Month: July 2018

Back in April, we discussed how the U.S. Army M1 Abrams tank, an American third-generation main battle tank, was in the process of being upgraded with an invisible missile shield that will destroy all chemical energy anti-tank threats and other threats before reaching the vehicle.

It is part of a modernization program that the Pentagon is preparing its main battle tank for the next evolution of hybrid wars, expected to start in the mid-2020s, or before.

According to The Times of Israel, the U.S. Army awarded a contract worth $193 million for Israel’s TROPHY Active Protection System (APS) for its Abrams tanks “in support of immediate operational requirements,” Rafael Advanced Defense Systems announced.

Designed to block incoming anti-tank missile threats, the Trophy system has four radar antennas and fire-control radars to track incoming threats such as anti-tank-guided-missiles (ATGMs), and rocket-propelled grenades (RGPs). Once the system detects a projectile, it will automatically fire a shotgun-type blast to neutralize the threat.

Under the terms of the contract the TROPHY Active Protection System (APS), countermeasures, and maintenance kits will be supplied by the American defense contractor Leonardo DRS, Inc., which partnered with Rafael to manufacture them.

TROPHY Active Protection System (APS) will be manufactured in the United States and Israel, which is seen as a win for the Trump administration, as wartime marches closer.

The system, developed by Israel’s Rafael Defense, is the world’s first and only fully operational active defense system [invisible shield] and hostile detection system for armored vehicles. Rafael mentioned that over 1,000 systems had been deployed on all major Israeli ground combat platforms.

“Rafael has provided protection solutions to US service members for over two decades via lifesaving passive and reactive armor on vehicles such as Bradley, Stryker and AAV7. We are excited to continue to do so with TROPHY,” said Moshe Elazar, Executive Vice President and Head of Rafael’s Land and Naval Division.

 

“The majority of TROPHY components are manufactured by the American Defense Industry and we are excited by the opportunity to increase manufacturing in the U.S., including for Israeli systems, as the U.S. acquires additional systems,” Elazar added.

The Trophy Active Protection System (APS) has been mounted on Israel’s Merkava, the main battle tank used by the Israel Defense Forces since 2009, and has also been installed on the IDF’s armored personnel carrier vehicles. The system saw its first action in March 2011, when it thwarted an RPG attack on an IDF Merkava near the border with the Gaza Strip.

The system employs advanced algorithms that use radar to provide continuous 360-degree protection. The bolt on kit includes four antennas and two rotating launchers mounted on the turret of each tank (see below).

Once the threat is discovered, the algorithm classifies the threat, and if a direct hit is calculated, the countermeasure systems are automatically activated, and a tight pattern of explosively shaped penetrators launches at the warhead to neutralize the threat (as shown below).

Presenting at the U.S. Army’s annual convention and exhibition in Washington, D.C., Col. Glenn Dean, the Project Manager of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Combat Ground Systems was quoted last year by Military.com as saying the Trophy Active Protection System (APS) “exceeded expectations.”

“I tried to kill the Abrams tank 48 times and failed,” he said.

The Pentagon’s much-needed modernization efforts of invisible shields for its main battle tank suggests that the next major conflict could soon be on the horizon.

Video: U.S. Army’s Bassett discusses the Trophy Active Protection System, AMPV, Future Vehicle Tech

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Whether it is capital inflows that cause stock outperformance, or rising stocks leads to investors chasing upside is one of those perpetual “chicken or egg” type financial questions (although in this day and age of passive investing lifting all communist boat without regard for fundamentals we have a strong feeling what the right answer is at this moment) but whichever way the arrow of cause and effect points, one thing is certain: amid turbulent capital markets, panic-inducing spikes in volatility, and emerging markets on the verge of a bear market, tech stocks have seen a relentless investor interest in 2018, or as Eric Peters put it, “tech fund inflows are running at a $37bln annualized pace this year, 2x last year’s stunning rate and 10x higher than any year in the past 15.”

