By the end of the day Tuesday, the plummet in Target’s share prices reached the longest losing streak the chain has suffered in almost five years.
Target’s
share prices have fallen for eight straight days, plunging another
3.66% on Tuesday reaching $133.88 as the store has lost a staggering $12
billion in market value in the last 14 days to rest at $61.85 billion
in the wake of a consumer boycott triggered by its LGBTQ merchandise.
“What
you’ve seen in recent days went well beyond discomfort, and it has been
gut-wrenching to see what you’ve confronted in our aisles,” Target CEO
Brian Cornell stated to employees last week, adding there were “two
guiding principles when it came time for us to act: do all we can to
keep our team safe, and do all we can to honor our commitment and
connection to the LGBTQIA+ community.”
As far back as 2014, Target announced it would no longer divide certain products by gender.
In
2016, Target introduced a gender-neutral line for children and also
asserted they would allow transgender people to use whatever bathroom
they preferred, prompting criticism. Target then spent $20 million to
put private bathrooms in their stores.
The
vice president for brand management at Target also serves as treasurer
of an LGBT group that has received millions of dollars in donations from
Target and urges schools to adopt policies to help trans and nonbinary
school students hide their “gender identity” from their parents.
Target made
“emergency” calls in Mid-May to managers and senior directors at the
store after the company faced backlash for its Pride collection, which
included “tuck-friendly” female swimwear and other products, according
to a source inside the company.
The calls
were to direct some stores to make their Pride products display less
prominent in order to avoid a “Bud Light situation,” a Target insider told Fox News.
“We
were given 36 hours, told to take all of our Pride stuff, the entire
section, and move it into a section that’s a third the size. From the
front of the store to the back of the store, you can’t have anything on
mannequins and no large signage,” the insider reportedly said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) faced a handful of enraged constituents during a Friday night town hall in Queens.
Some New Yorkers in attendance took issue with the congresswoman’s soft stance on illegal immigration,
raising the debt ceiling, and her support of seemingly endless U.S.
funding for Ukraine. One man wearing a shirt with a Cuban flag on it and
holding an American flag in his hand got up and walked toward the
stage, shouting “American citizens before migrants!”
“Where
are you on the migrant issue? You’re absent!” the man shouted as he was
escorted out of the hall by security. Before being forced out of the
room as most of the crowd booed him, the man got five more words in:
“You’re a piece of s***!”
The second-term socialist Democrat laughed off the incident, but she received more pushback as the night went on.
While
discussing the ongoing debt-ceiling negotiations between the White
House and Republican leadership, Ocasio-Cortez said, “We should
eliminate the debt limit in the United States,” a remark met by a
mixture of cheers and boos. One man in the audience expressed his
frustration with the congresswoman’s comment by pointing out that she
supports the U.S. sending billions of dollars to Ukraine.
“$100
billion for Ukraine that you voted for!” he said. The man was met with
shouts from someone else in the crowd who told him it wasn’t his turn to
speak.
Another person at the town hall held signs
that read: “America First: Vetted & Legal Migrants Only” and “Stop
Funding Ukraine.” Others displayed signs saying, “AOC Stop Crying” and
“AOC An Obvious Criminal.”
Ocasio-Cortez
has faced angry people who have questioned her support of funding
Ukraine in the past. In October, two people attending her town hall confronted her and accused her of supporting nuclear war.
“Why are you playing with the lives of American citizens?” he pressed. “You’re playing with our lives!”
“You voted to mobilize and send money to Ukrainian Nazis,” Jose Vega yelled. “You’re a coward!”
My friend @Noggatone and I confronted Congresswoman @AOC
on her support for Nuclear War and Ukrainian Nazis. I call her out for
being a coward in the face of the party that will push us all into
Nuclear war right now. Will she stand up like @TulsiGabbard and fight for peace? pic.twitter.com/aQiQvQSWIN
The U.S. Marshals Service announced this week that 225 missing or
endangered children were recovered as part of a 10-week, multi-state
effort dubbed “Operation We Will Find You.”
