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Another video of the moment UIA Flight 752 was blown out of the sky by Iranian missiles has emerged, according to the NYT, which verified the footage before reporting on it.

For the first time, the world can clearly see two missiles – fired from an Iranian military base 8 miles from the plane – strike the plane less than 30 seconds apart.

The footage helped answer a question that had perplexed experts: why did air control lose touch with the plane’s transponder just before the crash.

The plane didn’t go down immediately. After the strike, the plane appears to have tried to circle back toward Tehran’s international airport. But minutes later, it exploded and the debris rained down to earth, narrowly missing the village of Khalaj Abad.

Somehow, NYT reporters have confirmed that the video was filmed on the roof of a building near the village of Bidkaneh, roughly four miles from he military site.

The NYT also debunked another one of the Iranian government’s claims: That the strike was due to ‘human error’, as one missile operator mistook the plane for a cruise missile. This doesn’t jive with the plane’s flight path: Since it had just taken off, it would have still been ascending, not descending toward a target on the ground, like missiles do.

The new video was uploaded to YouTube by an unnamed Iranian user at around 2 am on Tuesday. It’s unclear how the times verified the video, but the four bylines attached to the story would suggest that it took some serious legwork. Oddly, the date visible on the footage is “2019-10-17” – years before the day the plane was downed on Jan. 8.

Despite initially denying the IRGC’s role in bringing down Flight 752, Tehran has tried to spin its response to the attack as ‘transparent’ and fair – largely to quell an outpouring of anger by frustrated Iranians, who took to the streets for a string of protests soon after the incident. However, whoever uploaded the video best be careful: Iranian media have reported that the man who filmed an earlier video of the missile striking the plane has been arrested.

Watch the video verified by the NYT below:

Submitted by Peter Garnry, Head of Equity Strategy, Saxo Bank

Equities are getting frothy with short squeeze and momentum accelerating technology stocks higher. This has led to the highest top five concentration in the S&P 500 eclipsing the dot-com bubble in a sign of destabilisation and increased fragility.

We are putting out an early warning to investors as a sharp correction in equities could be imminent. Our overall longer term view is still positive on equities, but sharp moves up are typically followed by rapid declines. In today’s equity update we also talk about equity valuations and earnings season.

The first two weeks of the year have seen a tremendous acceleration in technology stocks with the sector by far outperforming all other sectors. As we talk about in today’s Market Call podcast we are witnessing an epic short squeeze in Tesla and other heavily shorted stocks. In higher echelons of the market the FANG+ Index is accelerating at an unprecedented pace showing clear signs of frothy behavior. It mimics the move leading up to the volatility explosion in February 2018. While we laid out our asset allocation view yesterday as overweight Europe and EM equities, and overweight equities vs bonds, the short-term dynamic could get ugly here when the short squeeze and momentum have exhausted itself.

In VIX we are observing a increase in net positioning although from a very low level but could signs that bigger players in the futures and option markets are preparing for increase in volatility. On the other, the forward curve in VIX futures is still not sending any distress signals, but these things change fast and the catalyst may be very subtle.

The rapid rise of the large US technology stocks has catapulted the five largest stocks on market value to reach an index weight of 18%, the highest level observed in the S&P 500 in 25 years. Increased concentration risk is a clear sign of fragility increasing and the system is destabilizing underneath the surface. It’s historically a recipe for violent moves so it should definitely be on investors’ radar.

As we hinted at in our equity update yesterday the equity valuation expansion might be fueled by investors anchoring their long-term interest rate expectations at a continuing lower level increasing the equity risk premium and hence allowing higher multiples on earnings. With the lower anchoring and dual stimulus coming from the monetary and fiscal side we cannot rule out that equity valuation will reach new all-time highs before the party ends. But the current move seems too aggressive, and the probability of a sudden large drop in equities could happen anytime. Investors should consider reducing equity exposure somewhat here or add some downside protection.

The earnings season kicks into gear today with the first big names (Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo) reporting Q4 earnings. Consensus is looking for strong EPS y/y figures for JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup due to base effects from a very weak Q4 2018. Wells Fargo which is a more pure banking play is expected to show slightly negative y/y EPS growth. All there financials are expected to show negative q/q growth numbers. But overall analysts are looking for decent numbers from financials compared to other industries. In aggregate S&P 500 is expected to deliver its fourth straight negative y/y EPS growth in Q4 for the first time since the financial crisis. However, the real price action lies in the outlooks which should be improving given the recent macro backdrop and better signs coming out of Asia.