In light of such an outpouring of capital, it probably should not come as a surprise just how much of an outlier tech performance has been, and yet the following table from Goldman’s David Kostin is shocking nonetheless. It shows that in 2018 whose the first half just concluded, just one stock alone is responsible for more than a third of the market’s performance: Amazon, whose 45% YTD return has contributed to 36% of the S&P 3% total return this year, including dividends.

Amazon aside, the rest of the Top 10 S&P 500 stocks of 2018 are the who’s who of the tech world, and collectively their total return amounts to 122% of the S&P total return in the first half of the year.

And another striking fact: just the Top 4 stocks, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Netflix have been responsible for 84% of the S&P upside in 2018.

After such a torrid start to the year, the question is whether this unprecedented tech outperformance will continue? If Morgan Stanley is right, which expects a sharp market response to the escalating trade wars which it has largely ignored for now, the answer is no:

 In equities, our team thinks that US tech is vulnerable as a sector where pricing has been insensitive to trade risks so far.

For the sake of the market – and Trump’s sense of S&P500-defined self-worth – MS better be wrong, because if resilient tech stocks are what has kept US equity market above water so far even as the rest of the world has slumped, then a tech crash may be all that it takes to launch the next recession.

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For the second years in a row, New Jersey has narrowly avoided a shutdown of the state government after Gov. Phil Murphy reached a compromise with Democrats in the legislature that will see a substantial hike in taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals.

And while Goldman alum Murphy managed to stop his fellow Democrats from raising NJ’s corporate tax rate to the highest in the country, the deal includes an increase in taxes on the state’s wealthiest individuals. Taxpayers who earn more than $5 million a year will see their income-tax rate climb from 8.97% to 10.75%. Meanwhile, corporations will face a surcharge of 2% over four years. The deal avoided a government shutdown that would’ve closed the state’s parks and beaches just in time for the Independence Day holiday.

“There will be no shutdown,” Murphy said at a news conference in Trenton, alongside legislative leaders with whom he had negotiated for about four hours, after a series of unsuccessful meetings during the week. “The parks and beaches are open.”

Murphy’s initial budget plan would have raised the sales-tax rate to 7% from 6.625%, and the tax rate for income over $1 million to 10.75% from 8.97%. It also included levies on Uber rides, Airbnb stays and electronic cigarettes. But Democratic legislators objected to the millionaire’s tax, and instead proposed a two-year, 4% surcharge on corporate business taxes. According to Bloomberg, this would’ve boosted the overall tax rate for the largest corporations in the state to 13% – the highest in the country.

According to NJ.com, the tax hike on the wealthiest New Jersey residents will affect more than 1,700 taxpayers. Meanwhile, corporations will pay an additional 2.5% surtax, which will drop to 1.5% in two years.

The deal restored a popular property-tax credit program known as homestead rebates for seniors and low-income homeowners, and also included a $242 million funding boost for New Jersey Transit. Miraculously, lawmakers found room in the $37.4 billion budget for a $3.2 billion payment to the state’s drastically underfunded pensions.

Unfortunately for all marijuana smokers living in the state, an agreement that would’ve legalized weed wasn’t included in the compromise bill. The issue has been delayed until later this summer, at least.

A sales-tax increase that was part of Murphy’s proposal wasn’t included in the final budget, sparing New Jersey residents a 3/8ths of a percentage point increase in the sales tax. A plan to double the Realty Transfer Fee on high-end homes to 2% and expand the sales tax to include short-term rentals – part of the legislators original plan – was also left out of the compromise bill.

The Senate and Assembly officially voted to pass the budget plan early Sunday morning.

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Following the close of a second quarter that will be best remembered by the President Trump’s vacillations on trade, Axios has dropped a Sunday night bombshell that may spook markets hoping for a respite from the daily escalating trade war rhetoric as the second half of the year begins: White House reporter Jonathan Swan has obtained a copy of a draft bill, purportedly ordered by Trump himself, that would allow the US to “walk away” from its commitments to the World Trade Organization.

