Month: September 2024

Brazil’s Center for Natural Disaster Monitoring and Alerts has reported that drought conditions plague roughly 59% of the country, including vast areas of agricultural land. The severe drought has damaged several key commodity crops in the South American country, which is known as the world’s top exporter of soybeans, sugarcane, beef, coffee, corn, orange juice, and poultry.

Focusing on sugar markets, Bloomberg cited data from trader Wilmar International showing that droughts are expected to severely impact sugar production in the Center-South, Brazil’s central growing region. So far, the dismal crop forecasts have catapulted raw sugar futures in New York to the largest weekly gain in six years, nearly eclipsing those levels and hitting levels not seen since 2008.

Wilmar wrote on X that a series of unusual weather events have significantly impacted the sugarcane crop in the Center-South region. This has led to a downward revision of the crop estimate to 38.8-40.8 million tons, down from the initial 42 million tons. 

*** Crop Revision in Brazil Center-South : 38.8-40.8 Mln tons ***

A series unusual and persistent weather events along the year lead us to largely revise our crop estimate for Brazil CS:

1. a significantly higher amount of bisada-cane (more than 20MMT) crushed in the first… pic.twitter.com/PnslEq3kGX

— Wilmar Sugar (@SugarWilmar) September 19, 2024

Mark Bowman, senior global market analyst at ADM Investor Services, told Bloomberg, “The diminishing outlook for Brazil’s Center-South production has been the key fundamental factor,” adding, “The dry conditions and the possibility of a drop in their production have been known for some time, but recent reports have accelerated the concerns.”

Concerns about lower production and tightening global supplies sent the most active raw sugar future contracts in New York up as much as 3.7%. It’s on track for a weekly gain of 18%, the highest weekly gain since the first week of 2018. This would be the second-largest weekly jump since August 2008.

Meanwhile, orange juice markets are running out of juice amid the worst drought in half a century. Prices are hyperinflating in New York.

Padilla said, “The smallest crop in 35 years, plus rising citrus greening disease, plus drought — it’s the perfect storm,” adding, “The market is really stressed.”

And this:

• “Unwelcome News” For Consumers: Ag Juggernaut Brazil’s Beef Supplies To Slide Amid Cattle Crunch In US
• Arabica Bean Hits 2011 Highs As Coffee Inflation Soars

Consumers around the world are haunted by food inflation. 

Food inflation is sticky.

Authored by Michael O’Sullivan via RealClearEnergy,

We don’t want to be dependent on foreign oil and we should invest in diverse forms of energy. That’s what we heard from sitting Vice President Kamala Harris in the most recent debate spectacle. Her exact words: “My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil.”

Now let’s be fair. If she wants to convince people to spend more money on “diverse” energy sources, then this is a clever angle. If you’re one of those stubborn contrarians opposed to scaring people about the climate, then perhaps you’ll join up in the spirit of American independence. Renewables are not just about being green—they’re about freedom from the stranglehold of foreign powers. And with people wising up to the not-so-green realities of wind and solar, we would be prudent to find an alternate virtue to which we can appeal. Independence. Very clever.

So much for fair. Now let’s be accurate. If your goal is to avoid dependence on foreign oil, then we can simply use American oil. Our country is flush with the stuff and we are quite good at getting it out of the ground, thanks especially to the fracking boom. Ever since 2018 the U.S. has been the world’s largest oil producer—a title previously held by Saudi Arabia and Russia. Among countries well-positioned for oil independence, ours is head of the class. But that’s not a complete picture.

It’s one thing to have the oil (geologically speaking). It’s another to extract it, transport it, refine it into usable products, and get those products to the consumer. Thanks to human ingenuity, we have the science and engineering to do those things in a largely safe and responsible manner (the dramatic reduction in methane emissions is a good example). Accidents are far less frequent than even just 20 or 30 years ago. But even with responsible industry behavior we face a persistent obstacle—government behavior. The reasons are a topic for another day, but it is a plain fact we have government officials and agencies who raise themselves up as fierce enemies of our friend, the hydrocarbon.