A trove of classified materials associated with an infamous UFO incident marked TOP SECRET are so sensitive that their release would cause “exceptionally grave damage” to US national security according to the Navy.

The files, related to the 2004 encounter between the USS Nimitz and a series of strange, “Tic Tac” shaped UFOs, were sought through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by researcher Christian Lambright, according to VICE’s Motherboard.

In response, the Navy told Lambright in a letter that it had “discovered certain briefing slides that are classified TOP SECRET. A review of these materials indicates that are currently and appropriate Marked and Classified TOP SECRET under Executive Order 13526, and the Original Classification Authority has determined that the release of these materials would cause exceptionally grave damage to the National Security of the United States,” according to the report.

“We have also determined that ONI possesses a video classified SECRET that ONI is not the Original Classification Authority for,” the letter continues.

“The Department of Defense, specifically the U.S. Navy, has the video. As Navy and my office have stated previously, as the investigation of UAP sightings is ongoing, we will not publicly discuss individual sighting reports/observations,” Susan Gough, a Pentagon spokesperson, told Motherboard. “However, I can tell you that the date of the 2004 USS Nimitz video is Nov. 14, 2004. I can also tell you that the length of the video that’s been circulating since 2007 is the same as the length of the source video. We do not expect to release this video.” –VICE

Higher resolution?

The Navy also wouldn’t comment on higher on whether a higher resolution version of the video existed.

In November, Popular Mechanics reported that several original witnesses to the Nimitz incident viewed longer, higher resolution footage of the UFO encounter. According to the report, “Gary Voorhis, a Petty Officer who served on the Princeton, a ship in Nimitz fleet, told Popular Mechanics that he “definitely saw video that was roughly 8 to 10 minutes long and a lot more clear.” Others, such as Commander David Fravor, have stated that longer videos of the incident probably do not exist. “

Luis Elizondo, the former Pentagon staffer and the man who played a key role in making the Navy video public, told Motherboard that straightforward messaging does not seem to be the Pentagon’s strong suit. When the New York Times ran its 2017 story concerning the Nimitz UFO incident, it also broke the existence of $22 million dollar UFO investigation program called AATIP, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, and that Elizondo, a career intelligence officer, ran the project. The Pentagon has repeatedly changed its story since then; as recently as last month, the Pentagon said that AATIP had nothing to do with UFOs.

 

“The Pentagon has a long history of sometimes providing inaccurate information to the American people,” Elizondo said. “This is true as recently as this week regarding the draft memo involving Iran, and two weeks ago when the press finally received the truth about Afghanistan despite 18 years of statements to the contrary.”  –VICE

“As in the case involving UAPs, I can only hope that the inconsistent message is due to the benign results of a large and cumbersome bureaucracy and not something more nefarious like a cover-up or deliberate misinformation campaign,” added Elizondo, who told the publication that he’s “not able to comment further on the existence of a longer video due to my obligations involving my NDA with the Government and the fact that I am no longer employed with the U.S. Government. However, as I stated before, people should not be surprised by the revelation that other videos exist and at greater length.”

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

In 2020, increasing monetary and fiscal stimulus will be the equivalent of spraying gasoline on a fire to extinguish it.

Economically, the 11 years since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09 have been one relatively coherent era of modest growth, rising wealth/income inequality and coordinated central bank stimulus every time a crisis threatened to disrupt the domestic or global economy.

This era will draw to a close in 2020 and a new era of destabilization and uncertainty begins.

Why will all the policies that have worked so well for 11 years stop working in 2020?

All the monetary/fiscal policies of the past decade were simply extreme versions of tried-and-true policies that central banks and governments have used for the past 75 years to restore growth in a recession or financial crisis: lower interest rates, increase credit/liquidity, and ramp up government spending (i.e. deficit spending) to compensate for declining private-sector spending.

These policies were designed to be short-term stimulus programs to jump-start the economy out of a slowdown (recession), which typically lasted between 9 and 18 months.