If passed, the bill (entitled the “United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act”) would effectively blow up the WTO, an organization that the US helped create, by allowing Trump to unilaterally ignore the two most important principles:

The “Most Favored Nation” (MFN) principle that countries can’t set different tariff rates for different countries outside of free trade agreements;

“Bound tariff rates” — the tariff ceilings that each WTO country has already agreed to in previous negotiations.

The report sent US futures spiraling lower as trade tensions once again reared their ugly head.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates…

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While many had considered that Trump’s ever more bitter trade war tirades and rhetoric were just that, at best a negotiating tool as nobody could conceive the US president actively pursuing measures that could potentially threaten the US economy and stock market, over the past month it has dawned on most that in this case, Trump is not bluffing.

In fact, as Morgan Stanley’s chief US public policy strategist writes in the firm’s Sunday Start note, “we no longer doubt that the US administration’s proposals signal the direction of trade policy. An escalatory cycle of protectionist actions, not just rhetoric, has begun and will continue.”

In addressing Trump’s unexpectedly stark retaliations, observed in the presidents engagement with China, the EU and Nafta nations, Zezas also notes that “this pattern of behavior shouldn’t be ignored: the US and its key economic partners now view trade differently. One party’s in-kind response is the other’s escalation. This is what a vicious cycle looks like.“

This, an increasingly bearish Morgan Stanley writes, is yet “another reason why pressure should continue in risk markets” and lists four specifics reasons for its negative outlooks:

1. The duration of these conflicts should now be measured in quarters, not weeks
2. Markets will discount multiple steps.
3. It doesn’t have to be a material economic problem to be a market negative.
4. When it comes to policy, markets had their dessert before their vegetables

Expecting further fallout from trade wars, Morgan Stanley now sees many ways to position for escalation, predicting that tech will be the sector most affected by the emerging “vicious cycle” writing that in stocks, “tech is vulnerable as a sector where pricing has been insensitive to trade risks so far.” Separately, Morgan Stanley also sees Asia EM entering a bear market, with the Hang Seng particularly vulnerable.

As for US rates and fixed income, the bank picks “duration over credit”, writing that trade risk is one reason why “the 10-year Treasury has seen its high in yields – a positive for duration-sensitive asset classes like munis – while US credit should underperform further on late-cycle concerns.”

The bank’s last reco is to go long VIX as another spike in volatility is not too far off:

our cross-asset team sees value in being long volatility across a variety of asset classes into the summer.

As one potential offset to his bearish outlook, Zezas offers that the he may be underestimating the resolve of Congressional Republican leaders, who generally support free trade, to take back some tariff power from the White House through legislation, although as he concedes, polls suggest division within the party on this issue.

Which is why the Morgan Stanley strategist concludes that the only true “circuit breaker” to Trump’s escalating trade war resolve would have to come from the “scoreboard” – namely a drop in the markets coupled with a jump in volatility.

* * *

His full note below:

Trade Risk: Believe the Hype

by Michael Zezas, Chief US Public Policy & Municipal Strategist at Morgan Stanley

We no longer doubt that the US administration’s proposals signal the direction of trade policy. An escalatory cycle of protectionist actions, not just rhetoric, has begun and will continue. It’s another reason why pressure should continue in risk markets, which now must eat their US policy vegetables after feasting on dessert in 2017.

Our ‘dessert before vegetables’ thesis suggests markets were conditioned for unambiguously accommodative policy outcomes entering 2018. A major, tax-driven fiscal stimulus had been just inked by an administration fond of pointing to the stock market as a scoreboard. Trade policy followed another scoreboard, bilateral deficits, making it possible for markets to envision a path away from the fundamental uncertainties of escalation and toward negotiation. A reduction in the US-China trade deficit could keep tariffs and other measures at bay, de-escalating the conflict without putting the global growth dynamic at risk. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appeared to signal this outcome on May 20, stating that “We’re putting the trade war on hold” following China’s announcement that it intended to increase purchases of US commodities.

