold story, she would be compelled to speak.

Say what you will about Donald Trump, but he’s done scores of interviews and pressers over the past few months, many of them with antagonistic venues — including taking questions at the National Association of Black Journalists convention just weeks after surviving an assassination attempt.

Harris hasn’t spoken to a hostile outlet in years. She won’t even take questions from her fans.

Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, is compelled to answer questions about a throwaway comment he made on a podcast before he was even in the Senate. Harris just sends her minions to walk back major policy positions that would fundamentally affect every American. She staked out these radical positions only a few years earlier while running for the same office. Harris isn’t triangulating her views for a general election; she is effectively negating an entire political history through press releases.

Harris, for instance, says she no longer supports banning all air travel, meat and combustible engines. That’s nice. Harris says she no longer believes in decriminalizing illegal border crossings. Good. The media treat her new claims as indisputable. No questions asked. No explanations given.

Is Harris still going to try to ban semiautomatic rifles through an executive order? Does she believe all Americans should “end up in the same place” no matter how hard they work? Does she support defunding the police? We have no clue.

Most of the media hackery is driven by partisanship. Some of it is also driven by access. There are practical concerns for journalists. Any reporters who truly challenge Harris are sure to find themselves on the outs. This is why we need a press, not just an outlet, to take their professional responsibility seriously. Because right now, they don’t.

Instead, the same people who gaslit the nation, concealing the brittle state of the president for years — not just an abdication of their profession but of their responsibility as citizens — are now ensuring that voters won’t be subjected to Harris’ swirling, mind-bending tautologies and nonsensical stories.

And I’d thank them for it … if she weren’t running for president.

By Micaiah Bilger of The College Fix

‘Discriminatory beliefs are woven into everyday spaces,’ professors say

A group of Spanish scholars has created a new app that they say will help identify racially “offensive,” “harmful” street names and “repair past wrongs.”

Geography Professors Derek Alderman at the University of Tennessee and Joshua Inwood at Penn State University described the STNAMES LAB app as an “important education tool” in a recent article at The Conversation. Project leader Professor Daniel Oto-Peralías at Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Spain also co-wrote the article.

The app “will help communities understand how discriminatory beliefs are woven into everyday spaces and the harm caused by offensive names,” the professors wrote.

“After tracking a few of America’s most contested place and institution names, we believe the app will help people see the changes necessary to recognize and repair past wrongs in street naming,” they wrote.

The STNAMES LAB app allows users to search for specific terms used in street names in North America and western European countries, and provides exact locations and downloadable spreadsheets of the streets.

On the North American map, the professors said they searched for names with the words “savage” and “squaw”:

We found 429 streets scattered across 47 states with a name containing the word “sq—.”

Although “sq—” originated in the Algonquian language, European settlers corrupted and misused the word in reducing Native American women to a simplistic and sexualized image. Being called “sq—” is still a painful daily reality for Indigenous women. Many of them say the term injures their self-image and sense of belonging. …

We found 415 roads in 46 states using the word “savage” in their name.

The professors said the app reveals how “pervasive a problem” these street names are in America. Names “can transmit harmful messages that misrepresent the history and identity of minority communities,” they wrote.

They expressed hope the app will help initiate change, writing, “When hurtful names are removed from roads, some members of oppressed communities describe how the spirit or feeling of places can change and allow healing to begin.”

Scholars who created the app expressed similar thoughts, writing on the project website, “The frequent controversies occurring around the naming and renaming of streets, as well as the use that political regimes make of street names to inscribe a certain ideology into the urban landscape testify their symbolic power.”

Removing names deemed to be offensive has become more common in recent years among higher education institutions.

In May, Boston University announced plans to strip Plymouth Colony leader Myles Standish’s name from one of its dormitories after faculty accused him of “terrible acts against the native people,” The College Fix reported.

Meanwhile, a Johns Hopkins University board is considering removing the name of President Woodrow Wilson from a fellowship program, The Fix reported.

Other examples include “Star Spangled Banner” author Francis Scott Key, former U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall, scientist Carl Linnaeus, and General Robert E. Lee’s horse.

Shares of Rivian Automotive dipped slightly in premarket trading after a Bloomberg report revealed that production of its electric commercial van had been paused due to a parts shortage. 

