Category: zerohedge

Authored by Pat Buchanan,

Within hours of Saturday’s shooting in Times Square where three bystanders, including a 4-year-old girl, were wounded, the two leading candidates to replace Mayor Bill de Blasio were on-site.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a retired captain of the NYPD, and Andrew Yang, who declared:

“My fellow New Yorkers … Nothing works in our city without public safety, and for public safety, we need the police. … My message to the NYPD is this: New York needs you. Your city needs you.

“New York cannot afford to defund the police.”

The rush of Adams and Yang to the scene of the shooting, and the messages they delivered, tells us something about the state of play in politics — and not only in the city of New York.

Liberal mayors and urban politicians who enlisted in the Black Lives Matter “defund the police” movement after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last May, appear to have caught a wave that is now receding.

In the streets of America’s cities, violent crimes are spiking to heights unseen since the 1990s. And, instead of “Defund the Police!” the insistent cry is, “Where are the cops?”

Atlanta is a case in point.

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms just announced she will not run for a second term. While she listed issues and events that exhausted her energy, The New York Times suggests that Atlanta’s soaring crime rate made her vulnerable and Bottoms was looking at possible defeat.

Writes Richard Fausset of the Times:

“The most serious political threat that emerged for Ms. Bottoms in recent months was a phenomenon she had previously described as the ‘Covid crime wave.’ … Atlanta is struggling with a spike in violent crime, including a 58 percent increase in homicides last year…

“The mayor’s inability to get a handle on crime has become the central theme for two challengers,” one of whom is city council president Felicia Moore.

“‘Atlanta has a mayor that is more interested in things that happen outside Atlanta,’ Ms. Moore said in a recent statement, referring to Ms. Bottoms’s emerging national stature, including talk that she was rumored to be a possible vice-presidential candidate. ‘We need a mayor who knows the No. 1 job of any mayor is to keep our city safe.’”

So visceral is the public reaction to the crime wave in Atlanta that in Buckhead, a wealthy enclave in the northern section of the city, there is talk of secession and taking its tax base with it.

Why is crime rising and not only in Atlanta?

Among the reasons: the demonization and demoralization of police departments under constant fire for harboring “rotten apples” and rogue cops. Seen by cops as anti-cop, this campaign is generating police resignations, retirements and reductions in force.

The NYPD has lost 7% of its force and is in a recruitment crisis.

Large reductions in the number of cops have also been recorded in Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Atlanta. Then there is the “Ferguson Effect” where cops avoid aggressive policing for fear a mistake could cost them their reputation and career, or worse.

In a nation as violent as ours, with daily confrontations between cops and often aggressive and armed suspects, police errors are going to be made. There are going to be unwarranted and unnecessary shootings, woundings and even killings.

In any war, there are casualties and collateral damage, and that is true of America’s “war on crime” — another of our forever wars.

But the daily reports of escalating violent crime, resulting in growing numbers of innocent wounded and dead, are inducing a fear for safety that is outstripping any fear of cops. And politicians are beginning to see the numbers shift and reacting accordingly.

Consider a few of the crime numbers compiled by The Hill:

• 2020 witnessed more than 20,000 criminal homicides with a huge share of that spike occurring in urban America.

• New York saw 150 additional homicides and 750 additional shootings in 2020 than in 2019. Chicago saw 274 more homicides and 1,435 additional shootings in 2020 than in 2019.

• Los Angeles saw homicides rise 38% as shootings spiked 40%. Washington, D.C., ended 2020 with homicides up for the third straight year.

• Killings in Philadelphia, where homicides have risen every year since 2016, almost reached 500, a 40% increase. In Louisville, homicides jumped 70%.

• In Detroit, shootings and homicides rose for the second year in a row, increasing by 53%.

• Homicides spiked for the second straight year in Minneapolis, to 84 deaths — the highest tally since 1995. Cleveland had its highest murder tally since 1982, after a nearly 40% jump in killings last year.

• Houston hit 413 murders in 2020 — a 42% increase over 2019. Indianapolis saw a 40% jump in murders. For Denver, the murder increase was 50 percent.

Cops aren’t doing these killings. They’re doing their jobs trying to prevent these killings and apprehend the killers.