These policies are now permanent, as the system is now dependent on these policies. Any reduction in central bank stimulus causes a market crash (witness the 20% drop in 2018 as the Fed slowly raised interest rates from near-zero) and any reduction in deficit spending threatens to trigger a recession.

The problem is that these policies create distortions that cannot be fixed with more of what caused the distortions in the first place: more extreme monetary and fiscal stimulus.

Systemic distortions include:

A. Soaring wealth-income inequality across the entire global economy.

B. Dependence on asset bubbles to generate the “wealth effect” that encourages spending by the top 5% who own two-thirds of the assets bubbling higher.

C. Dependence on asset bubbles to generate capital gains and property tax revenues for state/local governments.

D. Loss of cost discipline: the solution across the entire spectrum–government, corporate and household–is now to borrow more, not trim costs via innovation or increases in productivity and efficiency.

E. Reliance on debt to fund spending leads to rising defaults which will collapse the system. (Soaring auto-loan defaults are the canary in the coal mine.)

F. Zero interest rates have generated over-capacity/over-production as everyone seeks a return on capital by expanding market share. Now there are global gluts in everything from autos to natural gas to electronics.

G. With the yield on savings now less than zero due to inflation, investors must gamble in the asset-bubble casino as this is only available way to earn a return.

H. Buffers are thinning. I’ve discussed this in depth over the years; dependence on stimulus lowers systemic resilience, rendering the entire system increasingly vulnerable to a phase-shift that fatally destabilizes the system.

I. Prior to the 2008-2019 era, the “real economy” of sales, wages and profits led the stock market. Now the stock market dominates the real economy, as the central banks have turned the stock market into the ‘signaling device’ that all is well and the source of bringing demand forward (i.e. the wealth effect).

In Mohammed El-Erian’s words: “The Fed can’t pull back because it’s worried it will disrupt markets that can be a spillover on the economy. The Fed’s in a lose, lose, lose situation, they can’t stay where they are, they can’t do more, they can’t do less.”

In Andy Xie’s words: “The Fed has gone from the financial bubble’s hostage to its guardian.”

J. There are limits on encouraging more borrowing by lowering interest rates to zero. Even at zero interest rates, income must be devoted to paying principal. At some point, all available income is already consumed in debt service. Anecdotally, we’re already there: zombie corporations (that only survive by increasing their debt loads) are becoming more numerous, and households burdened with student loans, auto loans, credit cards and mortgages cannot afford more debt even at zero interest.

Policy makers are now trapped. Unable to reverse the policies that have created the distortions lest that crash the system, they only have two responses, neither of which actually address the distortions undermining the system:

1) push extremely distorting policies to new extremes, or

2) attempt policy-tweaks–higher taxes on the wealthy, etc.–that ignore the causes of the distortions. These policy tweaks are the classic “band-aids treating cancer.”

The abject failure of these policies (short-term turned into permanent, with all the resulting long-term distortions) is now visible to all, and we’re seeing articles in the most influential mainstream media outlets questioning the current versions of global capitalism; for example, the new issue of Foreign Affairs magazine is devoted to The Future of Capitalism, an implicit confirmation that the current version, dependent on extremes of debt, speculation and stimulus, has no future.

Is there a way out? No. That these policies have not restored “organic growth” (i.e. growth that isn’t dependent on zero interest rates, speculative bubbles and tens of trillions of dollars in permanent stimulus) must be accepted, along with the need for a painful re-set.

The odds of this happening are near-zero, as politicians who cause economic pain lose the support of the populace.

This leaves us with the pain of ever-greater distortions, which will drive economic instability, fragmentation, social disorder and financial crashes.

Inherently unstable systems can appear stable for quite some time as the instability builds beneath the placid surface.

In 2020, increasing monetary and fiscal stimulus will be the equivalent of spraying gasoline on a fire to extinguish it. These two charts summarize the disastrous consequences of permanent monetary stimulus: wages’ share of the economy are in relentless decline, while the equally relentless rise of financialization has generated soaring wealth / income inequality that increasingly threatens to rip our society and economy to shreds.

This essay was drawn from the Musings Reports, which are emailed weekly exclusively to patrons and subscribers.