So they do things like shut down pipeline projects. And they arbitrarily raise the cost to drill on public land while simultaneously cutting the cost for producing “renewable” energy on the same land. And they impose exceedingly aggressive limits and thresholds that threaten grid reliability. And the pièce de résistance: they team up with media friends to inundate the citizenry with alarmist messaging until we’re all convinced we must quit our addiction to fossil fuels or risk our own destruction. If your friends from the oil and gas industry look tired, this is why.

I should point out this sort of obstructionism does not fully permeate our government at all levels. There are pockets of reasonable thinkers who make some effort toward smart decisions about energy policy. But the anti-hydrocarbon religion has been sufficiently evangelized so as to hinder what ought to be one of our most revered industries. It is certainly the most valuable, existentially speaking. As we say in The BEN Declaration, energy independence is essential to American independence. In this regard, we agree with Vice President Harris—we don’t want dependence on foreign oil. But her solution as advertised is disingenuous and defies fundamental logic.

Very recently I wrote a blog post where I employed the metaphor of a horse race, the horses being various energy sources. The article ended with the notion that someone might be throwing rocks in the path of the lead horse. And then I watched a presidential debate where one of the candidates implied that the lead horse from our own country cannot finish the race. So naturally she would like us to shoot that horse and put our “investment” elsewhere. Say, there’s a nice palomino over here with a beautiful gold coat and a lovely white mane. Unfortunately, it only has three legs.

Ever wonder why those crime statistics don’t necessarily seem to line up with what you’re bearing witness to in real life and on social media? Try this one on for size…

A black illegal immigrant, already wanted for murder in his home country of the Dominican Republic, wound up stabbing a family of four, including two toddlers in upstate New York.

Then, in the in the Monroe County Jail roster, he was recorded as “white”. 

Police in Irondequoit, a Rochester suburb, arrested Julio Cesar Pimentel-Soriano earlier this month after responding to an August 31 house fire where a family was found murdered and the home set ablaze, the Daily Wire reported. 

Chief Scott Peters called it the most heinous crime he’d seen in 32 years. 34 year old Soriano was wanted for a 2019 murder in the Dominican Republic, illegally entered Puerto Rico, and used a fake New York ID to come to New York.

Then, Deputy Brendan Hurley, a spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff told the Daily Wire: “The New York State Division of Criminal Justice provides guidance on Racial Designations” which label ‘white’ as “a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East.”

They label “black” as “a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.”

The Daily Wire report says that the census doesn’t track Hispanic status, so Soriano appears as a white American in demographic data.

Democrats have been accused of manipulating statistics to downplay illegal immigrant crime and push the narrative that “white supremacy domestic terrorism” is the top threat. In one instance, the FBI labeled a Hispanic man who called a judge a ‘cracker’ as a white supremacist, according to the report.

By Bas Van Geffen, Senior Macro Strategist at Rabobank

This week we learned how (not) to say you believe you may be behind the curve without saying you are behind the curve, like a bad game of Taboo. Markets continued to celebrate the outsized Fed cut yesterday. Equity markets around the globe posted further gains, with Europe up 1.8% and the S&P 500 climbing 1.7%. But other than that, the decision could still backfire for Powell. Both in terms of credibility, and in terms of politics.

Starting with his credibility, Powell’s explanation of the 50bp move raised many an eyebrow this week. The Fed Chair refuted that the central bank had fallen behind the curve, saying that it was merely “recalibrating” its policy. Hilarity ensued when Powell then explained the move by stating that the Fed had been so patient, that it was now able to implement a bigger rate cut. Yet, isn’t the sole reason to take bigger steps that you’ve fallen behind and now have to catch up?

*POWELL: QCEW REPORT SUGGESTS PAYROLLS MAY BE REVISED DOWN

Oh no, the Fed was relying on doctored and made up government data meant to boost Biden’s reputation and to confuse the Fed?

Unpossible

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 18, 2024

Likewise, the 50bp cut did not resonate with the Fed’s assessment that the economy is still “strong”. As our US strategist argued, the whole press conference could have come straight from Orwell’s 1984: “War is peace; Freedom is slavery; Ignorance is strength.” Does the latter also apply to central bankers nowadays?

