A father who paid bribes to get his kids into USC as part of the largest ever college admissions scandal has pleaded guilty, according to Bloomberg.
Toby MacFarlane admitted in court on Friday that he paid $450,000 in bribes and used phony athletic profiles to get his son into USC as a basketball recruit and his daughter into the school as a soccer recruit.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud before U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton in Boston.
MacFarlane is the last of 14 parents to plead guilty as part of the scandal.
He admitted to the judge that he had committed fraud “by getting my children admission to USC as recruited athletes when in fact they’re not.”
He also admitted to conspiring with William Rick Singer, the mastermind behind the scheme, by paying him $200,000 in 2013 to fabricate a profile for his daughter, claiming she was a “U.S. Club Soccer All American” in high school. His daughter graduated from USC in 2018 but never wound up playing soccer for the university’s team.
Then, in 2016, he paid $250,000 to gain admission for his son who only attended the school briefly before withdrawing in May 2018. $200,000 of the money was claimed by MacFarlane to be for “real estate consulting” and a $50,000 payment was claimed to be for “USC athletics”.
Now, MacFarlane faces up to 15 months in prison and a fine of $95,000, in addition to restitution to be determined at a later date.
In addition to the 14 parents that have pleaded guilty, 19 others are fighting the charges filed by the US Attorney’s office. In addition, prosecutors are pursuing cases against college coaches and test administrators, among other people, who took and offered bribes at some of the country’s top colleges.
Earlier this month we noted that Stanford’s ex-sailing coach got one day in jail for his role in the scandal.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2WYFgyV Tyler Durden
We could be on the verge of the most cataclysmic war that the Middle East has ever seen. As you will see below, we are being told that there will be a “measured” U.S. response to the downing of a U.S. Navy drone by Iranian forces (despite Trump’s decision to postpone last night’s strikes, officials say strikes are not off the table). In other words, we should expect some sort of U.S. military action against Iran to happen soon. If the Iranians choose not to respond to that attack, that will hopefully be the end of it for a while. But if the Iranians respond by firing their highly advanced anti-ship missiles at U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, the Trump administration would feel forced to use overwhelming force in return, and that would likely spark an all-out war in the region.
And in the event of an all-out war, Iran would almost certainly hit Israel with a massive barrage of missiles. In fact, last month the Iranian Parliament’s vice-speaker Ali Motahhari specifically threatened this sort of an attack…
Mr Motahhari told FARS news agency: ‘The US military forces’ deployment in the Persian Gulf is more of the nature of psychological warfare. They are not ready for a war, specially when Israel is within our range.’
Today, Iran possesses a highly sophisticated missile arsenal, and some of those missiles are capable of hitting targets up to 2,500 kilometers away. For an in-depth examination of Iranian missile capabilities, I would commend a National Interest article entitled “Iran Has Amassed the Largest Ballistic Missile Force in the Middle East”.
Of course if Iran starts firing missiles at Israel, it is inevitable that Israel will start firing missiles back at Iran. And in such a scenario it is unthinkable that Iran’s proxy Hezbollah would sit quietly on the sidelines.
At this point Hezbollah has accumulated an absolutely massive rocket arsenal in southern Lebanon. According to the Jerusalem Post, they now possess “more than 150,000 rockets”…
Hezbollah’s massive rocket arsenal of more than 150,000 rockets pose a major threat. These include long-range rockets such as the Zelzal, Fateh 110 and the Fajr, as well as shorter range such as Katyushas. The Fateh 110 has a range of several hundred kilometers.
There is no place in Israel that is out of the range of those rockets. Without a doubt, Israel’s anti-missile systems are extremely advanced, but if thousands of missiles are fired in a very short period of time Israel won’t be able to intercept them all.
In order to stop the rocket fire completely, Israel would have to invade southern Lebanon on very short notice, and it is quite interesting that the IDF actually just wrapped up a major exercise which simulated a future war with Hezbollah. The following comes from ABC News…
Israel wrapped up its largest military drill in years on Wednesday, with thousands of troops from the army, navy and air force simulating a future war with the militant Lebanese Hezbollah group amid fears that Iran would draw its Shiite proxy into the recent growing tensions in the Persian Gulf.
This absolutely enormous military drill made headlines all over the world, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was even on hand for the conclusion of the exercise…
The exercise, which was focused on the country’s north—not far from contested borders with Lebanon and Syria, two countries which Israel has accused Iran’s allies of firing rockets from—was attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The leader, who also serves as defense minister, spoke with participating troops of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and issued a warning to those threatening his country.