The first refunding auction, the sale of $58 billion in 3Y paper, was just concluded and in keeping with the complete lack of excitement in the secondary Treasury market in recent weeks, today’s auction – the first of this week’s coupon sales – was quite boring too.

The high yield of 0.329% was the lowest since February (April was 0.378%) but tailed the WI 0.327% by 0.2bps, the first 3Y auction tail since January.

If the tails was disappointing, the Bid to Cover was the opposite, rising from 2.318 last month to 2.422 if just below the 2.432 six-auction average.

The internals were also boring, with Indirects taking down 49.6%, below both April’s 51.1% and the recent average of 50.0%. And with Dealers taking down 32.3% (also below the 6-auction average of 34.2%) Dealers were left holding 18.1% of the auction, higher than both April’s 15.8% and the recent average of 15.8.

Overall, a slightly disappointing, tailing auction which however was boring enough not to make any waves in the broader bond market.

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

“Entertainer” Bette Midler has called for KILLING children who have not had COVID shots.

In a completely mental tweet aimed at ‘anti-vaxxers’, the unhinged Midler advocated using peanut butter on kids with allergies if they haven’t been vaccinated against coronavirus.

“Get vaccinated or I’m gonna start killing kids with peanut allergies” is definitely a sales pitch https://t.co/soL2Tg6U9g

— Sunny McSunnyface (@sunnyright) May 9, 2021

Normally anything coming out of her mouth is easily ignored, but this mind to keyboard splurge is a particularly hot take…

Choosy moms choose Jif and there is no FDA approved pediatric coronavirus vax as of today. I’m not certain where you’re going with this meme but wishing death on children is certainly a call for self reflection.

— MajorMomVibes (@ArmyofBlonde) May 9, 2021

Hey Bette I have a plus three to peanut from the MMR jab 31 years ago plus partial deafness in my left ear from the dtap. What’s your super funny joke for that one.

— Jackie (@yogijax) May 10, 2021

What’s even more mental is that some leftists actually took her seriously:

See now @BetteMidler, you’re gonna trigger comments about anaphylaxis shock and how that’s not a fair comparison—when it actually is. Covid kills.

— Elizabeth Also (@LiddyReads) May 9, 2021

What a great analogy. As a culinary arts teacher, I stopped making Peanut Butter cookies years ago…accommodating allergies…so it is not that big of an ask, imo

— Sally Steinborn (@SallySteinborn1) May 9, 2021

Now that vaccines are available for 12-15 year olds – I agree. Proof of vaccine before attending school in the fall for 12 year olds and up! pic.twitter.com/865vCf8lMM

— gigi shapiro (@GigiShapiroProd) May 11, 2021

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Just weeks after Brevan Howard last made the headlines on reports that it was buying bitcoin as a hedge against de-dollarization, the firm’s billionaire co-founder Alan Howard has reportedly started returning assets from the main fund he has managed over the past year – known as the Brevan Howard AH Master Fund, which he started four years ago in order to make bigger and riskier bets, and which has helped fuel the firm’s stunning outperformance in recent years.

Bloomberg, which broke the news, speculated that Howard might be returning assets as part of a shift in strategy that will see him spend more time managing the firm’s other pools of money. A few months ago, Bloomberg reported on rumors that Howard was in talks to bring another $500 million chunk of money to the main “master” fund.

Alan Howard

It’s not clear whether Howard is returning money to clients as a means of taking profits after a spectacular year, or if this marks the start of a bigger shift in strategy at the firm, which has seen its AUM swell to more than $14 billion after a series of blockbuster years that have lured  back clients.

The firm once had $40 billion+ AUM back in 2013, but that number quickly sunk to less than $6 billion a few years ago as returns lagged.

AH’s main macro fund saw record gains of 27%+ last year, compared with an average return of just 3.4% for macro hedge funds across the board.

According to Bloomberg, the firm has always sought to keep every detail of its Master Fund secret. Howard is one among a group of other money managers at Brevan Howard that run their own funds and who have played a critical role in turning around the business through improved performance by making risky bets in stocks that ended up paying off. Another one of Howard’s funds was up 100% last year. The returns marked one of the most profitable money-making phases of Howard’s – and the firm’s – career.