Rivian confirmed the production halt at the EV van’s assembly lines in Normal, Illinois. No specifics were given about the part shortage or a timeline for restarting production lines. 

A company spokesperson said part shortages are all too common across the industry, adding that production for the R1 electric pickup and SUV models has been unaffected. 

“We’re aware that Rivian encountered short-term production issues this month, and we don’t expect it to impact us,” an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg. 

In 2019, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos placed a $7 billion order for 100,000 electric delivery vans by the end of this decade. So far, about 15,000 are in service. 

According to Bloomberg, “The interruption marks another production hiccup for the EV maker as it works toward boosting output of its EV lineup next year.” 

Rivian shares in premarket trading in New York are down around 1%. Shares have been range bound between $40 and $10 handles for the last two years – basing – amid a downturn in the EV space and a resulting price war by Tesla to protect market share.

In late June, Volkswagen announced a billion dollar investment in Rivian to develop the next-gen EV architecture. This was a crucial lifeline for the company amid the downturn.

There’s a potential for the EV downturn to bottom after the Federal Reserve embarks on the interest rate-cutting cycle, which could begin as soon as next month. Lower rates would make car-buying more affordable again for average folks.

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

• AI technology is causing a surge in US power demand, especially from data centers.

• This is pushing up wholesale electricity prices, boosting profits for power producers.

• Consumers are likely to face higher electricity bills as utilities invest in grid upgrades to meet the rising demand.

The U.S. power market is poised for a major shake-up as consumption is soaring amid the AI technology boom.

The surge in power demand, led by data centers, has started to create winners in the American electricity sector. Expectations of booming consumption in the coming years are raising wholesale and retail power prices, pushing up profits for power-generating firms and utilities, and raising household bills for consumers.

The AI-led jump in power demand could also kick-start legislative changes in some states that could allow utilities to own and invest in power-generation capacity.

Power Producers’ Profits Jump

Many independent power producers are boosting their earnings guidance, expecting much higher wholesale capacity auction prices for the coming years to continue supporting their revenues.  

Amid tighter supplies, this year’s capacity auction prices at one of the biggest regional U.S. markets have soared compared to last year. 

PJM Interconnection, which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity and ensures power supplies for 65 million people in all or parts of 13 eastern and Midwest U.S. states and D.C., said at the end of July that it had secured sufficient resources to meet the reliability requirement for the 2025/2026 Delivery Year.  

The auction produced a price of $269.92 per megawatt (MW)-day for much of the PJM footprint, compared to $28.92/MW-day for the 2024/2025 auction. That’s more than a nine-fold jump in just one year.

The key drivers of the higher prices included decreased supply offers into the auction due mainly to generator retirements, an increase in projected peak load, and FERC-approved market reforms, including improved reliability risk modeling for extreme weather. 

The high prices in areas in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina are “due to insufficient resources inside those regions and constraints on the transmission system that limit the ability to import capacity,” according to PJM.

“These prices indicate that those regions would benefit from either additional resources, additional transmission to allow increased imports into those regions, or a combination of the two,” said PJM. 

As a result of the high prices that power generators cleared at the capacity auctions, many electricity producers raised their earnings guidance when announcing Q2 results this month.

Talen Energy, for example, raised its 2024 guidance ranges, with a new Adjusted EBITDA range of $720 million to $780 million and a new Adjusted Free Cash Flow range of $245 million to $285 million. 

Vistra Corp said it’s confident that it would achieve Ongoing Operations Adjusted EBITDA results toward the upper end of the guidance range for 2024.

“Additionally, given our strong hedge profile and the recent PJM capacity auction results, we are increasing the range of our midpoint opportunity for 2025 Ongoing Operations Adjusted EBITDA by $200 million to $5,200 million to $5,700 million,” said Jim Burke, president and chief executive officer of Vistra. 

The corporation has started construction of two new solar facilities, a 200-MW site backed by Amazon in Texas and a 405-MW site backed by Microsoft in Illinois. 

Constellation Energy raised its adjusted operating earnings per share for 2024, too, as its commercial business is outperforming the guidance in a volatile market. 

The jump in PJM’s capacity auction prices will translate into a $0.25 additional boost to earnings per share (EPS) for 2025 and $1.25 in additional EPS for 2026, Constellation Energy said.  