In a news release
on May 24, the federal law enforcement agency said the children include
runaways as well as abductees by non-custodial individuals.
The operation, described by the agency as an effort focused on areas
with high clusters of critically missing or endangered children,
resulted in the safe location of 56 children and the recovery of 169
children. The children were found in areas both inside and outside the
United States.
The youngest child who was rescued during the multi-agency effort was
just six months old, the agency revealed. Additionally, of the missing
children recovered, 62 percent were found within a week of the U.S.
Marshals Service assisting with the investigation.
Meanwhile, U.S. Marshals also noted that 42 children were found
outside of the city they went missing in, with 10 of those children
being located in Mexico. Additionally, a number of teenage
girls—described by the agency as possible victims of human
trafficking—were located in the Los Angeles County, San Bernardino
County, and Riverside County areas from March 1 to May 15 as part of the
nationwide sting operation, according to a separate May 24 news release.
Data released by the agency shows that 86 percent of the children
were endangered runaways, 9 percent were family abductions, and 5
percent were considered otherwise missing.
Also as part of the operation, U.S. Marshals arrested a “Top 15 Most
Wanted” couple after they fled from Washington state to Mexico with
their five children—who they had taken into hiding. Investigators said
charges for individuals taken into custody include sex offender
violations, as well as “other related charges.”
Members of the U.S. Marshals Service monitor an area in New York City on April 2, 2015. (Victor J. Blue/Getty Images)
“The U.S. Marshals Service is fully committed to the important
mission of protecting the American people, especially our most
vulnerable population—our children,” Ronald Davis, director of the
federal law enforcement agency, said in a statement.
“The results of this operation underscore that commitment, but also
highlight the necessity of these critical efforts,” he continued. “Our
continued success can only be achieved through our collaboration with
state and local law enforcement agencies, and partnership with NCMEC.”
The operation was largely conducted in federal districts across the
United States, including the District of Columbia; Maryland;
Massachusetts; South Carolina; New Orleans; San Antonio; Detroit;
Yakima, Washington; Orlando, Florida; Los Angeles; eastern Virginia;
northern Ohio; Guam; Puerto Rico; and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Most Challenging Cases
The agency noted that the missing or endangered children were
regarded as some of the “most challenging recovery cases” in the area
largely due to indications of “high-risk factors such as victimization
of child sex trafficking, child exploitation, sexual abuse, physical
abuse, and medical or mental health conditions.”
A total of 28 cases, meanwhile, were handed to law enforcement
agencies for further investigation into crimes such as drugs, weapons,
sex trafficking, and sex offender violations, according to the agency.
Law enforcement reported allegations of human trafficking in over 40 of
the cases the U.S. Marshals Service assisted with.
“Operation We Will Find You is a great example of how the U.S.
Marshals Service continues to prioritize child protection,” NCMEC
president and chief executive Michelle DeLaune said. “NCMEC is proud of
our long-standing partnership with the USMS and commends them and the
participating state and local agencies who helped recover the 225
endangered missing children.”
Since the passage of the “Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act” in
2015, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) in partnership with the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) recovered over 3,100
missing children, Davis said.
The 2015 law enhances law enforcement’s tool kit to recover
endangered missing children regardless of whether a fugitive or sex
offender was involved.
“The U.S. Marshals Service established a Missing Child Unit to
oversee and manage the implementation of its enhanced authority under
the act,” the agency stated.
Any information about missing or endangered children should be
reported to local police offices or to the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children at 1-800-The-Lost. Information about violent
fugitives can be provided to the U.S. Marshals Service at (504)
589-6872, via email at usms.wanted@usdoj.gov, or with the USMS tips app.
Crimestoppers GNO may also be contacted with tips at (504) 822-1111.
The city of Chicago was rocked by violence over the holiday weekend as more than 40 people were wounded and 11 killed, the most deadly Memorial Day weekend in eight years.