As of the end of Q1, Brevan Howard managed a total $14.6 billion, according to paperwork filed with the SEC.

According to the little that BBG does know about the master fund, it ran money for external clients, pooled with Howard’s own cash as well as capital from Brevan Howard funds. Howard will now continue to run allocations for Brevan Howard’s main hedge fund as well as its multi-strategy fund, one of the people said.

If anything, it looks like – after one of the most spectacular years of his career – Howard is moving to take an even more active role when it comes to managing the firm’s money.

Via SchiffGold.com,

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell insists inflation is “transitory.” As prices have spiked throughout the economy, Powell’s messaging has essentially been, “Move along. Nothing to see here.”

Peter Schiff has been saying the central bankers at the Fed can’t actually tell the truth about inflation because even if they acknowledge it’s a problem (and it is) they can’t do anything about it.

In a recent talk, Jim Grant, investment guru and founder of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, echoed Peter, saying the Fed can’t control inflation.

During a webcast sponsored by State Street SPDR ETFs, Grant said he thinks “there’s a gale of inflation of all kinds in progress,” adding that he believes it will take the Fed by surprise and “overwhelm our monetary masters.” Grant said, inflation is “clear and present and will manifest itself in our everyday lives.”

That sounds like the exact opposite of Powell’s “transitory” mantra.

Peter has said that once the Fed is forced to admit that inflation isn’t transitory, it will be too late to take action. Grant made a similar prediction, saying inflation will “catch the Fed flatfooted. In response it will “prevaricate” – meaning speak or act in an evasive way. In fact, that already seems to be the central bank’s strategy.

The question is can the Fed actually control inflation. Grant doesn’t think so.

I think the Fed is under the misconception that it controls events. Sometimes, events control the Fed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was one of those times. The Fed thinks that not only can it control events, but it can measure them. It believes it can pinpoint the rate of inflation.”

Therein lies the rub. Pinpointing inflation is no easy task. Grant noted that it’s easy for the Fed and government officials to downplay inflationary pressures because it is extremely difficult to measure. As Peter Schiff put it, CPI is a lie. Grant used the evolution of the toothbrush into its electric form as an example. How do you measure the clear quality improvements in the toothbrush? The government uses hedonics to measure these changes, but as Grant pointed out, this is “inexact and not really a science.”

Grant believes that the economy can only tolerate 2.5% real rates. If that is breached, he thinks the Fed will have to resort to yield-curve control. If it does actually try to shrink its balance sheet and sell bonds, it will drive bond yields even higher. Fed bond-buying is the only thing propping up the bond market right now.

In fact, the Fed is propping up the entire economy. There is a sense that the Fed will always step in and save the markets. As a result, we have bubbles everywhere, from the stock market, to real estate, to cryptocurrency.

“These are strange and oppressive markers of financial markets that have lost moorings of valuation,” Grant said.

I think the astounding complacency toward, or indifference of, the evident excesses in our monetary and fiscal affairs … I think the lack of concern about those things is perhaps the most striking inflationary augur I know of.”

Meanwhile, the Fed continues to create money. M1 annual growth is 350%; M2 is growing at approximately 28%.

“Never before have we had monetary peacetime growth this fast,” Grant said.

“Tell me who cares.”

Grant said central bankers like Powell are guilty of hubris. They suffer from the delusion that they can actually control everything. Grant called the Fed “un-self-aware.”

Despite Jay Powell’s credentials, he knows nothing about the past and believes he knows everything about the future.”

Grant talked about gold, saying it is an investment in “monetary disorder.”

To me, gold isn’t a hedge against monetary disorder. It’s an investment in monetary disorder, which is what we have. We have floating-rate currencies. We have manipulated exchange rates. We have manipulated interest rates. When the cycle turns, people will want gold and silver, and they will want something tangible.”

Block.one, a blockchain platform whose long-time backers include billionaire VC Peter Thiel, is launching a crypto exchange that seeks to combine attributes of traditional bourses with the benefits of decentralized finance.

The exchange – will will be known as “Bullish Global” – is being capitalized by Block.one with about $10 billion in digital assets and cash.

Block.one said in a statement that the seeding includes 164,000 Bitcoins valued at around $9.7 billion, $100 million in cash and 20 million EOS tokens, which power Block.one transactions.