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My recent books:

Audiobook edition now available:
Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World ($13)
(Kindle $6.95, print $11.95) Read the first section for free (PDF).

Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($6.95 (Kindle), $12 (print), $13.08 ( audiobook): Read the first section for free (PDF).

The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake $1.29 (Kindle), $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF)

Money and Work Unchained $6.95 (Kindle), $15 (print) Read the first section for free (PDF).

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If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

President Trump joined Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday, slamming Apple Inc. for refusing to extract data from two iPhones that belonged to the Saudi Air Force Lieutenant who went on a rampage at Naval station Pensacola last month, killing three.

“We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers  and other violent criminal elements,” Trump tweeted, adding “They will have to step up to the plate and help our great Country, NOW! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”

We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements. They will have to step up to the plate and help our great Country, NOW! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2020

Barr said during a Monday press conference that Apple had provided no “substantive assistance” to support investigators trying to crack into the smartphones. His comments are part of an ongoing push by the US government to make such assistance standard practice in the future.

Barr says Apple “has not given any substantive assistance” in unlocking the Pensacola airbase shooter’s two iPhones https://t.co/b3LRFp18sG pic.twitter.com/MkTg6ZueJB

— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 13, 2020

“We have asked Apple for their help in unlocking the shooter’s phones. So far, Apple has not given any substantive assistance,” said Barr. “This situation perfectly illustrates why it is critical that the public be able to get access to digital evidence once it has obtained a court order based on probable cause. We call on Apple on other technology companies to help us find a solution so that we can better protect the lives of American people and prevent future attacks.“

Yet, according to Bloomberg, the FBI should have no trouble breaking into the phones – as they can go either exploit a range of security vulnerabilities – or they can hire a company such as Grayshift or Cellebrite – the latter of which is an Israel-based, Japanese-owned firm which helped the FBI access data from the phone of the shooter behind a 2016 attack in San Bernardino, California.

Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, the perpetrator of a Dec. 6 terrorist attack at a Navy base in Florida, had an iPhone 5 and iPhone 7, models that were first released in 2012 and 2016, respectively. Alshamrani died and the handsets were locked, leaving the FBI looking for ways to hack into the devices.

“A 5 and a 7? You can absolutely get into that,” said Will Strafach, a legendary iPhone hacker who now runs security company Guardian Firewall. “I wouldn’t call it child’s play, but it’s not super difficult.” –Bloomberg

Security expert Neil Brook, who works with law enforcement agencies to unlock devices, did note that it’s possible the specific iOS versions running on the Pensacola shooter’s phones may have patched exploits, making it more difficult to access them – though it would still be possible.

“If the particular phones were at a particular iOS version, it might be as easy as an hour and boom, they are in. But they could be at an iOS version that doesn’t have a vulnerability,” said Broom.

According to the report, “Apple and security firms such as Cellebrite play a cat-and-mouse game nowadays. The iPhone maker releases a new device or a new version of its iOS operating system that locks everything down. Then security firms and researchers start probing, and often find ways to hack into the handsets after several months. Those exploits sometimes turn into tools that the FBI and police can use to access data on iPhones.”

Broom notes that Cellebrite and other security firms would “bend over backwards” to win a government contract.

“Our technology is used by thousands of organizations globally to lawfully access and analyze very specific digital data as part of ongoing investigations,” Cellebrite said in a statement. “As a matter of company policy we do not comment on any ongoing investigations.”

Another firm which could help the FBI is Atlanta-based Grayshift, which employs former Apple software security engineer Braden Thomas and has a product called GrayKey.

A new security flaw known as “Checkm8” affects chips in iPhones released between 2011 and 2017, according to Strafach and other researchers. That includes the iPhone 5 and iPhone 7.

“With the Checkm8 vulnerability, you should be able to get a forensically sound image of the file system, unless they had a crazy long passphrase,“ Strafach said.

The iPhone 7 includes the Secure Enclave, a dedicated chip for storing fingerprint data and other sensitive information on the device, but even that could be breakable, he said.