Finally, considering the latest dot plot, it’s also odd that the FOMC voted 11 to 1 in favor of the outsized cut. The strong backing for a large step contrasts with the individual policymakers’ forecasts of the end-2024 Fed funds rate. The median forecast now corresponds to 100bp of cuts before the end of the year. With only three meetings available (including this week’s), that could only be attained if the Fed cut by 50bp at one of these meetings. Powell clearly chose to frontload this. Yet, this median forecast masks the underlying disagreement: if only one FOMC member were to change their mind, the median forecast would switch from 100bp of easing in 2024 to just 75bp. Given that 50bp have been delivered this week, that would essentially require the Fed to skip November or December!

We weren’t the only ones to notice these inconsistencies in Powell’s reasoning, and that could just cost him his job. Donald Trump took the outsized rate cut to attack both Harris’ economic agenda and the Federal Reserve: “I guess it shows the economy is very bad to cut it by that much,  assuming they’re not just playing politics.” The presidential candidate had already suggested that the Fed could cut rates close to the election for political reasons. And Trump has been quite vocal about wanting to shake up the Fed. So, Powell may just have made a new enemy. And as our US strategist noted, Bowman’s dissenting vote may just have put her in a prime position to take over the helm at the central bank if Trump gets voted back into the White House.

Besides, Powell’s reasoning stands to shed a whole new light on the latest rate decisions elsewhere in the world.

First, the Bank of England held rates unchanged at 5.00% yesterday, as we had expected. Only one dove dissented from the decision in favour of a rate cut, making this a slightly more hawkish hold than the 7-2 split that the market had been expecting. Our UK strategist believes that Deputy Governor Ramsden may have successfully made the case to keep a gradual pace during this easing cycle. The monetary policy committee believes there is a premium on patience. The first ‘sweet spot’ for rate cuts has passed, and remaining risks of an inflation rebound warrant such caution. Either that, or the Bank of England is following the Fed’s “recalibration” strategy of “patiently building momentum” to cut big at a future meeting…

Secondly, considering the Fed’s new logic that 50bp means the economy is doing great, the Japanese economy must be in awful shape for the Bank of Japan to leave policy rates unchanged this morning.

All joking aside, the Bank’s decision to hold had been widely expected. Markets were mainly looking for Governor Ueda’s guidance about potential future hikes. Ueda noted that the economy is coming in line with policymakers’ views, and the central bank will adjust the degree of policy accommodation if the outlook is realised. However, policymakers appear to be in less of a rush now that upside inflation risks have eased. The central bank still expects that wages will continue to rise, but the price risks from JPY depreciation have faded according to the policymakers. So, in short, the Bank of Japan can afford some patience.

And policymakers may use that patience: Ueda noted that financial markets are still unstable, and so the Bank will try to time their next rate hike well. At least Ueda acknowledged the events in July. The governor said he’s aware of the criticism of the Bank of Japan’s communication ahead of the rate hike. Will Powell issue a similar mea culpa for the Fed’s communication ahead of the jumbo cut and his bodged explanation of the decision?

Dr. Jay K. Varma, New York City’s former top public health advisor during the pandemic, was caught on camera bragging about attending drug-fueled sex parties and dance events, even as he instructed millions of New Yorkers to stay home and socially distance. The bombshell revelations have sparked outrage across the city, with politicians and residents alike accusing the former official of blatant hypocrisy.

The footage, released Thursday by conservative podcaster Steven Crowder, shows Varma, who served under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, detailing his pandemic escapades, which included hosting a sex party in a hotel room and attending a massive underground dance party beneath a Wall Street bank.

“I had to be kind of sneaky about it,” Varma admits in the video, speaking casually to a woman off-camera. “I was running the entire Covid response for the city.”

At the time, public health officials in New York, like those in cities and countries around the world, were frantically seeking to contain the virus and Covid’s rising death toll by encouraging people to wear masks and avoid large gatherings. New York City schools were abruptly closed beginning in March 2020. Indoor dining in restaurants was forbidden. Masking indoors in public places was mandatory. –NYT

“I’m gonna make it really fu*king hard to be unvaccinated,” Varma told his undercover date. “I actually was the one who convinced the Mayor to make it a mandate[vaccine].”