What happened next, though, showed that US rhetoric did not seek to extract quick concessions, but rather to articulate a deeper disagreement. US officials announced their intention to go forward with tariffs on US$50 billion of goods. China outlined steps in response, and the US countered by proposing tariffs on another US$200 billion of goods. Meanwhile, the US broadened its scope, allowing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the EU, Mexico, and Canada to take effect. When these countries responded, the US began to prepare auto tariffs. This pattern of behavior shouldn’t be ignored: the US and its key economic partners now view trade differently. One party’s in-kind response is the other’s escalation. This is what a vicious cycle looks like.

Given present market conditions, we think this dynamic exerts pressure on risk assets.

• The duration of these conflicts should now be measured in quarters, not weeks. Benign, negotiated outcomes may still be the endgame, but an extended cycle of escalation will give fundamental impacts time to play out in company financial statements and economic data.
• Markets will discount multiple steps. We now must focus on the cumulative and interacting impacts of the next few rounds. Hence we’ve argued that investors should expect both the auto tariffs and the second round of China tariffs to go forward.
• It doesn’t have to be a material economic problem to be a market negative. Some have been quick to point out that announced actions fall far short of Smoot-Hawley trade barriers and anti-growth impacts. We agree. But that doesn’t mean they’re not negative for markets or couldn’t get worse. Consider guidance from corporations like Daimler, MillerCoors, and Brown-Forman regarding the profit and demand impacts on their products from tariffs. Trade conflicts can create headwinds to earnings, and hence valuations, without sparking a recession. Hard-to-define downsides from further escalation only heighten uncertainty. Hence…
• When it comes to policy, markets had their dessert before their vegetables. Entering 2018, we think that markets were pricing in the positives of the US policy agenda, assuming that tax cuts and increased spending would add to GDP (Morgan Stanley estimate +0.5pp) while shrugging off trade risks as hypothetical. Today, the more complicated realities of the US agenda have come into sharper focus and risk offsetting the positives. Thus, even apparently minor trade actions could be market negatives.

We see many ways to position for escalation. In equities, our team thinks that US tech is vulnerable as a sector where pricing has been insensitive to trade risks so far. We also see Asia EM entering a bear market, with the Hang Seng particularly vulnerable. In US fixed income, we like duration over credit. Trade risk is one reason why we think the 10-year Treasury has seen its high in yields – a positive for duration-sensitive asset classes like munis – while US credit should underperform further on late-cycle concerns. Finally, our cross-asset team sees value in being long volatility across a variety of asset classes into the summer.

Of course, we must consider where we could be wrong. We may be underestimating the resolve of Congressional Republican leaders, who generally support free trade, to take back some tariff power from the White House through legislation, although polls suggest division within the party on this issue. Hence, a near-term ‘circuit breaker’ to trade escalation is more likely to come from the scoreboard – namely, more challenged and volatile markets.

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Submitted by Eric Peters, as excerpted from his latest Weekend Notes.

“One thing’s gone right this year: Tech,” bellowed Biggie Too, Global Chief Investment Strategist for one of those Too Big to Fail affairs. “I get the rationale, but that don’t make me trust it.” Tech fund inflows are running at a $37bln annualized pace this year, 2x last year’s stunning rate and 10x higher than any year in the past 15.

“When tech gets sold, it won’t be because of tech, it’ll be something else,” barked Biggie, a big golden grin. The Nasdaq fell 33% in 1998, not because of tech, it was LTCM, Russia. “That’s how you play this game.”