“I am concluding a major, multi-corps IDF exercise in several areas. I am very impressed by the improvement in readiness, by the fighting spirit of the soldiers and commanders, and mainly by the destructive power of the IDF,” Netanyahu said.
It appears to be inevitable that an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah will happen at some point, and Israel will most definitely win that war.
But the death and destruction caused by tens of thousands of missiles fired by Iran and Hezbollah will be immense, and so we should hope that such a conflict is put off for as long as possible.
Unfortunately, it appears that a full-blown war could begin in the Middle East at any time. Top congressional leaders were summoned to the White House Situation Room on Thursday, and following that briefing the press was told to soon expect a “measured” U.S. response…
Top administration officials and lawmakers have left the White House after a classified briefing lasting over an hour, about Iran’s sudden downing of an American surveillance drone in the Middle East — and a “measured” U.S. response, they suggested, is likely coming soon.
Amid mounting tension between the U.S. and Iran, the White House earlier Thursday invited House and Senate leaders and Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees to meet with President Trump in the White House’s secure Situation Room.
And we almost got that “measured” response on Thursday night. According to multiple media reports, President Trump approved military strikes against Iran but then pulled back at the last moment…
President Donald Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing a U.S. surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching them Thursday night after a day of escalating tensions.
As late as 7 p.m. Thursday, military and diplomatic officials were expecting a strike, after intense discussions and debate at the White House among the president’s top national security officials and congressional leaders, according to multiple senior administration officials involved in or briefed on the deliberations.
Officials said the president had initially approved attacks on a handful of Iranian targets, like radar and missile batteries.
Right now, a “perfect storm” is developing all over the globe. Events are starting to move at a pace that is breathtaking, and it isn’t going to take much to push the planet into a state of absolute chaos.
Once a military conflict with Iran starts, it will be nearly impossible to stop.
The time to stop it is now, and let us hope that President Trump makes the right choices in the days ahead.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2ZJfHit Tyler Durden
It’s probably not a coincidence that just days after we reported that China’s interbank market was freezing up in the aftermath of the Baoshang Bank collapse and subsequent seizure, which led to a surge in interbank repo rates and a spike in Negotiable Certificates of Deposit (NCD) rates…
… that Beijing is doing everything in its power to keep liquidity flowing within the world’s largest, ~$40 trillion, financial system.
Case in point: China’s overnight SHIBOR lending rate tumbled overnight, sliding from 1.253%, and 1.924% a week ago, to just 1.11% today. This, as Commodore Research points out, marks the lowest level seen since June 12, 2015.
In fact, the only other time this decade that SHIBOR rates fell to such a low level was back in 2015 (which was a period when China was likely undergoing a recession). Prior to 2015, the previous time that SHIBOR rates fell to 1.11% (or lower) was during the global financial crisis in 2008/2009.
As Commodore further notes, “there recently has remained talk of liquidity problems and banking fears in China (and these concerns have only grown since the Baoshang Bank failure in May). Low SHIBOR lending rates are supportive and accommodative in nature — but rates sitting at rare multi-year lows are likely an indication that China is facing significant banking stress at the moment.”
The report’s conclusion: “It is very rare for the overnight SHIBOR lending rate to be set as low as 1.11%.”
Meanwhile, as the world’s biggest financial time bomb ticks ever louder, traders and analysts are blissfully oblivious, focusing instead on central banks admitting that the recession is imminent and trying to spin how a world war with Iran would be bullish for stocks.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2x9uNkU Tyler Durden
The Department of Homeland Security released data to the House Oversight and Reform Committee revealing a significant number of illegal migrants attempting to enter the United States have criminal histories, to include aggravated assault and three individuals convicted of murder.
In a letter released Thursday ranking Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, asked DHS Acting Secretary Kevin K. McAleenan to provide to the committee detailed criminal history on all the migrants in the January, 2019 caravan and the October 2018 caravan. He asked that the information be delivered to the committee no later than July 5.
The data – which included internal documents and analysis – was collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Data provided to the Committee shows that hundreds of migrants approaching the southern border have criminal histories,” said Jordan.
The committee has also requested an “update of CBP’s monitoring of several groups of 1,000 to 4,000 migrants in the Mexican states of Chiapas and Veracruz, including a summary of migrants with criminal records.”
