Month: November 2023

Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Compared to Eris, BA.2.86 has a significantly lower growth efficiency, meaning that it is less capable of replicating itself in the human bodies.

While the U.S. government continues to try and micromanage markets and subsidize their virtue signaling preferences, 5% interest rates have been busy offering up a reality check to the Biden administration’s green energy pipe dream.

That pipe dream is, of course, that green energy companies could survive in an environment where rates are high; also referred to as an environment where you actually have to turn a consistent profit and generate cash to survive.

According to a new Bloomberg report, that’s just too much reality for some clean energy stocks.  A year after President Joe Biden’s significant climate legislation pledged substantial funding for the U.S.’s transition to clean energy, the sector has seen a sharp $30 billion decline in the value of its stocks over the past six months.

Rate hikes, which affect the profitability of large-scale projects like solar and wind farms, have led to project cancellations and even bankruptcies in the field, the report says. The optimism spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act has faded, resulting in a 25% reduction in the market value of U.S. companies listed in the S&P Global Clean Energy Index in the half-year period ending November 27.

The report noted that the downturn highlights the significant challenges facing Biden’s climate objectives. Clean energy firms not only grapple with steep financing costs but also face hurdles in community acceptance, obtaining government permits, and integrating into an aging power grid that struggles to support the influx of renewable energy.

Meanwhile, oil and gas companies are intensifying their extraction activities – and, according to Biden, making ‘more money than God’ in the process. Either way the message is clear: the U.S.’s journey towards a carbon-neutral electricity grid by 2035 is becoming increasingly difficult.

Eric Scheriff, senior managing director at Capstone, told Bloomberg: “We’re in the moment of realization now where some of the euphoria has worn off and we’re starting to realize it’s still not going to be easy.”

“In the final analysis, green investing has to be based on economic realities,” Jerome Dodson, the now-retired founder of Parnassus Investments added. 

And so that’s why we’ve seen the clean energy sector facing a wave of financial challenges. Proterra Inc., an electric bus manufacturer, and Sunlight Financial Holdings Inc., a solar financing firm, both sought Chapter 11 protection. Additionally, planned mergers and projects have been derailed, including Ares Acquisition Corp.’s merger with X-Energy Reactor Co. and Avangrid Inc.’s wind projects in Connecticut and Massachusetts, the report says. 

Garvin Jabusch, chief investment officer at Green Alpha Advisors, concluded: “The timeline we have to get to net-zero is quite short. Everything that’s invested in new exploration, new discovery, new extraction, new burning, new internal combustion engines, new fossil-fired electricity plants—all these long-life assets—puts us much further away from any climate goals.”

Recall, we pointed out just days ago how the ESG grift was reaching endgame after Markus Müller, chief investment officer ESG at Deutsche Bank’s Private Bank stated that sustainability funds should include traditional energy stocks, arguing that not doing so deprives investors of a prime opportunity to invest in the transition to renewable energy.

“When we think about clean energy, these are business models which are quite new and sensitive to interest rates,” he said.

Since the surge in fossil fuel prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, fossil fuel stocks have seen significant growth, resulting in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) funds underperforming in comparison.

Müller emphasized that investors focused on sustainability require more detailed disclosures from companies about their shift to lower-carbon operations and clearer regulations for labeling funds concentrating on the transition.

He said that ESG strategies vary, with many funds currently investing in fossil fuels, but impending stricter regulations may lead to more exclusions. For instance, France plans to prohibit ‘ISR’ labeled funds from investing in new fossil fuel projects from 2025. Currently, about 45% of funds, amounting to 7 billion euros, have traditional energy investments.

Deutsche Bank’s Chief Investment Office ESG survey indicates sustained investor interest in sustainability, with energy transition being the top investment choice, surpassing artificial intelligence. However, confidence in ESG factors for risk management is declining, with only 37% agreeing it’s effective, down from previous years.

It’s not surprising, as we have been calling out ESG as a grift since the virtue signaling “trend” was born from the soil of near-unlimited liquidity during the Covid years. Recall, back in August we noted that companies with good ESG scores polluted just as much as those with low ones. 