An additional funding round raised another $300 million.

The Bullish exchange will offer new automated market making, lending, and portfolio management tools to its users to deliver functionality that has previously been monopolized by incumbent players in traditional finance, while driving deeper liquidity to digital assets.

As a reminder, Decrypt explains that decentralized crypto exchanges (DEXs) don’t ask American citizens to enter private information, such as social security numbers or addresses, that centralized exchanges are compelled to require as part of the Bank Secrecy Act. Thus far, because DEXs don’t take control of assets, they’ve fallen outside such regulations.

Since your coins aren’t being held in a centralized exchange but in a wallet with private keys you hold, you’re immune to hacks. And even though centralized exchanges can go down for maintenance, on a DEX you can keep trading.

Decentralized exchanges generally try to embrace blockchain’s ethos of “trustlessness” and privacy. Your tokens remain in your possession until you trade them. Some people find that reassuring from a security perspective. For others, that level of responsibility is intimidating, and the risks are concerning.

DEX advocates mostly agree: those are the tradeoffs for true decentralization.

Investors in Bullish Global include Peter Thiel, Alan Howard, Louis Bacon, Richard Li, Mike Novogratz, Christian Angermayer, and Nomura. Novogratz said:

“Bullish’s sheer size and scale combined with Block.one’s experience in high-performance blockchain engineering will make Bullish a formidable player from day one. I’m excited to be on the journey with this team.”

Louis Bacon commented,:

“The cryptocurrency market continues to benefit from institutional adoption, and Bullish is well positioned to leverage blockchain-based market structures that will play an important role in further improving access for institutional and retail investors.”

The renewed interest in Block.one has sent EOS soaring higher…

Back to its highest since 2018…

As CoinDesk explains, EOS is the native cryptocurrency for the EOS.IO blockchain platform with smart contract capabilities. The company Block.one created EOS.IO in September 2017 and it now has over 100 dapps with thousands of daily active users. It enables decentralized apps, or dapps, to be created by software developers. The platform is more scalable than many other blockchain networks, with the ability to process one million transactions per second without any fees. Its dapp development capability makes EOS similar to Ethereum with the notable distinction that transaction confirmations are done through a different type of consensus system.

In addition to EOS, Block.one, and “Bullish Global”, Palantir – founded by Thiel – has confirmed it will accept bitcoin as payment, and may invest in it too.

Palantir says it may add bitcoin to its balance sheethttps://t.co/Rh8HLtkt0t

— Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) May 11, 2021

It appears the adoption curve for crypto is not slowing down yet.

Late on Monday, we made two important observations: i) hedge funds had never been more levered to market moves, with gross leverage at all time highs, as hedge funds strive to extract every last ounce of beta from the market (net leverage was also extremely high, but not record high, and is more a reflection of any given hedge fund’s alpha preference)…

… and ii) hedge funds had scrambled to short tech shares explaining the recent decline in the Nasdaq, with Goldman Prime pointing out that Info Tech stocks were net sold for a third straight week and saw the largest week/week $ net selling since last August, and that Info Tech was by far the most net sold sector on the GS Prime book driven by short sales outpacing long buys 7 to 1.

One day later and the bearish pile up is reaching epic proportions.

According to the latest daily update from Goldman Prime, Monday was “the largest net selling in US equities since Mar 18th driven by both Macro Products and Single Names.” The division which rushed to dump its Archegos exposure before everyone else also said that the Goldman Prime book was “net sold for a third straight day and saw the largest net selling in 3 weeks (-2.3 SDs vs. average daily flow of the past year), driven by short sales and to a lesser extent long sales (1.6 to 1).“

The liquidation was largely indiscriminate, with “7 of 11 sectors net sold on the day led in $ terms by Info Tech, Consumer Disc, Financials, and Materials, while Comm Svcs, Energy, and Health Care were the most net bought.”