Former ICE Director Tom Homan, who President Trump announced as his pick to be appointed to the new position of Border Czar, said approximately 20 percent on average of those arrested illegally crossing the border have criminal histories.
“These are people who are not only violating our U.S. immigration laws but violating our criminal penal code,” Homan told SaraACarter.com.
Further, Jordan and committee Republicans are asking for all “daily summaries of ICE HSI Office of Intelligence’s Human Smuggling Cell (HSC) referring or relating to the repatriation of caravan members with an extensive criminal record, U.S. full extradition warrants, and INTERPOL notices for extradition since May 1, 2014.”
Trump issued a national emergency proclamation in February, stating that the “southern border is a major entry point for criminals, gang members, and illicit narcotics” threatening “core national security interests.”
The documents produced to the committee thus far reveal the following information:
In October 2018, CBP’s Office of Intelligence (OI) tracked one caravan estimated to include nearly 8,000 individuals that arrived south of California in December 2018. ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) established that 660 of these individuals had U.S. criminal convictions—nearly 40 were convicted of assault or aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Three individuals were convicted of murder.
In January 2019, CBP OI tracked a caravan that departed Honduras with more than 3,300 individuals. ICE HSI identified 860 individuals with U.S. criminal histories, including over 20 convicted of assault or aggravated assault with a deadly weapon early 30 convicted of sexual offenses, two convicted of violence against law enforcement, and one convicted of attempted murder.
Full letter below:
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2N4qiDb Tyler Durden
While a military confrontation with Iran appears to have been delayed in the last moment by president Trump, who overrode the neocons in his cabinet including Pompeo, Bolton and Haspel, the signal for a Tomahawk launch may come with a tweet from Trump. Which is probably why The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday issued an emergency order prohibiting U.S. operators from flying in an overwater area of Tehran-controlled airspace over the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman.
New…FAA issues no-fly zone order in Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman for U.S. interests pic.twitter.com/UPkriGRRfX
The agency said it is worried by the ongoing tensions and increased military activity in an area with heavy civil air traffic. The ban will mostly affect flights going from North America to Asia eastwards.
The FAA’s advisory however appears to be ignored by other carriers, with a snapshot from Flightaware showing heavy commercial traffic in the Straits of Hormuz/Gulf of Oman airspace at the moment.
Earlier on Thursday, United Airlines canceled all flights from Newark International Airport in New Jersey to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM), India’s primary international airport in Mumbai. The Chicago-based company cited “a thorough safety and security review of our India service through Iranian airspace.”
Earlier, two other major US carriers, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, said they did not fly over Iranian airspace.
In a separate advisory to operators, FAA said according to flight tracking applications, the nearest civil aircraft was operating within around 45 nautical miles of a U.S. Global Hawk drone when it was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile this week.
“There were numerous civil aviation aircraft operating in the area at the time of the intercept,” FAA said.
The agency said it remained concerned about the escalation of tension and military activity within close proximity to high volume civil aircraft routes as well as Iran’s willingness to use long-range missiles in international airspace with little or no warning.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2FpGhW3 Tyler Durden
One Bloomberg headline says it all for markets: “All Time Highs in Everything American As Risk Rally Crescendoes” Yes, the S&P and Dow are at all-time highs and the talk is of when, not if, US bond yields hit all-time lows even before the Fed has made its first cut in this cycle. Indeed, USD Libor plunged the most in a decade yesterday and the US 10-year is flirting with below 2%, while there is chatter of both sub-1% and sub-zero. Frankly, would you rule either scenario out?
That will put even more pressure on the ECB and the BOJ and the PBOC to keep slashing rates too. Yet two of the three already have rates below zero, so what can they do? Either face a deflationary slump, or kick out the jams on fiscal policy. Of course, that takes us to lunatic monetary policy and lunatic fiscal policy combined, and a not very covert attempt at currency depreciation. Yet this was always the likely endgame in my eyes, not the recovery and rate normalisation we have been mis-sold for years. It certainly isn’t the sudden “But how did we get here?!” revelation this all seems to be for some (…he writes, thinking of that market talking-head who was speaking of 4% US 10-year yields not so very long ago.)