Wobble:

“The ERM (exchange rate mechanism) worked for years. Europe’s economies were in rough balance, thus their currencies fluctuated in reasonably tight ranges,” said the CIO. “Then Germany united, sparking a domestic economic boom and inflationary surge that was asynchronous with the other ERM countries.” This divergence required a currency realignment that the ERM couldn’t accommodate, so it failed, spectacularly. “First Italy was blown out. Then the UK, Sweden, Finland. Germany spared France, which hiked rates and sparked a recession.”

“10yrs after 2008, the global economy had found a rough economic equilibrium,” continued the same CIO. “Then the US implemented this powerful fiscal stimulus.”

The move was so unorthodox that no other nation dared follow, nor should they. And this stimulus gives the Fed space to normalize rates, and it gives Trump room to play trade hard-ball, confident that the domestic economy will remain relatively robust.

“America is now out of sync with everyone, and we will see this rolling series of crises across the world, particularly in emerging markets.”

Job Descriptions:

“We don’t build schools, colleges, houses, roads, railways or banks. Nor do we finance them. Those tools, rightly, are in the hands either of governments or private companies,” explained UK central banker Andy Haldane. You see, the Labour gov’t proposed a change to the Bank of England’s charter, setting a 3% target for productivity growth. Having spent decades abdicating their responsibilities to central banks, politicians have found voters are now demanding they do something. They have many choices, theories. What will they try?

“By achieving its statutory objectives of price and financial stability, the Bank of England provides one of the necessary foundations for productivity,” continued Andy Haldane, justifying the existence of central banks. What he did not say was that no one knows for sure whether price and financial stability are necessary foundations for rising productivity. So many of the world’s greatest companies came of age amidst market and economic upheaval. Should we be surprised that productivity has collapsed as central bank dominance peaked?

“Central banks do not have the tools to affect lasting change,” concluded Andy Haldane. As a statistician, he probably believes that. You see, a central bank can do only two things. It can pull demand and investment returns from the future to the present, or it can do the opposite. To trained statisticians, neither should matter in time. But playing with time and money is not something done in isolation – its manipulation impacts who becomes rich and poor, it distorts the process of creative destruction, and as we see today, it spurs political change.

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At the start of June, in the aftermath of the late-May Italian bond fireworks which sent 10Y BTP yields soaring by the most on record surpassing even the extremes hit during the sovereign debt crisis, we showed that according to Bank of Italy data on its aggregated balance sheet for May 2018 including its net Target 2 balance, there was a dramatic increase in its negative net balance. Indeed, the net balance deteriorated by nearly €40bn, its largest monthly deterioration since March 2012, to a new record of -€465bn.

Commenting on the move, JPMorgan said that the increase in the Target 2 liability was largely matched by a decrease in deposits from MFIs even as the aggregate size of the balance sheet was little changed, which as JPM’s Nick Panigirtzoglou wrote suggested the worst possible scenario: that some deposits were moved abroad.

Using the available at the time data, we summarized the deteriorating Italian situation as follows:

… with the risk of both Italeave and redenomination rising, the Italian savers are starting to pull a “Greece”, something we observed on Friday in the dramatic spike in Italian bill yields above those of Greece.

Now, as more financial data is released, we get a more comprehensive picture of what took place in those late May days.

Last week, the ECB released data on monetary developments which gives a clearer picture of domestic behaviour over the May volatility, and contrary to what the Bank of Italy reported previously, it showed no sign of deposit outflows.

As Deutsche Bank writes, countering JPM’s previous assessment, Italian bank deposit data for May showed little sign of outflows.

Households’ deposits fell a modest EUR 2.8bn out of a total of EUR 1.1trn outstanding, and well within normal monthly volatility. Moreover, deposits from NFCs rose EUR 5.1bn over the month. Overall, therefore, the May data gives no evidence of a deposit flight on aggregate from Italian banks.