According to a tally
from the Chicago Sun-Times, at least 45 people were injured in
shootings or stabbings, while another 11 were killed. Two of the violent
incidents happened not far from the home of new Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson.
A
woman was found dead from stab wounds two blocks from the mayor’s home,
while another individual was injured in a shooting in his West Side
neighborhood, according to the Sun-Times. It was the most people killed
since 2015, though not the most injured.
Multiple police officers worked on their days off due to the expected increase in violence over the weekend.
Homicide
victims included a 33-year-old unidentified man who was shot in the
armpit, 35-year-old William Hair who was shot in the chest, 22-year-old
Johnathan Salgado, a 35-year-old man who was shot in the face while
standing on a sidewalk, an unidentified woman killed in a drive-by
shooting, a 26-year-old shot in the back, and a 35-year-old man shot in
the head while in his car.
The
incidents took place throughout the city, including the Auburn Gresham
neighborhood, the Heart of Chicago neighborhood, the Little Village
neighborhood, the Austin neighborhood, the Lake View neighborhood, West
Garfield Park, and Woodlawn.
Two
non-fatal shooting incidents involved separate 2-year-olds. One
involved a young girl accidentally injuring herself with a gun she found
in the street, while the other involved a boy who was shot in the hand
while playing in a bedroom.
The deadly weekend comes as
Mayor Johnson is rolling out a safety program that includes having more
police on the ground, an increase in peace safety officers on hand to
de-escalate situations, and programs for Chicago’s youth.
“It’s
going to take all of us, not just the police, not just city government,
to ensure that our communities can live and thrive in peace and
safety,” Johnson said last week. “However you decide to spend your holiday weekend in Chicago, your safety is my top priority.”
Chicago was not the only place that experienced excessive violence over the holiday weekend. Nine people were injured during a shooting at a beach in Hollywood, Florida. Those injured included children.
A COVID-19 outbreak unfolded at a conference held by the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) despite most attendees being
vaccinated.
About 1,800 CDC staffers and others gathered in April in a hotel in
Atlanta, where the CDC is headquartered, for a conference focused on
epidemiological investigations and strategies.
On April 27, the last day of the conference, several people notified
organizers that they had tested positive for COVID-19. The CDC and the
Georgia Department of Public Health worked together to survey attendees
to try to figure out how many people had tested positive.
“The goals were to learn more about transmission that occurred and
add to our understanding as we transition to the next phase of COVID-19
surveillance and response,” the CDC said in a May 26 statement.
Approximately 80 percent of attendees filled out the survey. Among those, 181 said they tested positive for COVID-19.
Every person who reported testing positive was vaccinated, a CDC spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email.
Nearly all respondents—99.4 percent—to the survey had received at
least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. And “there were very few unvaccinated
attendees in general,” the spokesperson said.
Officials did not break down the vaccinated between those who had
received a dose of the updated bivalent vaccines and those who had not.
They were also not able to say how many people among those who tested
positive work for the CDC.
“The survey did not ask about place of employment and responses were
anonymous, so we are not able to answer this question,” the CDC
spokesperson said.
About 360 people did not respond to the survey, so the actual outbreak may have been larger.
Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational
Institute, said on Twitter that the numbers made the conference a
“superspreader event.”
Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Bloomberg School of Public
Health’s Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, added that the
outbreak shows COVID-19 is “still capable of causing big outbreaks and
infecting many.”
A Georgia Department of Public Health spokesperson told The Epoch
Times in an email that many people who attended the conference were not
residents of Georgia, and that many used tests at home.
There were no mask or vaccine mandates at the conference, though many attendees wore masks anyways, according to the CDC.
Bivalent Protection
The CDC said the survey results “underline the importance of
vaccination for protecting individuals against severe illness and death
related to COVID-19” because none of the people who said they tested
positive reported going to a hospital.