“It’s simply a question of whether the government will pay a contractor to get into these phones,” Strafach added. “If it can’t be done with the Checkm8 vulnerability, they can pay a contractor to do it.” –Bloomberg

To crack into phones, Cellebrite offers a “UFED Physical Analyzer” and a “Touch2” tablet which comes with PC software (“4PC”) – all costing around $15,000 per Broom, who added that there’s often an annual maintenance fee of more than $4,000.

For more advanced services, GrayKey and Cellebrite Premium offer an on-premise service for law enforcement agencies which can cost between $100,000 and $150,000.

“They already have these tools around the country. So they wouldn’t be paying anything more to break into these phones, they could just be waiting for a certain exploit like Checkm8 to become available,” said Broom.

That said, according to Yotam Gutman – marketing director at cybersecurity company SentinelOne, newer iPhones such as the iPhone 11 are much harder ‘if not impossible’ to crack… for now.

Authored by Eric Hickman via AdvisorPerspectives.com,

Good economic news over the last couple months belies the fact that a recession could strike as soon as March 2020.

That good news has been plentiful: a phase one trade deal between the U.S. and China is presumably close to being signed, the December U.S. Labor jobs report exceeded expectations, the Federal Reserve didn’t lower rates at their December meeting, and developed-economy stock markets continue making new highs. The Fed’s mantra of, “the economy is in a good place” is the ethos of the moment.

But just behind those data points, many more are suggesting a deteriorating economy. The Citigroup U.S. Surprise index (which measures how far the aggregate of economic releases are above or below where economists estimate them to be) has fallen in recent months (see below). ISM Manufacturing, Durable Goods, Retail Sales, Leading Economic Indicators, and Existing Home Sales have all been lower than expectations in December and early January.

And yet the Fed repeats a version of the statement, “the economy is doing well because consumer spending and the labor market are strong”. And they are right – for now. Real personal consumption is growing at a reasonably healthy 2.4% (YoY%) and the 3.5% unemployment rate is at a near-50 year low (49.6 years). The problem is that these are the last segments of the economy to falter historically at the start of a recession. To the extent that the recession hasn’t started yet (I don’t think it quite has), the consumer and labor market should still be strong. In other words, there is an expected gap of time from when leading indicators (manufacturing, yield curve) show weakness to when coincident indicators (consumer and labor) show weakness. There is nothing to suggest one should extrapolate this consumer and labor strength, especially given the many leading recession signals we’ve already gotten.

In fact, the following five long-running standard recession signals triggered in 2019:

• Yield curve inversion, signaled 3/27/2019, data back to January 1971.

• Conference Board Jobs Gap YoY growth negative2, signaled 11/30/2019, data back to February 1968.

• Conference Board Leading Economic Indicators Peak3, signaled 7/31/2019 (tentative because it could make a higher peak), data back to January 1959.

• Initial Jobless Claims Trough4, signaled 4/12/2019 (tentative because it could make a lower trough), data back to January 1967.

• ISM Manufacturing first below 505 (contraction), signaled 8/31/2019, data back to January 1948.

The long history (49+ years) of these indicators can be used to get a sense of timing for when a recession may begin. I have measured historically how long these indicators signaled before (or after) the start of their accompanying recession. Comparing this time-frame to when these indicators triggered recently, suggests a range for when this recession may come. The chart below shows the time ranges (minimum amount of time historically to maximum amount of time historically) in which each indicator would suggest a recession start.

There are a few conclusions to this.

• First, five recession indicators have signaled.

• Second, there is nothing unusual in the timing that the recession hasn’t started yet.

• Third, no matter which of the five indicators you use, a recession will likely begin in 2020 and the average center-point of the indicators is in March, just a little over two months away.

Don’t confuse the Fed’s “on-hold” stance to have any more meaning than the hope that the consumer and labor market’s strength will continue. History suggests that this is not a good bet to make.

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Eric Hickman is president of Kessler Investment Advisors, Inc., an advisory firm located in Denver, Colorado specializing in U.S. Treasury bonds.

This is just the latest reminder not to believe everything you read on twitter, especially if it’s being reported by Buzzfeed or Vox Media.

According to the New York Times, “Away” co-founder and CEO Steph Korey has decided to stay on at the company as “co-CEO” with a new hire from Lululemon. Back in December, Korey announced that she would resign following a report in the Verge complaining about the company’s “toxic” culture.