You can read Bloomberg’s full report here.

Authored by John Cody via ReMix News,

Artificial intelligence is advancing at lightning speed, and these advances are not only set to reshape our very reality, they could leave many losing all of their savings, according to cybercrime expert Marc Maisch, who also works as a lawyer helping victims reclaim their lost savings after they fall victim on the web.

He warned in an interview with Germany’s Die Welt newspaper that authorities will be powerless to stop this new coming crime wave, which will see criminals use AI tools to fleece potentially millions out of their money.

“AI is a great tool, but of course cybercriminals also use it to create phishing emails in order to have ChatGPT write malicious code that can be used immediately. And we haven’t yet talked about deepfakes and voice phishing, i.e., faces and voices are recreated. We are currently seeing the start of a revolutionary development in cybercrime. Next year, the year after that, this will have reached a whole new level,” said Maisch.

With AI tools, cybercriminals may be able to deploy novel, machine-written code to steal personal information or hack accounts en masse. The advent of AI voice mimicry tools could also allow hackers to bypass voice authentication systems or trick family members into sending money.

Cybercrime has exploded in the last decade, and Europeans are increasingly the target of thieves.

Already in 2021, Germany’s Federal Office of Information Security (BSI) reported that cybercrime was higher in Germany than ever before.

Maisch says that cybercrime gangs are actually recruiting new employees openly on public websites, and in “Southeast Asia, there are human trafficking gangs that take people’s passports and force them to commit criminal acts.”

For example, they may tell them that “you first have to earn 100,000 euros and then you’ll get your passport back.”

Maisch says that even love scams can now become automated and target thousands of people at a time using AI chatbots, adding that “this is more profitable because the love scammer no longer has to devote himself entirely to one person and get them to pay, but he can scale and automate his scam and do it dozens of times at the same time.”

The cybercrime expert warned that one of the main issues is the global nature of cybercrime. One of Maisch’s clients was recently robbed of €800,000, and the police essentially discontinued the investigation.

“In the file, there is a discontinuance order which essentially states that experience shows that the perpetrators live abroad and are therefore difficult to catch, and there is not much that can be done. I wrote to the public prosecutor that it couldn’t be the case that the damage amount, which was almost a million euros, wasn’t being investigated at all. Then you could immediately say: The Criminal Code no longer applies on the internet. Cases like this really make me angry,” he told Welt.

In many cases, the police simply do not have the expertise or know-how to properly investigate cybercrime.

“I have the feeling that our police are underfunded and far too little is being done to strengthen international cooperation between law enforcement authorities.

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Already the Indian government has been under intensifying international scrutiny in the wake of the June murder of Canadian Sikh separatist and activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canada accused Indian intelligence of being behind the plot, sending relations between the two countries to a historical low point, as each side has also removed diplomats.

Now a similar episode is playing out on United States soil. Federal prosecutors allege that an Indian government official was behind a failed assassination plot of a US citizen which was to take place in New York City. 

A 52-year old Indian man identified as Nikhil Gupta was arrested and has now been charged in the murder-for-hire plot. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a news release that Gupta was “recruited” by an Indian government employee to hire a hitman to kill a Sikh activist in New York City as part of a covert hit.

“The defendant conspired from India to assassinate, right here in New York City, a US citizen of Indian origin who has publicly advocated for the establishment of a sovereign state for Sikhs,” Manhattan federal prosecutor Damian Williams announced Wednesday.

US agents had apprehended Gupta—who was to receive $100,000 for arranging the hit—in the Czech Republic, but the Indian government official has not been directly named (an extradition is in process). The US federal press release has underscored the Indian official’s likely intelligence ties, describing [emphasis ZH]:

GUPTA is an Indian national who resides in India, is an associate of CC-1, and has described his involvement in international narcotics and weapons trafficking in his communications with CC-1 and others.  CC-1 is an Indian government agency employee who has variously described himself as a “Senior Field Officer” with responsibilities in “Security Management” and “Intelligence,” and who also has referenced previously serving in India’s Central Reserve Police Force and receiving “officer[] training” in “battle craft” and “weapons.”  CC-1 directed the assassination plot from India.