But what caught our attention was Goldman’s revelation that, explaining Monday’s tech rout, “Info Tech stocks were net sold for a 10th straight day, driven by equal $ amount of long sales and short sales.“

This unprecedented bearish pile in a sector which for much of 2020 was Wall Street’s darling also means that…

• Yesterday’s $ net selling in US Info Tech stocks was the 4th largest YTD and the 5th largest in the past five years (-2.5 SDs vs. the average daily flow of the past year). The sector accounted for three of the five most net sold industries across the GS Prime book yesterday.
• Long/Short Ratio (MV) – Info Tech long/short ratio now stands at 2.84, the lowest level since December and in the 74th percentile vs. the past five years.
• Sector Weighting –Info Tech stocks now make up 22.2% of the total US net market value on the GS Prime book, the lowest level since Aug ’19 and in the 52nd percentile vs. the past five years.
• Over/Under-Weight vs. the SPX – The GS Prime book is now U/W Info Tech stocks by -3.7%, the lowest level since early December and in the 3rd percentile vs. the past five years.

What does this mean? Well, so far the hedge fund pile up in bearish tech positions has worked. But after yesterday’s oversubscribed $18.5BN bond offering by Amazon, which will be used to fund buybacks, and is already in process of buying back AMZN stock pushing it from down 2% to up 1% in early trading…

… we expect a cascade of short covering…

buybacks engage

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 11, 2021

… to be triggered any moment as hedge funds retreat facing the relentless Goldman buyback desk, sending the NASDAQ green in very short notice. 

Via South Front,

A group of currently serving French soldiers has published an open letter warning President Emmanuel Macron that the survival of France is at stake after his “concessions” to Islamism.

The French government condemned it, as well as a similar letter in April.

This previous letter was signed and published by 20 French semi-retired generals.

The letter to the government last month came from semi-retired generals. The minister in charge of the armed forces, Florence Parly, said they would be punished for defying a law that forbids reservists or serving members of the military from expressing opinions in public on religion and politics.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin called the latest letter a “crude manoeuvre” and accused its anonymous signatories of lacking “courage”.

The new text was published late on May 9th by Valeurs Actuelles, although the numbers and ranks of its original signatories remains unknown.

The authors of the letter describe themselves as part of a younger generation of soldiers who have served in Afghanistan, Mali and the Central African Republic, or joined domestic anti-terrorism operations.

“They gave their skin to destroy the Islamism to which you are giving concessions on our soil,” they wrote.

In contrast to the previous one, it can be signed by the public, with more than 220,000 already signing it.

“We are not talking about extending your mandates or conquering others. We are talking about the survival of our country, the survival of your country,” said the letter, which was addressed to Macron and his cabinet.

The authors described themselves as active-duty soldiers from the younger generation of the military, a so-called “generation of fire” that had seen active service.

“They have offered up their lives to destroy the Islamism that you have made concessions to on our soil,” they wrote.

AFP cited an anonymous source, who is reportedly a high-ranking officer in the French military headquarters, who said the letter would not go unanswered.

“A firm reminder will be made by the command on the respect of duty,” said the anonymous high-ranking official.

“One can have personal convictions but the armed forces are apolitical and have absolute loyalty to the elected president. If you feel bad you can leave the army with a clean conscience,” the officer said.

“I believe that when you are in the military you don’t do this kind of thing in hiding,” Darmanin told BFM television. “These people are anonymous. Is this courage? To be anonymous?”

The letter comes in a politically uncertain period ahead of the 2022 elections, when Macron’s main challenger is expected to again be the far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Indeed, a recent poll found that the majority of French people also believe that the country is headed towards civil war.

Prime Minister Jean Castex had labelled the rare intervention in politics by military figures in last month’s letter “an initiative against all of our republican principles, of honour and the duty of the army”.

France’s armed forces chief of staff, General Francois Lecointre, said those who signed it would face punishments ranging from forced full retirement to disciplinary action.

Whether any of that has happened is unknown.

Thanks to The Fed’s ongoing largesse, billionaire Stan Druckenmiller told CNBC this morning that “even a monkey can make money in these markets.”

“We are still acting like we’re in a black hole,” warns the fund manager, questioning The Fed’s wisdom in keeping the floodgates of intervention wide open despite the recovery happening at record speed.

“I can’t find any period in history where monetary and fiscal policy were this out of step with the economic circumstances, not one,” Druckenmiller said during the live “Squawk Box” interview.