Meanwhile, in China it isn’t the cost of money that’s the issue, it’s the quantity – which is effectively limitless (just look at all the build-now-ask-questions-never projects permanently underway). However, money won’t flow where they want it to because China is suffering from both Soviet-itis, with its profitless look-at-me! gigantism, and New-normal-osis, where new credit can’t get to the parts of the economy which would benefit most from it.
Of course, US President Trump is not going to stand still if he sees other economies trying to do more on the monetary front when they are already below zero or providing endless free money….and that takes our problems to a whole new level. If you really understand that dynamic it isn’t an upper for equity markets, but for bond yields the path is unobstructed, fifty-feet wide, smooth as glass, and brilliantly lit. In short, I am talking about geopolitical risk, which naturally emerges when a financial and economic paradigm is no longer working – and can anyone claim that ours is working particularly well? (Besides the imminent “Dow 27,000!” baseball-cap-wearing crowd.)
Indeed, overnight we saw Iran shoot down a high-altitude US drone–or for the cynics, did America shoot down its own drone?–and an initially hawkish response from Trump that had many scrambling for cover. Fortunately, the president again then made clear he genuinely isn’t trigger-happy, suggesting Iran might have shot down the drone because of ‘fat finger’ error. Even so he laid down a clear red line: oil tankers and drones are fair game – but if one American life is lost, all bets are off.
As I tried to point out earlier this week, this drone downing is because US, and USD, hegemony is being pushed back at. The awesome power of the demand for the greenback, and for US Treasuries, is unlikely to abate in a world of trade tensions and sanctions that stifle the flow of USD to China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea while there is no alternative architecture to replace its functionality. All of these states are being stifled as a result without a shot being fired. Yet all have awesome power of their own unrelated to finance or money. The strategic imperative therefore remains for them to shift towards that other sphere, or to threaten to, especially with the US making clear even one American soldier’s life is precious.
What goes up and what goes down if the US stands up for itself? And what goes up and what goes down if the US backs down? And won’t there be continued pressing if the US does back down? Consider that dynamic–rather than baseball caps–very, very carefully. So let’s watch what China’s Xi and North Korea’s Kim have to say at the end of their two-day pow-wow; and let’s watch Turkey closely, where President Erdogan is threatening to put tariffs on the US if Washington DC sanctions it for buying Russian weapons, and to buy alternatives to the US F-35 fighter jet (from Russia or China). Unsurprisingly, it was TRY and not USD that went down 1.6% on that headline.
In a very different sphere the UK and Europe are also seeing their own ups and downings. Boris Johnson is clearly on the up, and he will now face Jeremy Hunt in a final, rolling stand-off to be the next British PM, a contest which appears merely perfunctory at this stage. His own future Chancellor, Philip Hammond, however, has come out to say he will do everything he can to thwart the Hard Brexit that Johnson is not afraid of. As a result, I suspect Hammond will be around as long as a US navy drone over the Straits of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, in Europe there is no agreement on any of the candidates for any of the top jobs (you know, the unelected positions that hold the real power). “Electing a Pope is easier,” says the Irish PM. So Europe is divided, most so on the key Franco-German axis, and has no game plan to move forwards when Brexit, Italy, Iran, China, and the threat of a slump and deflation must be dealt with. At least 10-year Greek bond yields are down to record lows of around 2.57%… though didn’t they first come up with the term Pyrrhic Victory?
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2N3TI4d Tyler Durden
A Chicago judge on Friday used a nautical analogy to approve a special prosecutor to review how Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx handled the Jussie Smollett case.
The “Empire” actor, who faked a hate crime in order to boost his career and denigrate Trump supporters, avoided prosecution after Foxx’s office dropped all criminal charges against him in a dramatic 11th hour announcement in March. The actor forfeited $10,000 in bail and performed 16 hours of community service at Rev. Jesse Jackson’s “Rainbow/Push” headquarters over two days.
Cook County Judge Michael P. Toobin wrote on Friday;
Jussie Smollett’s case is truly unique among the countless prosecutions heard in this building. A case that purported to have been brought and supervised by a prosecutor serving in the stead of our duly elected State’s attorney, who in fact was appointed to a fictitious office having no legal existence. It is also a case that deviated from the statutory mandate requiring the appointment of a special prosecutor in cases where the State’s Attorney is recused. And finally, it is a case where based upon similar factual scenarios, resulting dispositions and judgments have been deemed void and held for naught.