BREAKING: Former @NYCMayorsOffice Covid Czar Dr. Jay Varma Admits He ‘Forced’ Vaccinations on Public by Making Their Lives “Uncomfortable”

“I’m gonna make it really fu*king hard to be unvaccinated.”

“I actually was the one who convinced the Mayor to make it a mandate[vaccine].”… https://t.co/ttZ77QdU2k pic.twitter.com/ftFDB0poxp

— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) September 19, 2024

In a statement, Varma didn’t dispute the authenticity of the recordings but claimed they had been “spliced, diced and taken out of context.” He admitted attending three gatherings between August 2020 and June 2021, while advising millions to limit their interactions.

“I take responsibility for not using the best judgment at the time,” Varma said, attempting to downplay the scandal. But the damage was done. The video shows Varma casually describing the events, including a sex party he and his wife hosted with up to 10 people — technically within legal limits for indoor gatherings at the time — and a dance party with over 200 people in a hidden Wall Street venue.

Critics Slam

“This was the public health expert for the city while it was shut down – he was busy having sex parties,” fumed City Councilman Robert Holden, a Democrat from Queens, calling for an investigation. “It’s alarming, especially with so many first responders, city workers, and everyday New Yorkers losing their jobs.”

Joseph Borelli, the Republican minority leader of the City Council, echoed the outrage: “I recall being treated like a pariah for pointing out the obvious at the time — that so many of our so-called leaders were just making up illogical rules as they went along,” Borelli told the Times. “Still, even I couldn’t have predicted how full of it they actually were.”

Several lawmakers fumed over the newly released footage, with Councilmember Joann Ariola (R-Queens) telling The Post it showed the “perverse corruption” of the de Blasio administration.

“This guy was running around living like a drug-fueled Caligula, mandating that ordinary New Yorkers suffer in lockdown and lose their livelihoods while he throws himself parties that could make a rock star blush,” Ariola said.

“Dr. Varma’s pathetic attempt to impress a date further revealed what we all knew — that the ‘leaders’ who shut down businesses, told us not to celebrate Thanksgiving, and fired workers for not taking the vaccine, have always been absolutely full of s–t,” added Councilmember Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island). –NY Post

Varma’s outings have drawn comparisons to other high-profile cases of political hypocrisy during the pandemic, such as Boris Johnson’s infamous lockdown parties in the UK and California Governor Gavin Newsom’s elite dinner at the French Laundry. But in New York, where Covid-19 hit harder than almost anywhere else in the world, Varma’s transgressions are being seen as especially egregious.

A spokesman for Varma, Chris Vlasto, sought to defend the disgraced doctor, claiming that the Wall Street dance party took place in June 2021, after Varma had left his official position at City Hall and transitioned to a part-time consultancy role. Vlasto was mum on the August 2020 hotel party, however, where Varma said he and his wife hosted eight to 10 guests.

“I stand by my efforts to get New Yorkers vaccinated against Covid-19,” Varma said in his statement, pushing back against what he described as a smear campaign from “right-wing extremists” aimed at discrediting public health.

The scandal couldn’t come at a worse time for the city’s already embattled public health apparatus. Varma, who had played a key role in shaping the city’s vaccine policies — including barring Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving from playing in New York for refusing the shot – is now being accused of living by a different set of rules during the pandemic.

Some city workers, fired for refusing to comply with vaccine mandates, are now demanding that their cases be reexamined in light of Varma’s behavior.

Varma has since moved on to the private sector, taking up a role as a professor at Weill Cornell Medical College and serving as the executive vice president at SIGA Technologies, a pharmaceutical company. De Blasio, who had previously praised Varma’s pandemic leadership, remained silent, declining to respond to multiple requests for comment.

Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times,

Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-Okla.) said on Wednesday that Oklahoma has removed over 453,000 ineligible and inactive voter registrations as part of a process to keep voter lists accurate.

State officials said the law requires Oklahoma to update voter lists to ensure only eligible voters participate in elections. The audit and removal of names began in early 2021 to keep voter lists up-to-date, according to the governor’s office.