Capacity auction prices will likely remain high in the next few years as power producers race to add more power plants to the grid amid surging demand. 

“What we’re seeing in the [latest] capacity auction is the tip of the iceberg,” Hugh Wynne, co-head of utilities and renewable energy research at SSR, told The Wall Street Journal, commenting on the capacity and supply needs of the U.S. power market. 

Higher Prices for Consumers

The need for more power resources and increased investments in transmission lines and grid expansions and upgrades will start to raise the cost of household electricity prices as utilities, when allowed by regulators, will seek to pass on some of the higher costs and capex onto consumers. 

U.S. consumers are set to pay higher electricity bills as power providers raise investments in much-needed grid improvements amid an old power system that is not designed to cope with soaring demand and more frequent extreme weather events.   

Over the past year, electricity price inflation has outpaced total consumer inflation in the United States. Expected further hikes in power rates for consumers could spark political backlash in some states and service areas. 

“Transmission and distribution costs have been one of the major drivers for increases in retail electricity prices in recent years,” U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says. 

Due to tighter power supply, electric utility stocks are on the rebound this year as the surge in artificial intelligence technology has created a most unlikely winner on the stock market.

The U.S. power sector landscape could also be on the tip of regulatory changes as some regionally regulated utilities are pushing for changes to be allowed to invest in new generation capacity. 

Such is the case with Pennsylvania-based PPL Corporation, whose Vice President for Investor Relations, Andy Ludwig, said on the Q2 earnings call that the company would be “advocating for legislative changes in Pennsylvania that would drive needed generation development, including authority that would support regulated utility investments in new generation.” 

Former US president Donald Trump’s consistent message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the ongoing Gaza war has been that Israel should get it done quickly, declare victory, and then walk away.

The Republican presidential nominee was questioned by reporters at a New Jersey press event Thursday whether he has called for Netanyahu to achieve ceasefire with Hamas in their private conversations. Trump revealed that when he met Netanyahu last month at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate he told the Israeli leader to swiftly “get your victory” because the “killing has to stop” in Gaza.

However, Trump denied pressing Netanyahu for a ceasefire and asserted that Netanyahu “knows what he’s doing.” Trump has heaped criticism on VP Kamala Harris precisely for openly urging a quick ceasefire.

“I did encourage him to get this over with. You want to get it over with fast. Have victory, get your victory, and get it over with. It has to stop, the killing has to stop,” Trump added, positing a big of a significant caveat.

Trump spelling out that the “killing has to stop” is the closest he has come to criticizing the way Israel is executing the war in Gaza.

“From the start, Harris has worked to tie Israel’s hand behind its back, demanding an immediate ceasefire, always demanding ceasefire,” Trump said at the New Jersey event. He added that it “would only give Hamas time to regroup and launch a new October 7 style attack.”

“I will give Israel the support that it needs to win but I do want them to win fast,” Trump added. But the fact remains that Hamas as a guerrilla force is able to utilize networks of tunnels which are seemingly endless, making a protracted conflict inevitable if Tel Aviv really hopes to fully eradicate Hamas, which some IDF generals have said is impossible.

All of this comes the same week that the Gaza Health Ministry has announced over 40,000 dead in Gaza since last October. Israel has consistently disputed these figures, saying they are inflated that at least 17,000 of the dead were Hamas terrorists.

There has been some tensions and awkward back-and-forth this week between Netanyahu’s office and the Trump campaign, after Axios reported that Netanyahu’s office “said in a statement Thursday that he did not speak with former President Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.”

News of the alleged phone call has stirred controversy, with some accusing Trump of circumventing proper government channels related to representing US foreign policy at a sensitive moment…

Netanyahu’s been clear for months he will not accept a lasting ceasefire deal. He’s said so dozens of times. Yet Biden keeps faking like this is a thing that could happen without a credible threat of US cutting off aid—which Biden refuses to do. The Trump angle is a non sequitur https://t.co/RJ44D6BIaF

— Adam Johnson (@adamjohnsonCHI) August 15, 2024

This after Axios earlier reported that the two had a secretive phone call to discuss the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, according to two US officials. But the Trump team neither confirmed nor denied, and didn’t issue comment.