Here, the ship of the State ventured from its protected harbor without the guiding hand of its captain. There was no master on the bridge to guide the ship as it floundered through uncharted waters. And it ultimately lost its bearings. As with that ship, in the case at hand:
There was no duly elected State’s Attorney when Jussie Smollett was arrested;
There was no State’s Attorney when Smollett was initially charged;
There was no State’s Attorney when Smollett’s case was presented to the grand jury, nor when he was indicted;
There was no State’s Attorney when Smollett was arraigned and entered his plea of not guilty; and
There was no State’s Attorney in the courtroom when the proceedings were nolle prossed (dismissed) -Judge Michael P. Toobin
As such, Toobin said that “Adherence to the long-standing principles discussed herein mandates that a special prosecutor be appointed to conduct an independent investigation of the actions of any person or office involved in all aspects of the case,” adding that “if reasonable grounds exist to further prosecute Smollett, in the interest of justice the special prosecutor may take such action as may be appropriate to effectuate that result.”
Chicago PD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi tweeted in response to Friday’s news that the department stands “firmly behind the work of detectives in investigating the fabricated incident reported by Jussie Smollett,” adding that they will “fully cooperate with the court appointed special prosecutor.”
We stand firmly behind the work of detectives in investigating the fabricated incident reported by Jussie Smollett & #ChicagoPolice will fully cooperate with the court appointed special prosecutor. pic.twitter.com/bCDF0NYfzP
Controversy erupted in March when texts and emails released by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office revealed that Michelle Obama’s former Chief of Staff, Tina Tchen, attempted to have the case transferred to the FBI from the Chicago Police.
“Spoke to the Superintendent Johnson,” Foxx emailed Tchen on Feb. 1, in reference to Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. “I convinced him to Reach out to FBI to ask that they take over the investigation.”
Foxx also texted with one of Smollett’s relatives whose name was redacted from the text release, saying: “Spoke to the superintendent earlier, he made the ask … Trying to figure out logistics. I’ll keep you posted.”
Foxx said she recused herself from the case after having conversations with one of Smollett’s relatives before he was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly faking a hate crime against himself.
Foxx’s top deputy, First Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Magats, took over the case, and prosecutors ended up dropping all charges a month after Smollett was arrested, after the “Empire” actor performed 16 hours of community service, and agreed to forfeit his $10,000 bail, but did not admit guilt.
Hundreds of emails and text messages later released by Foxx’s office showed two weeks before the charges were dropped, Foxx texted her staff, dismissing him as a “washed-up celeb who lied to cops,” and telling them he was being charged too harshly. –CBS2 Chicago
Meanwhile, Smollett was kicked off of Empire, while Fox announced that the next season will be its last.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2FpIX69 Tyler Durden
Canada declared a national climate emergency on Monday. The next day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave the greenlight to a massive oil sands pipeline.
The House of Commons, with strong support declared climate change a “real and urgent crisis.” A week before, Justin Trudeau proposed a ban on single-use plastics, which, if implemented, would be the latest in a growing number of bans on plastic that could put multibillion-dollar bets on plastics and petrochemicals by the oil industry at risk.
But Trudeau has never really stood in the way of Canada’s oil industry, despite years of platitudes about addressing climate change. That was clear on June 18, when he gave the approval to the Trans Mountain Expansion (not for the first time), a $4.5 billion twin pipeline that would run along an existing line from Alberta to the Pacific Coast in British Columbia.
The Trans Mountain Expansion is one of a few high-profile pipeline projects that have run into serious trouble. Trudeau first gave the greenlight in 2016, but the project ran aground amid legal challenges from First Nations and environmental groups. Last year, Kinder Morgan, the original owner of the project, headed for the exit, threatening the cancel the project altogether.
Desperate to keep it alive – and the clearest example imaginable of how much the Canadian government depends on the oil industry – Trudeau moved to nationalize the project in mid-2018, buying it off of Kinder Morgan’s hands. A year later, here we are, with Ottawa once again trying to push it forward.
“This isn’t an either/or proposition. It is in Canada’s national interest to protect our environment and invest in tomorrow, while making sure people can feed their families today,” Trudeau said on Tuesday. Despite Trudeau’s plea, many see it precisely as an either/or proposition. Faced with a binary choice, Trudeau could either anger the oil industry, or anger First Nations and environmental groups. He chose the former, even though that was mostly expected.
“The approval comes as no surprise—the federal government owns the pipeline after all,” Scotiabank’s Rebekah Young wrote in a note. The Canadian government has vowed to build the project with a Crown corporation, then turn it over to private investors or some other company.