However, maybe even more notable than the paradox over what did/did not happen to Italian deposits, is that as Deutsche Bank notes, Italian bank BTPs showed the largest monthly increase on record over May, consistent with domestic banks stepping in to buy from nonresidents over the month. Here’s Deutsche:

ECB data released this week for Italian bank holdings of domestic government bonds shows record buying over the month at EUR 28.4bn (chart below), higher inflows than those seen over 2012 without adjusting for shifts in market value. In contrast, French banks were relatively heavy sellers of both domestic and other euro-area securities. Indeed, according to BIS data, French banks are particularly exposed to Italy.

And visually, here is the single biggest month of Italian bank purchases of Italian bonds in history.

In sum, DB concludes that the combined evidence of (a) limited signs of Italian deposit outflows, (b) the decline in deposits held at the Bank of Italy, (c) the sharp rise in Italian bank holdings of domestic government bonds and (d) the deterioration of Target 2 balances over May would together be consistent with Italian banks redeploying excess reserves to buy government bonds from non-residents over the volatility seen in May.

And, of course, the reason for this bold move is that Italian banks know they remain fully backstopped by the ECB, which continues to encourage this type of “plunge protection.”

There is, however, one concern looking forward: as DB warns, Italian bank holdings of domestic government bonds have risen over recent months and remain elevated relative to other markets.

This raises the risk that banks’ capacity to step in over longer-term repricing could become constrained by concerns over concentration risks and increased interlink between the sovereign and banks’ balance sheets.

What was not said is that this vicious circle of Country X banks (in this case Italy) buying Country X bonds, has for years been Europe’s dreaded sovereign bank doom loop. And, as Italy just demonstrated, despite repeated and aggressive attempts by European regulators and policymakers to finally break the doom loop, most recently with the introduction of the 2014 BRRD directive, which sought which sought to remove the need for and possibility of bank bailouts, and instead ushered in bail ins, has been an abject failure.

Worse, the fact that Europe’s doom loop was not only dormant but just made its biggest Italian reappearance in history, means that Europe is woefully underprepared for the ECB to withdraw its support for Europe’s various capital markets, of which the bond market remains most exposed. This means that if, or rather when the Italian crisis returns, and there is no longer an ECB bid to bonds, whether implicit or explicit, first Italy, and then Europe – which are both intertwined by the various aspects of the “doom loop”, faces a moment of historic reckoning as price discovery, left for dead some time after the ECB started buying up government bonds in 2014, make a thunderous reappearance.

There is one alternative: Europeans throw away their differences and finally agree to a European banking union, which however cedes control over European banks to Germany. The problem, of course, is that this comes at a moment when Angela Merkel finds herself in the weakest position of her political career, with the forces of populism across Europe so ascendant, that Italy’s Salvini is now calling for a pan-European association of nationalist parties.

As such, the only possible backstop was, and remains, the ECB, which however as of this moment has other plans and while keeping rates at zero for at least another year, will end its QE in exactly six months.

One wonders how long until the market starts pricing in what happens next.

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Authored by Helen Partz via CoinTelegraph.com,

More than a thousand of crypto projects are “already dead” as of June 30, 2018, according to a recent TechCrunch report. The news outlet has based its claim on data from two websites: Coinopsy and DeadCoins.

image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

Coinopsy provides daily reviews of various cryptocurrencies, including ones that are already “dead.” It defines a “dead” token as exhibiting at least one of the following:

“abandoned, scammed, website dead, no nodes, wallet issues, no social updates, low volume or developers have walked away from the project.”

According to Coinopsy’s list, there are 247 “dead” coins as of press time. These include the notorious Bitconnect that was shut down in January 2018 and is described by the website as “the most successful ponzi-scheme in crypto so far.”

DeadCoins similarly has a 830-item long list of “dead” cryptocurrencies. Among them is the recent Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services initial coin offering (ICO) that was shut downby the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for fraudulent practices.