Despite the fact that the story read like a hit piece that relied on a handful of clearly disgruntled employees, the stories about Korey’s passive-aggressive management style immediately kicked up a shitstorm on Twitter, where every perceived slight or transgression is immediately blown out of proportion by angry leftists who rarely miss an opportunity to vilify corporate American and, well, pretty much anybody who actually works for a living.

Steph Korey

Shortly after the story was published, Korey released an apology:

“I am sincerely sorry for what I said and how I said it. It was wrong, plain and simple,” she said. “I can imagine how people felt reading those messages from the past, because I was appalled to read them myself,” she wrote.

But Away’s board – and presumably the VCs who backed the company on its way to becoming a Silicon Valley unicorn – feared that the reporting about Korey was an existential threat to Away’s brand.

After all, the hip lifestyle company chiefly markets itself to liberal, urban-dwelling millennials.

But in the weeks since the incident, cooler heads have apparently prevailed. Now, the board has decided to fight back against its critics. Not only has the board decided to allow Korey to stay on, but Away has hired the same lawyer who sued Rolling Stone over its false UVA rape story to take on the Verge and its corporate parent over the company’s “inaccurate” reporting.

“Frankly, we let some inaccurate reporting influence the timeline of a transition plan that we had,” Ms. Korey said in an interview last week. With some time and perspective, she said, the company’s board members decided to reverse themselves.

“All of us said, ‘It’s not right.'”

The members of Away’s board say they feel as if they fell victim to management by Twitter mob.

The company now says it disputes The Verge’s reporting and has hired Elizabeth M. Locke, the lawyer who successfully brought a defamation case against Rolling Stone magazine for a story about a supposed gang rape at the University of Virginia. It is unclear whether Away plans to bring a lawsuit.

For what it’s worth, the Verge is standing by its story.

Korey also shared some of the harassment she was subjected to online after the story broke:

“It’s very upsetting if suddenly total strangers tell you that you should get an abortion,” said Ms. Korey, who is pregnant. One user on Twitter wrote: “Imagine how she’ll treat that baby.”

What’s worse, it seems like the only person to spring to Korey’s defense in the aftermath of the scandal was this Forbes columnist.

It’s certainly a lesson for corporate boards: It’s often wise to wait until your company’s latest scandal has fallen off the trending topic leaderboard before making any critical decisions regarding personnel.

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

As we move further into 2020, solar activity dwindles.  This year, solar activity will be marked as the lowest in over 200 years. The low in the sun’s 11-year cycle will also have at least some repercussions for the climate here on Earth.

On December 20, 2019, Iceland received one of the largest snow storms in its history. The so-called “10-year storm,” brought winds of 100 miles per hour (161 km/h), with one weather station reporting gusts of up to 149 mph (240 km/h), according to a report by Interesting Engineering. 

Iceland’s, Europe’s and North America’s weather have historically been tied to the sunspot activity of the Sun. According to NASA, in 2020, the Sun, which is currently in solar cycle number 25, will reach its lowest activity in over 200 years. That means “space weather” will be favorable for exploration beyond Earth, yet it could also very well mean we should prepare for odd or different weather patterns.

The solar cycle is a periodic 11-year fluctuation in the Sun’s magnetic field, during which its North and South poles trade places. This has an enormous effect on the number and size of sunspots, the level of solar radiation, and the ejection of solar material comprised of flares and coronal loops. –Interesting Engineering. 

When solar activity gets really low, it can have the effect of a “mini ice age.” The period between 1645 and 1715 was marked by a prolonged sunspot minimum, and this corresponded to a downturn in temperatures in Europe and North America. Named after astronomers Edward Maunder and his wife Annie Russell Maunder, this period became known as the Maunder Minimum. It is also known as “The Little Ice Age.”

Solar Minimum Madness: Is Thanksgiving’s Winter Wonderland A Preview Of The Bitterly Cold Winter To Come?

Predictions for solar cycle #25 made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), NASA and the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) anticipate a deep minimum and a maximum that will occur between the years 2023 and 2026. During that maximum, they predict the Sun will have between 95 and 130 sunspots.

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Just don’t tell Greta that climate change could be related to solar activity… and not Trump flying Air Force One to murder koala bears…