No clinical trial efficacy data are available for the bivalent shots,
even though they were first cleared nine months ago. They provide
little protection against infection, according to observational data,
though officials maintain they protect against severe illness. That
protection is short-lived, according to studies, including non-peer-reviewed CDC publications.
Among adults without “documented immunocompromising conditions,” the
protection was 62 percent between seven and 59 days but went to 47
percent before plunging to just 24 percent after 120 days.
Among adults with “documented immunocompromising conditions,” the
effectiveness peaked at just 41 percent, hitting 13 percent after 120
days.
Researchers did not provide the effectiveness estimates among all
adults, or the combined population of those with and without “documented
immunocompromising conditions.” They also did not provide the
unadjusted vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates, or estimates before
adjusting for certain variables.
“Both the crude VE and adjusted VE should be reported so that big
discrepancies are evident to the reader and questioned,” David
Wiseman, founder and president of Synechion, told The Epoch Times via
email.
Effective against critical illness—defined as admission to intensive
care, or death—peaked at 85 among the people deemed immunocompetent, but
plunged to 33 percent after 120 days. Among those described as
immunocompromised, the effectiveness was not estimated above 53 percent.
Effectiveness was not measured beyond 180 days.
Effectiveness for children was not examined as part of the research.
CDC researchers looked at data from its VISION Network, a network of
hospitals in the United States. Exclusions included people under 50 who
received four or more old vaccine boosters.
Just 23.5 percent of the immunocompetent and 16.4 percent of the
immunocompromised were vaccinated, while the rest had received at least
two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
About 8 percent of American adults are still unvaccinated, according to CDC data, though that percentage may be a big overestimate (pdf).
Researchers said the data showed that bivalent doses “helped provide
protection against COVID-19-associated hospitalization and critical
disease” adding that “waning of protection was evidence in some groups.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with additional information from the CDC.
Comptroller Brad Lander is freezing city deposits at two major banks because they’re not woke enough for him.
Lander, the city’s chief financial officer, boasted in a press release
that Mayor Eric Adams and city Finance Commissioner Preston
Niblack joined him as members of the city’s Banking Commission Thursday
in taking action against Capital One and KeyBank — alleging both lenders
“outright refused to submit required policies” to weed out
“discrimination.”
Following its first-ever public hearing, the
commission also voted to prohibit three other banks from accepting city
money because they, too, failed to supply anti-discrimination policies
in writing: International Finance Bank, PNC Bank, and Wells Fargo,
according to Lander.
“Unfortunately, despite several
opportunities to do so, five banks failed to comply with the …
commission’s designation process – leaving us to conclude that they are
not taking meaningful actions to combat discrimination in their
operations and are not responsible stewards of public dollars,” Lander said.
Lander, the city’s chief financial officer, boasted in a press release
that Mayor Eric Adams and city Finance Commissioner Preston
Niblack joined him as members of the city’s Banking Commission Thursday
in taking action against Capital One and KeyBank. Getty Images
The agency said Capital One and KeyBank were “conditionally” designated
as depository banks because they didn’t submit a “complete
application,” but after one year can re-apply for full designation to
begin accepting city deposits again. It also said both lenders submitted
“very strong financial reports.”
KeyBank
insists it doesn’t discriminate in its practices. “We believe this is a
misunderstanding and we look forward to clarifying this issue with the
Banking Commission,” added the lender in a statement. GC Images
“Despite reports suggesting otherwise, the Banking Commission’s vote
will not have any impact on banking services with the city and will not
negatively affect any deposits currently held with the city’s designated
banks,” added the agency.
Capital One and KeyBank held $7.2 million and $10 million in city deposits, respectively, as of the end of April.
Lander didn’t single out any of the flagged banks for specific wrongdoing.
Capital One Bank in a statement said it “prohibits discrimination and harassment” in all operations. NurPhoto via Getty Images
Instead, he vaguely noted that the commission heard testimony from
Muslims and other New Yorkers who alleged experiencing discriminatory
practices while opening and closing accounts.