According to the SEC’s press release, Titanium has raised $21 million from investors from the U.S. and other countries. In its statement, the SEC warned investors about ICOs as an extremely risky type of investment:

“Having filed multiple cases involving allegedly fraudulent ICOs, we again encourage investors to be especially cautious when considering these as investments.”

As Cointelegraph reported Friday, the volume of ICOs has reached $13.7 billion in 2018 so far, which is already twice as much as the market amounted to in the entire 2017. According to TechCrunch, scam and dead ICOs raised $1 billion in 2017.

On June 21, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman warned that ICOs pose “serious risks” for retail investors, claiming that projects that raise money this way have “almost no oversight.”

Earlier in June, crypto evangelist John McAfee said that he will stop promoting ICOs due to alleged threats from the SEC.

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A notorious gangster who was once France’s most wanted, has pulled off an epic jailbreak, escaping from prison by helicopter, according to the Telegraph.

Rédoine Faïd, 46, was flown out of the Réau prison located in Paris’ south-eastern suburbs on Sunday, aided by two heavily armed men, local police said.  A Belgium-registered helicopter landed in the courtyard of the prison, believed to be the only spot not protected by a net, sources told Reuters.

Faid was being visited by his brother in prison when the men burst into the room on Sunday morning and extracted him. A third man waited in the helicopter in the prison courtyard to watch over the pilot, a flying instructor whose aircraft the men hijacked in a nearby airfield and whom they forced to take part in the dramatic operation.

A union representative at Reau told BFM television that “two men dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and police armbands” entered the prison to look for Faid and used a grinding machine to cut open the door that directly leads to the visiting room.

Le Monde newspaper reported the gunmen took about two minutes to remove Faïd from the prison. The helicopter that was used for the daring escape flew across the Paris region from the jail southeast of the capital, before being dumped not far from Charles de Gaulle airport to the northeast of the city. 

The aircraft was then set alight but was only partly damaged and the fire was extinguished when police found it a short time later. Media reports said the pilot had been released and was not injured.

Hours later, the gangsters remained on the run, with a massive manhunt underway across the country.

Gunman and  Faïd abandoned this helicopter after fleeing from Réau prison in Seine-et-Marne. (Source: AFP/Daily Mirror)

According to The Telegraph, the courtyard it landed in was the only one not fitted with anti-helicopter nets as it is used by inmates only when they are being admitted or released from the jail.

Spectacular helicopter jailbreaks became a regular embarrassment for French penal authorities until the late 2000s, but have petered out since prisoner exercise yards in most jails were equipped with nets to prevent choppers from landing.

Front view of the burned-out helicopter. (Source: AFP/Daily Mirror)

After the helicopter that flew Faid out of jail was torched, its occupants fled by car in a black Renault Megane which they later dumped in the underground car park of a shopping centre near the airport.

They switched to a white van with the company name Enedis marked on the vehicle. A huge manhunt has been launched to track them down. All police and gendarme units across Paris were put on alert and ordered to set up checkpoints that “take into account the dangerousness of the fugitive and his possible accomplices.”

The helicopter was found 40 miles from the prison. (Source: AFP/Daily Mirror) 

Faid’s brother, who was visiting him at the jail, has been taken into custody for questioning.

French authorities investigate the site where the helicopter landed. (Source: AFP/Daily Mirror)

Réau prison, where gunmen used a helicopter to extract Faïd. (Source: AFP/Daily Mirror)

It was the second time Faïd had pulled off such a daring jailbreak – in 2013, he took four correctional officers hostage and used small explosives to blast open doors and gates to make his great escape. He was then captured six weeks later on the outskirts of Paris.

Faid, who has said he was inspired by US films such as “Scarface” and “Heat”, was serving a 25 year prison sentence for his role in the 2010 hold-up of a cash-transport van in the Paris area, in which a 26-year-old policewoman was killed. She was shot as the gang fled and used kalashnikov assault rifles to fire at police cars pursuing them along the busy A4 motorway.

Two members of the gang are currently serving lengthy jail sentences for her murder.