Specifically, Druck warns that “Fed policy is endangering the dollar’s reserve status,” noting in his earlier WSJ Op-Ed that “keeping emergency settings after the emergency has passed carries bigger risks for the Fed than missing its inflation target by a few decimal points. It’s time for a change.”

The veteran fund manager added that:

“Two-thirds of all relief checks were sent after the vaccines were proved effective and the recovery was accelerating. Opportunistic politicians didn’t let the pandemic go to waste. Especially after the Trump years, Congress has decided to satisfy its long list of unmet desires.”

Pointing out, rather awkwardly that The Fed’s independence is supposed to act as a counterbalance to these political whims.

“America’s deep divisions also make the central bank’s independence crucial. Fighting inequality and climate change are very far from the Fed’s central mission.”

The risks, he warns “are no longer hypothetical,” as Fed policy has “enabled financial-market excesses.”

“We are in a raging mania in all markets.”

“The central bank should balance rather than fuel asset prices.”

The long-term risks from asset bubbles and fiscal dominance dwarf the short-term risk of putting the brakes on a booming economy in 2022.

“If they want to do all this and risk our reserve currency status, risk an asset bubble blowing up, so be it. But I think we ought to at least have a conversation about it,” Druckenmiller said.

“If we’re going to monetize our debt and we’re going to enable more and more of this spending, that’s why I’m worried now for the first time that within 15 years we lose reserve currency status and of course all the unbelievable benefits that have accrued with it,” he added.

Central banks have been the root of a lack of confidence in dollar stability.

“The problem has been clearly identified. It’s [Fed Chair[ Jerome Powell an the rest of the world’s central bankers,” he said.

“There’s a lack of trust.”

Finally, Druckenmiller appears to embrace crypto as a possible way out, noting that the ultimate solution could be “some kind of ledger system invented by some kids from MIT or Stanford” though he conceded that “I don’t know what it will be.”

Watch the full interview here…

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

With violence against Palestinians escalating in East Jerusalem, the US expressed “concerns” over the situation and the planned evictions in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. According to multiple media reports, the Israelis didn’t want to hear these concerns and told the US not to meddle in the crisis.

The “concerns” were expressed in a Sunday phone call between National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat. According to Hebrew media reports, Ben-Shabbat told Sullivan that the US and other countries should stay out of the conflict. He said international pressure on Israel to halt the evictions or stop the violence would be “a prize for the rioters and those sending them who hoped to put pressure on Israel.”

Ben-Shabbat also said Israel was handling the situation “out of a position of sovereignty, responsibly, and with common sense despite the provocations.”

About 40 Palestinians face eviction in Sheikh Jarrah. Palestinian protesters have faced attacks from Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers. Israeli police also stormed al-Aqsa mosque and fired rubber bullets and tear gas, injuring 215, including 153 who were hospitalized.

Last night Israeli forces raided homes of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem & assaulted, tear gassed and arrested some of the young men. The families are facing forced displacement from their homes on Thursday where Jewish settlers will take over pic.twitter.com/Am3BeKA5Cs

— لينة (@LinahAlsaafin) May 4, 2021

The US-Israel phone call came after multiple members of US Congress began weighing in on the controversy…

Palestinian families have every right to live in #SheikhJarrah.

I’m calling on the @StateDept to immediately condemn these violations of international law as Palestinians are forcibly being removed from their homes in East Jerusalem.#SaveSheikhJarrahpic.twitter.com/YyXrosu5ow

— Congresswoman Marie Newman (@RepMarieNewman) May 5, 2021

Amid the Israeli violence, rockets were fired and incendiary balloons were sent from Gaza, which did little damage as usual.

While Sullivan only expressed concerns over the Israeli violence, he agreed with Ben-Shabbat that “the launching of rocket attacks and incendiary balloons from Gaza towards Israel is unacceptable and must be condemned.”

The Biden administration appointed envoys for Iran, Libya, Horn of Africa and Yemen. Huge crisis in Jerusalem and Gaza and no U.S. envoy for Israel-Palestine. No ambassador to Israel and no consul general in Jerusalem for the Palestinians. This doesn’t make any sense

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) May 10, 2021

On Monday, Israel pounded Gaza with airstrikes, killing at least 27, including nine children. The situation could escalate further as the Israeli military deployed reinforcements to the Gaza border.