Since then, almost 100,000 deceased people, over 140,000 who moved out of state, more than 5,000 convicted felons, and nearly 200,000 inactive voters have been removed from voter rolls.

Inactive voters are those who did not respond during the address checks.

“Voting is our most sacred duty as Americans— and every Oklahoman wants to know their vote is securely cast and properly counted,” Stitt said in a Sept. 18 statement.

Just over 2 million people were registered to vote in Oklahoma as of the end of August, half of whom are registered as Republicans, according to data from the state Election Board. Oklahoma has over 534,000 registered Democrats, over 363,000 Independents, and more than 18,000 Libertarians.

The governor said state officials have gone above and beyond to ensure only eligible Oklahomans can vote in the state’s elections.

“All this is going to do is discourage people who are already less inclined to show up to the polls anyway in a deeply red state,” said Democratic state lawmaker Rep. Mauree Turner, who represents Oklahoma City, in comments to Oklahoma Voice.

“My first thought is how many people are in there that have been purged and don’t know that they’ve been purged.”

Secretary of State Josh Cockroft said the steps were necessary and taken in collaboration with the governor’s office, state election officials, and lawmakers.

“We’ve aggressively pursued policies to ensure voting is secure and accurate, and we’re innovating to protect our elections from emerging technology like AI,” Croft said.

“In Oklahoma, every eligible citizen will have their vote counted and their voice heard.”

In recent years, Oklahoma has implemented a range of election integrity measures. The state continues to use hand-marked paper ballots, which are counted by e-scan machines that are not connected to the internet.

Election officials also work closely with Oklahoma Cyber Command to protect the system from potential hackers.

Paul Ziriax, secretary of the bipartisan State Election Board, said the state’s election security is among the best in the nation.

“Oklahoma has a long tradition of doing elections right,” Ziriax said.

“Recounts and post-election audits have consistently proven the accuracy of Oklahoma’s voting system, and our laws and procedures are designed to ensure the integrity and security of our elections.”

Oklahoma residents have until Oct. 11 to register to vote in the Nov. 5 general election.

“No deal is imminent,” a US official has said of Gaza talks in Doha and Cairo. “I’m not sure it ever gets done.” A new Wall Street Journal report says the consensus among White House, State Dept, and Pentagon officials is that a deal is unlikely to happen.

These officials naturally laid sole blame on Hamas; however, Israeli opposition officials have charged that Prime Minister Netanyahu has sabotaged efforts at reaching ceasefire at every turn, in order to prioritize the ultimate drawn-out goal of eradicating Hamas, and assuring it can never return to power in the Gaza Strip again.

The same above-mentioned US official asserted that no deal will happen at least until after the US election: “Everyone is in a wait-and-see mode until after the election. The outcome will determine what can happen in the next administration,” the person said.

In the White House briefing room this week there’s been a stark narrative shift, given only a couple of months ago Secretary Blinken was still claiming the sides were at the ‘goal line’ and ever so close to achieving an agreement for the exchange of hostages.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, for example said Wednesday that a deal now looks “daunting” while describing that “we aren’t any closer to that now than we were even a week ago.” He still claimed US officials are working hard on getting closer.

It’s proving a huge embarrassment for the Biden administration, also as war is flaring up in Lebanon in tandem with Gaza. WSJ details:

National security adviser Jake Sullivan met Wednesday with the relatives of the remaining seven American hostages held in Gaza, telling them that securing their release was a top priority for the president. But a statement from the families said they “expressed frustration with the lack of tangible progress” to Sullivan, urging the administration to make a deal as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, from talk of “goal line” to “not giving up hope”…

KIRBY: NOBODY HAS GIVEN UP HOPE ON ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASE-FIRE

The US officials who spoke to the WSJ described that the Israeli operation in Lebanon which blew up thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies Tuesday and Wednesday has also served to make an Israel-Hamas deal much more elusive.

They further pointed out the other obvious – that a major regional war centered in southern Lebanon is much more likely at this point. As for the US election, it looks assure that either a future Trump administration or future Harris administration is about to inherit a huge mess in the Middle East. 