The US government has called this a “dangerous plot” to “assassinate a US citizen on US soil” which originated overseas. The statement further detailed that “When a foreign government employee allegedly committed the brazen act of recruiting an international narcotics trafficker to murder a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, DEA was there to stop the plot.”

There are some indicators this plot may have had the knowledge and backing of the highest levels of the Narendra Modi government: 

“Gupta directed the [purported hit man] to carry out the murder as soon as possible, but Gupta also specifically instructed the [purported hit man] not to commit the murder around the time of anticipated engagements scheduled to occur in the ensuing weeks between high-level U.S. and Indian government officials,” the news release stated.

The Sikh activist and US citizen who was targeted is an associate of the slain Hardeep Singh Nijjaran, the Sikh leader gunned down in British Columbia last summer. Thus the two cases appear directly linked and may be part of a broader Indian intelligence plot to hunt down political dissidents abroad. It must be remembered that the US was directly involved in tipping off Canada concerning culprits behind the June assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar…

American spy agencies provided information to Ottawa after the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in the Vancouver area, but Canada developed the most definitive intelligence that led it to accuse India of orchestrating the plot, according to Western allied officials. —NY Times

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau , in no uncertain terms, demanded India’s full cooperation in the investigation into assassination of Shaheed Bhai Nijjar. He condemned India’s blatant disregard for international diplomatic norms. pic.twitter.com/9Go3GfU1uy

— Dal Khalsa UK 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🦅 (@DalKhalsaUK) November 5, 2023

All of this is likely to bring US-India tensions much more out into the open, akin to spiraling Canada-India relations at the moment:

On June 18, Hardeep Singh Nijjaran, an associate of the victim, was killed by masked gunmen outside of a Sikh temple in British Columbia, Canada, prosecutors said. The following day, Gupta allegedly told the purported hit man that Nijjaran “was also the target” and said they had many other targets, according to prosecutors. Gupta told the purported hit man that because of Nijjaran’s murder, there was no need to wait to kill the victim, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors further described, “The Victim has publicly called for some or all of Punjab to secede from India and establish a Sikh sovereign state called Khalistan, and the Indian government has banned the Victim and his separatist organization from India.” He is an attorney and US citizen of Indian origin residing in New York City.

Gupta has meanwhile been charged with murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, but this may just be the tip of the iceberg in terms of a bigger plot involving other hired hitmen and additional targets, which likely has Indian intelligence officials behind it.

By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com,

Around 21% of Russia’s LNG volumes bound for the European Union are trans-shipments, which are not included in official import figures and thus ignored by EU policymakers, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said in an analysis on Wednesday.

Over the past year and a half, the EU has boosted imports of Russian LNG, as the bloc is now buying significantly more Russian LNG than it did before the invasion of Ukraine.

Unlike Russian oil, Russian gas is not banned or under sanctions in Europe. But while pipeline gas supply from Russia has slowed to a trickle, Europe has raised imports of LNG, including LNG from Russia.

The EU, however, has a target to be independent of Russian fossil fuel imports by 2027, as envisioned in the REPowerEU plan.

EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said in September that the European Union should phase out imports of LNG from Russia. 

Data analyzed by IEEFA shows that of all the Russian LNG that was received by Belgium and France between January and September 2023, as much as 37% was transshipped, of which the majority went to non-EU markets.  

“The transshipped cargoes arriving at LNG terminals in Europe are often not included in official import figures and thus ignored by policymakers,” Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, the Lead Energy Analyst for IEEFA’s Europe team, wrote in the analysis.

Spain, Belgium, and France are the biggest importers of Russian LNG, but a part of the cargoes is being transshipped from the ice-class breakers to LNG vessels and later shipped on to other markets, including in Asia.