But the next step is unclear.
The approval from Trudeau’s government is a “positive step” for the project, but “project execution risk remains elevated,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a note to clients. The investment bank said that while the government plans to begin construction this year, Goldman is not factoring the project into its base-case forecasts, “given prior uncertainty in the outlook of this project.”
“Today’s decision is a positive development for Canada’s western oil sector, but it will have little impact on short term production,” Rebekah Young for Scotiabank said. The expansion will triple the pipeline system’s current capacity, taking it up to 890,000 bpd.
“However, with the earliest completion date only by 2022,” Young added.
Still, commencing construction on the project would be seen as a breakthrough for Canada’s oil industry.
“We would also anticipate that reaching surety in construction of TMX would provide oil sand producers confidence to commence re-investing in production growth, given the capital constrained budgets most companies are now operating under,” Goldman analysts said.
“That said, we continue to see pipeline shortages until at least 2022…and during this period from now until then, see light-heavy differentials wider than pipeline economics.”
The inability to build a new pipeline had diminished production growth in Canada’s oil sands, and could limit output in the long run. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) just released its 2019 Crude Oil Forecast, and lowered its estimate for production growth to 1.44 percent annually through 2035, less than half its prior estimate from 2014.
“Pipeline constraints, a lack of market diversity, and inefficient regulations are largely responsible for holding back Canada’s oil sector,” CAPP said.
Oil forecasts aside, the Trans Mountain Expansion will still run into stiff resistance from First Nations and environmental groups. “The Trudeau government does not have the right to put a pipeline through unceded Secwepemc land,” spokeswoman Kanahus Manuel said, according to Reuters. More lawsuits and protests are inevitable.
Moreover, the pipeline needs permits from British Columbia, where the government has opposed the project.
“[T]he project still faces significant political, regulatory, and judicial challenges, and ultimately we see a tremendous amount of execution risk up until the oil starts flowing,” Gavin MacFarlane, a VP with Moody’s Investors Service, said in comments circulated to reporters.
Meanwhile, the other pipeline that could potentially add takeaway capacity from Alberta – Enbridge’s Line 3 replacement – hit another snag. State agencies in Minnesota said on Tuesday that they would not issue permits until a revised environmental review was completed, following a recent court order that said the state had failed to adequately assess the potential impact of an oil spill. In short, permits could be delayed longer than expected.
If Line 3 fails to move forward for any reason, that increases the stakes and importance for the Trans Mountain Expansion as the only route left for new pipeline capacity. And vice versa.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2Rsx6Jc Tyler Durden
There was some confusion this morning when the US Treasury announced it would auction off a 10Year reopening (9-Years, 11-Months), at the odd time and date of noon on Friday, unlike the traditional time of 2pm on Thursday.
So what’s going on. Well, on Thursday, the Treasury Department reminded investors that it announced on May 1, 2019, its intent to conduct a live small-value contingency auction operation in the second calendar quarter of 2019.
The reason: “Treasury believes that it is prudent to regularly test its contingency auction infrastructure. This small-value contingency auction operation will be on June 21, 2019. This will be a 9-year 11-month note auction.” Unlike traditional auctions, this was a small test to make sure the Treasury’s emergency infrastructure is operational, and as the Treasury disclosed, for this live “small-value contingency auction operation”, the following conditions applied:
Bids shall be submitted by telephone to Treasury’s fiscal agent the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY).
Only primary dealers, as designated by FRBNY, may submit bids.
Each primary dealer can submit up to 5 competitive bids.
Net long position (NLP) reporting will not be required for this coupon.
Each competitive bid must be at a separate yield.
Customer bids will not be accepted.
Noncompetitive tenders, including FIMA tenders, will not be accepted.
SOMA will be accepted.
Moments ago the results were announced, and the details were as follows:
Size: 25 million
Maturity date: May 15, 2029 (9-year, 11-month reopening on Cusip 6T2)
Yield allotted at high: 2.065%
Bid to Cover 3.43
Awarded to Primary Dealers: 100%
By implication, awarded to Directs and Indirects: 0%
So while the auction was immaterial from a gross or net debt issuance standpoint, it confirmed that its “contingency auction infrastructure” is operational, which means that under emergency conditions where dealers can only buy US Treasuries via telephone – needless to say those conditions would be especially concerning for the broader US and global economy – the US government will still be able to fund itself.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2N0asJH Tyler Durden
Thousands of people took to the streets of Hong Kong on Friday for the third time in less than a week, calling for the city-state’s chief executive Carrie Lam to resign, while demanding that the government drop a controversial extradition bill which would allow Hong Kong to extradite people who are wanted for crimes in mainland China.