Faid has made several television appearances and co-authored two books about his delinquent youth and rise as a criminal in the Paris suburbs.  In one of those published in 2010 he claimed he had given up his life of crime.

Prior to the 2010 robbery, he had been released from a previous stint of a decade behind bars after convincing parole officials that he regretted his criminal past and was determined to start afresh.

* * *

France Bleu, a local broadcaster in France, provides Faïd’s timeline of crime:

1995 – First robbery

At 23, Redoine Faïd shoots a BNP agency in his hometown of Creil (Oise), taking hostage the family of the director of the bank .

1996-1998 – Braking and sentencing

In 1996, he directs a computer company Evry. The following year, he attacked an armored van in Villepinte and was arrested in 1998 . He is sentenced to 18 years of criminal imprisonment.

2010 – Redoine the repented

In 2009, Redoine Faïd presents himself as a repentant after receiving a conditional release . He publishes a book “Robber, cities to crime” and promotes it in the media.

June 2011 – The death of Aurélie Fouquet

Arrest in Villeneuve-d’Ascq. Redoine Faïd is suspected of being the brain of the attempted robbery of Villiers-sur-Marne in May 2010 when the municipal police Aurélie Fouquet, 26, is shot.

April 13, 2013 – The first escape

Redoine Faïd escapes from the Sequedin prison near Lille (North) in a spectacular way: he detonates several prison gates and takes four people hostage. He was arrested in a hotel in Seine-et-Marne on May 29, 2013.

April 14, 2016 – Conviction for the murder of Aurélie Fouquet

Redoine Faïd was first sentenced by the Paris Assize court to 18 years in prison for the murder of the municipal policewoman, Aurélie Fouquet, in June 2011. On appeal, he finally received 25 years’ imprisonment , conviction pronounced quite recently, in April 2018.

2017 – Convictions for a robbery and his first escape

In March 2017, Redoine Faïd was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his escape from Sequedin prison in 2013. He was shot a few months later, in October 2017, 18 years in prison for the robbery of an armored van in the Pas-de-Calais in 2011.

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Authored by Ben Garrison via GrrrGraphics.com,

We may be in for a long, hot summer. Our Gemini president sports a sun sign and right now he’s causing a major meltdown among the left.

They greatly resent the president’s success and now he gets to appoint another Supreme Court justice. Many Democrats, most specifically Chuck Schumer, want him to put that off until after the election. I added him and some other melters to this cartoon. If I added in all of the lefty tantrum throwers, it would resemble a ‘Where’s Waldo’ illustration. This features a select few.

Michael Moore has had enough of Trump. He wants to ‘go to war.’ Such talk seems at odds with his outspoken commitment against firearms, but he told Stephen Colbert “It’s time to put our bodies on the line to stop Trump!” In that respect he possess a formidable, if corpulent weapon. He also labeled Trump as ‘evil.’

Colbert lamented that ‘we are supremely screwed’ because the president gets to appoint another conservative Supreme Court Justice. Colbert pitched a hissy fit and said Trump would fundamentally change the course of the Supreme Court. Sucks to be you, Stephen.

Many in Hollywood imploded over Kennedy’s retirement. Rob Reiner called Trump ‘illegitimate’ and said Trump’s upcoming court pick was “tyranny.” Reiner was known as ‘meathead’ in the TV series, “All In The Family.”

The professional unfunny woman Kathy Griffin once held up a fake severed head representing Trump and joked about it. She now says Trump is ‘pro Nazi.’ That’s a real knee-slapper, Kathy.

Cher fears Trump will send her to a camp. That would make a great TV reality series!

Maxine Waters is in permanent meltdown mode. She may end up melting her way out of Congress. Even Rob Reiner said she went too far when she called for violence against Trump supporters.

The more Trump wins, the more the left makes collectivist jackasses out of themselves. Keep on winning, Mr. President.

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