⚡️Safad is burning following Lebanese strikes pic.twitter.com/QUAMMYpESx

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) September 20, 2024

But it must be remembered it is also in part a mess of Washington’s own making, given the billions in US weaponry to Israel which has fueled the war, and lack of real US pressure on the sides to do another hostage exchange. So the US is not merely ‘on the sidelines’ in all of this.

By Momoka Yokoyama, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

Shares of Japanese automakers are finding no respite as China’s deepening economic woes damp sentiment already weighed down by concerns over a US slowdown and a rebound in the yen.

The three biggest in Japan — Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. — slashed production in China as they lose market share to local manufacturers of electric vehicles and a slumping housing market weighs on domestic consumption. The companies relied on the world’s largest automobile market for more than 16% of their sales in July.

Automakers worldwide are seeing sales slump in China amid a sluggish economy and concerns the nation’s producers will pose a competitive threat to incumbent names. A slight improvement in China’s consumption during a major holiday this week from its pre-pandemic level did little to lift sentiment.

“China’s weak domestic demand will have a global impact, and that will be quite a terrible story for Japan too,” said Tetsuo Seshimo a portfolio manager at Saison Asset Management in Tokyo.

Automakers are trying to adapt to the new landscape. Honda has cut jobs and paused production at plants in China amid an effort to trim inventories and work on a broader shift in strategy. Nissan said in June that it ceased production at a plant in Changzhou. That was preceded by Mitsubishi Motors Corp.’s move last year to suspend local operations as car sales slumped and China shifted to electric vehicles.

The effort may be too little, too late. Japan’s automobile-related shares are down 17% this quarter, the second-worst performer of the Topix’s 33 industry groups. Their index is headed for a sixth month of declines after Japan’s auto exports to China plunged almost 31% in August from a year earlier.

But growing optimism that the US will avoid a recession may help stem future losses after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 basis points in a push to preserve the strength of the world’s largest economy.  

An overwhelming majority in a survey of Bloomberg Terminal subscribers expect a soft landing for the US economy, with 75% forecasting that it will avoid a technical recession by the end of next year.

Japan’s three largest automaker get at least 39% of their revenue from North America, making it their biggest overseas market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.  

However, an economic slump in China isn’t the only concern for automakers, said Saison Asset’s Seshimo. China’s growing auto industry may gradually take market share away from Japan’s carmakers, causing them to suffer the same fate as the nation’s appliance makers, he said.

Chinese automaker BYD Co. already has 40% of total EV volume in Thailand compared with Japanese brands at under 1%, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Steve Man and Joanna Chen.

“Chinese companies are likely to go on offense with a pricing war abroad, potentially intensifying competition with the Japanese names,” said Mamoru Shimode, chief strategist at Resona Asset Management.

In recent years there have been multiple examples of Israeli intelligence operations on Israeli soil, either for assassinations or nuclear sabotage actions, but much more rare is to hear about Iranian intelligence operations conducted inside Israel.

But Israeli security officials announced this week they have disrupted a covert Tehran-sponsored plot to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with other high-ranking officials. Even more bizarre is that an Israeli citizen was the alleged spy and organizer of the assassination plans on behalf of Iran.

Israeli police identified 73-year-old Moti Maman from Ashkelon as being an Iranian intelligence asset. He reportedly expressed willingness to conduct an assassination campaign inside Israel at the behest of his Iranian handlers.

“An Israeli citizen smuggled himself into Iran on two different occasions to meet with Iranian intelligence agents,” an Israeli police spokesman said.

“He expressed a willingness to commit serious acts of terrorism on Israeli soil, including plotting the assassination of high-level officials,” the statement continued. “The suspect, who has since been apprehended, sought large sums of money in exchange for providing intelligence and additional support to Iranian intelligence officials.”

The suspect, who is an Israeli Jew, was allegedly to receive one million dollars in total from Iranian intelligence if the assassinations were carried out. He had reportedly already received €5,000.

While in custody Maman is said to be cooperating with authorities. As yet, the extent of the plot or whether it was actually close to being initiated is still unknown and being investigated.