Arsenal St out front of #HK police HQ is really packed and LOUD right now. Main call: Release them! pic.twitter.com/SV8gMieLhP
— Kong Tsung-gan / 江松澗 (@KongTsungGan) June 21, 2019
The mostly young protesters surrounded the police headquarters in the city’s Wan Chai district on Friday – blocking roads and staging a sit-in less than half-a-mile from legislative offices.
Thousands of demonstrators again occupied Hong Kong’s downtown area on Friday [Euan McKirdy/Al Jazeera]
— Kong Tsung-gan / 江松澗 (@KongTsungGan) June 21, 2019
One of the group’s leaders is activist Joshua Wong, who was recently released from prison after rising to prominence during the 2014 Umbrella Revolution. Wong told Al Jazeera that he risks rearrest under the “hardline suppression of the police force,” for participating in an unauthorized protest.
Joshua Wong (Euan McKirdy/Al Jazeera)
Wong said the demonstration at police headquarters showed the anger of the protesters at the treatment of their comrades at the hands of riot officers after violent clashes last week.
He said, however, Friday’s actions were a peaceful occupation of the roads around the building, and protesters would not try to storm the complex.
Wong said his organisation, Demosisto, encouraged people to join the demonstration, and the past two weeks encouraged his view of Hong Kongers’ political and civil sense.
“It’s the miracle of Hong Kong,” said Wong. –Al Jazeera
Local police have asked the protesters to leave the area, however they are not planning a “clearance operation” according to a spokeswoman. “We respect the rights of the public to express their views in a peaceful manner,” she said.
A new flag’s just appeared in the crowd to much applause: a white bauhinia on black background dripping w red blood. (The #CCP-imposed ‘official’ flag is white bauhinia on Communist red background.) pic.twitter.com/xjZWj160cx
— Kong Tsung-gan / 江松澗 (@KongTsungGan) June 21, 2019
Now the last remaining police outside, at the top of the escalator, are getting pelted w what must be apples or tomatoes, but they refuse to go in behind the rolling steel shutter behind them. pic.twitter.com/s0kwdrlKKW
— Kong Tsung-gan / 江松澗 (@KongTsungGan) June 21, 2019
Lam apologizes
On Tuesday Lam issued a rare public apology, saying she was “sincerely sorry” for her handling of the extradition bill which resulted in two prior protests which attracted over 1 million and 2 million participants respectively according to organizers.
“I have heard you loud and clear and have reflected deeply on all that has transpired,” said Lam, adding “The concerns over the last few months have been caused by the deficiencies of the (Hong Kong) government.”
That said, while Lam committed to indefinitely suspend (pause) the extradition bill last Sunday, she did not respond to demands that Hong Kong completely withdraw. She has also failed to call for an investigation into allegations of police brutality during a protest on June 12 which turned violent.
Hong Kong police were criticised for their heavy-handed response to last week’s protests but were subdued on Friday [Euan McKirdy/Al Jazeera]
“The chief executive said that the bill would be delayed. It needs to be scrapped and we are also protesting the violent reaction of the Hong Kong police,” 21-year-old City University student ‘Cheung,’ who said there are “numerous issues” that Hong Kong residents are angry over. Cheung suggested that “both” peaceful protest and more direct action are needed, according to Al Jazeera.
“I won’t judge anyone who uses violence. They just want to support Hong Kong,” she added.
Student and pro-democracy groups had given Lam until 5 p.m. Thursday to respond to those demands, saying they would stage further protests Friday if she did not. Those protests began with a peaceful sit in outside the legislature and central government offices, which have been closed to all business, before demonstrators escalated by seizing Harcourt Road.
Some of the protesters brought signs imploring the police not to shoot at them – referring to the violence that broke out last week when police deployed rubber bullets, tear gas and bean bags against the protesters, enraging many.
“In the last few days, police officials have said that they haven’t done anything wrong,” one 20-year-old protester named Kong told Al Jazeera. “We no longer have confidence in the police, and we won’t allow the incident to be forgotten.”
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2KrIqEI Tyler Durden