For example, IEEFA’s analysis showed that in the first nine months of 2023, the volume of LNG from Russia’s Yamal LNG export facility that arrived at Belgium’s Zeebrugge terminal was almost double the volume of Yamal LNG imports to the terminal. That’s because Zeebrugge still allows transshipment of Yamal LNG, unlike the Netherlands, which has stopped offering transshipment services for Russian LNG, and the UK, which has banned Russian imports of the fuel altogether, IEEFA notes.

Belgium is looking into ways to tackle the transshipment issue without putting European supply security at risk, a spokesperson for the Belgian energy ministry told the Financial Times.  

In a further sign that U.S.-Sino relations are just fine and dandy under President Biden, some of the world’s largest consulting companies like Deloitte and KPMG are now asking their employees to use burner phones when traveling to Hong Kong.

McKinsey consultants are also being instructed to use a second phone when traveling to Hong Kong, a new Financial Times report revealed. As a result, some people are reluctant to visit the area. “People are not prepared to come here,” one source told FT. 

FT makes light of the fact that in 2020, Beijing implemented a comprehensive national security law in Hong Kong, marking a significant move to tighten its grip on the previously semi-independent region.

As a result, the U.S. withdrew Hong Kong’s special trade status, citing that the territory no longer maintained enough autonomy to justify different treatment from mainland China, which has also recently enhanced its data protection and anti-espionage regulations.

James Zimmerman, a partner at Perkins Coie in Beijing, told FT: “With much talk [about] national security issues, the general feeling is that it is important to be cautious in Hong Kong as well.” 

One anonymous cybersecurity expert that works with these consulting firms added: “We have been recommending for several years that clients treat the risk of being in Hong Kong as the same as mainland China. I think what you’re seeing is that message sinking in now.”

They said there is “a range of risks, up to and including the risk of infiltration by a state-backed hacker.”

Not all Big Four firms enforce policies on carrying separate devices for business. PwC confirmed it doesn’t have such a policy, while EY, despite declining to comment, appears not to have one either, the report said.

The practice by certain companies contrasts with Hong Kong’s efforts to promote itself as a global financial hub. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority recently held a finance conference, attended by top executives like Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon and Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee tried to emphasize the region’s unique ‘one country, two systems’ approach at the event.

Maybe they should have called it the ‘one country, two phones when traveling’ approach…

Authored by Thomas Brooke via ReMix News,

Residents of villages in Ireland have resorted to establishing barricades and road checkpoints around their communities to prevent the government from relocating asylum seekers to the area.

Locals of Dromahair in County Leitrim took the drastic measure to cordon off the village on Friday amid rumors the Department of Integration was planning to bus in dozens of foreign nationals without prior agreement by community leaders.

According to the Irish Examiner, three checkpoints were erected on roads around the village and members of the Dromahair Concerned Residents Association manned the roadblocks and checked cars as they sought to enter the area.

Protesters have expressed their discontent in recent days at the possibility of new arrivals to the town, citing security and the saturation of public services as their primary concerns.

The Irish government did not attempt to relocate the migrants on Friday and the citizens’ association in the village confirmed on Monday they had received written confirmation from Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman that no new arrivals would descend on the town without sufficient engagement among the local residents.

The letter sent to the organization followed what the Department of Integration called a “positive” meeting on Sunday with local MPs Frank Feighan, Martin Kenny, and Marian Harkin.

The government plans to repurpose the Abbey Manor Hotel in the village to house dozens of asylum seekers but is facing fierce resistance as has also been seen in several other towns and villages across the country.

“If a contract is agreed, it is hoped that this property can be brought into use. Capacity and configuration will not be agreed until negotiations reach the final stage, however, it is anticipated that the capacity will be circa 155 persons,” a government spokesperson said previously.

Similar scenes have been witnessed in Rosslare Harbour where the government is attempting to scrap the planned renovation of a derelict hotel into a nursing home and cater for hundreds of “male adult” migrants in a village that has already taken its fair share of refugees.

“Between the amount of refugees that we have currently in Rosslare Harbour and what’s planned for the Great Southern site, it will mean that this village will have taken in over 700 refugees. That will add about a third to the indigenous, settled population, with no additional services or provisions made,” local councilor Ger Carthy said earlier this month.

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