Israeli investigators said he was posing as a businessman upon his being twice smuggled into Iran from Turkey.

“While Israel is at war on several fronts, an Israeli citizen travels on two different occasions to an enemy state, meets with Iranian intelligence agents and expresses willingness to commit serious acts of terrorism on Israeli soil,” the Shin Bet said further.

According to more cited in FT:

The businessman was told that the Iranian contact, called “Eddie” in the statement, was unable to travel to Turkey. In May the Israeli was taken across the border near the Turkish town of Van to meet Eddie and a second man who identified himself as an “Iranian security operative”, the statement said.

“During this meeting, Eddie offered the Israeli to carry out various security missions within Israel for the Iranian regime, including: transferring money or a gun at predetermined points, photographing various crowded places in the country and sending them to Iranian elements, threatening other Israeli citizens activated in the country by the Iranian regime who did not complete requested tasks,” the statement said.

Shin Bet additionally warned of ongoing efforts to “recruit operatives in Israel for intelligence gathering and carrying out… missions in Israel.” Currently a hot war is growing in southern Lebanon, where the IDF and Iran-backed Hezbollah are engaged in the biggest exchange of fire since Oct.7.

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times,

A congressional investigation analyzing more than 200 million political contributions found potential “criminal activity” and referred the information to five state attorneys general for further review.

The review involved donation reports from ActBlue, an online Democratic fundraising platform, to the Federal Election Commission, according to Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Administration Committee.

“This investigation focused on potential unlawful exploitation of unwitting ‘straw donors,’ whose identities may have been used to channel illicit funds into campaigns in your state,” Steil wrote in a Sept. 18 letter to the attorneys general.

Steil sent letters and information collected over the past year to Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Florida, and Missouri for further investigation into ActBlue.

“The final analysis produced a set of anomalous donor profiles, ranked by the severity of the inconsistencies. In reviewing this analysis, it became clear there is suspicious activity occurring that warrants further review,” the letter stated. 

ActBlue did not require a card verification value (CVV), according to Steil, which made it vulnerable to foreign and illegal contributions.

ActBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

The platform has denied any wrongdoing. 

“This investigation is nothing more than a partisan political attack and scare tactic to undermine the power of Democratic and progressive small-dollar donors,” the organization said in a statement on Aug. 2 as Virginia announced it was opening an investigation.

Republicans have resorted to “political attacks and spreading false accusations” because they can’t accept that millions of Democrats are donating, according to the group’s statement.

In December 2023, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into ActBlue alleging the platform “may enable fraud.”

Paxton said in an Aug. 8 statement ActBlue has cooperated with the Texas investigation and will now require CVV codes for credit card contributions.

In his letter to attorneys general, Steil said whistleblowers reported “anomalies” in Federal Election Commission donor records.

That prompted a data analysis of records spanning 14 years, which looked for suspicious trends by comparing donation patterns to open-source consumer data, voter rolls, and political profiling databases.

The ensuing investigation included consultations with the election commission, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control, according to Steil’s letter.

Findings included donations that were significantly disproportionate to a person’s net worth or previous giving history; uncharacteristic donations from party-affiliated registered voters that suddenly contributed to candidates of the opposing party; and unusually frequent donations from the elderly and first-time donors.

Information, including donor data, was forwarded to state law enforcement agencies due to the “potential criminal activity” surrounding the political contributions, the letter stated.

Last month, Steil asked the election commission for an emergency rule requiring political campaigns to verify the CVV of donors who contribute online by credit or debit cards and prohibiting campaigns from accepting online contributions from gift cards or other prepaid credit cards.

Steil introduced HR 9488, which would require new procedures and safeguards for online donations to U.S. political committees.

Similar concerns were raised in March 2023 by O’Keefe Media Group, which reported that some senior citizens in Maryland and elsewhere denied making the donations attributed to them in Federal Election Commission records.

Donors contacted by O’Keefe Media Group said they made political contributions to ActBlue but had no knowledge of making what amounted to thousands of donations—with some totaling more than $200,000—in a few years.

The media group found similar anomalies in data from WinRed, a Republican platform similar to ActBlue. The House Administration Committee has not said it is investigating WinRed.