The commission did fully certify 26 other banks to receive city deposits.
The votes were the first cast by the commission since far-left Lander, a self-described socialist , and Adams, a centrist Democrat, joined after taking office in 2022.
Capital One in a statement said, “It prohibits discrimination and
harassment against any applicant, intern, associate, vendor, contractor,
customer, or client on the basis of protected characteristics.”
KeyBank said in a statement that it “does not discriminate in any of its operations.”
“We believe this is a misunderstanding and we look forward to
clarifying this issue with the Banking Commission,” added the lender.
Commodity cheerleader Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said its forecasts for
major rises in raw materials this year hadn’t panned out well so far,
but coupled that assessment with another call for a major rally.
“Bulls, like ourselves, find comfort in the fact that end-use demand
across the commodity complex has not shown recessionary signs and
investment in supply remains elusive,” analysts including Jeffrey Currie
said in a note. “But this misses the point that we were wrong on price
expectations.”
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Commodities have sunk this year, with a Bloomberg gauge
tumbling by almost 10% to hit the lowest since 2021 this week. The
declines in energy and metals have been driven largely by China’s
weaker-than-expected emergence from Covid Zero and concerns that the US
is now headed for recession after an aggressive round of rate hikes from
the Federal Reserve to contain inflation.
“Prices continue to move against our forecasts,” the analysts said in
the May 23 report, pinning the probable explanation for their miss on
an unprecedented clear-out of stockpiles and positioning. “What is the
explanation? It is likely the largest commodity destocking the complex
has ever witnessed.”
Against that backdrop, Goldman analysts expect commodities to come
roaring back should recession concerns prove to be misplaced. “The
absence of a recession would likely lead to higher oil and commodity
prices as well as higher rates, to which equities would likely react
poorly,” they said. They are now forecasting that the S&P GSCI gauge
of commodities will return 30.3% on a 12-month horizon.
Governor Bill Lee (R-TN) authorized Thursday the deployment of 100 Tennessee
National Guard troops to help secure the southern border in the wake of
record-level crossings and illegal entries into the United States.
Lee joins other Republican governors, like Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis,
in sending help to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has called on the
Biden administration to take stronger measures to stop the flood of
people crossing into the U.S. from Mexico.
“America
continues to face an unprecedented border crisis that threatens our
nation’s security and the safety of Tennesseans,” Lee said in a
statement obtained by The Daily Wire. “The federal government owes
Americans a plan to secure our country, and in the meantime, states
continue to answer this important call to service. I am again
authorizing the Tennessee National Guard to help secure the Southern
border, and I commend these troops for providing critical support.”
According
to the governor’s office, the Tennessee troops will help patrol along
the border, help with barrier placement, clear roads, and assist with
outpost operations as part of Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star.” This is
not the first time that Tennesseans have been sent to the border, as Lee
also sent about 50 troops to the border in December 2021.
“The
men and women of the Tennessee National Guard are always ready to serve
their country anywhere, anytime,” said Brigadier General Warner Ross,
Tennessee’s Adjutant General. “These troops are a capable contingent
that will continue our long-standing tradition of responding to the call
to aid our fellow Americans. The Tennessee National Guard is proud to
serve and support our state partners in safeguarding the United States
along the U.S. Southern border.”
Illegal crossings at the border have remained high under President Joe Biden, whose administration saw the record
for most crossings in the days surrounding the expiration of Title 42, a
Trump-era policy that allowed Border Patrol to turn away migrants based
on COVID concerns. According to Border Patrol, roughly 83,000 people
crossed the border the week that Title 42 ended.
Lee’s
actions follow a joint statement from 24 Republican governors who
called out the Biden administration for its policies at the border and
in support of Abbott.
“All
states have suffered from the effects of deadly illegal drugs coming
across the border, and every state is a border state due to the
devastating influx of drugs in our communities. Republican governors are
leading the way to address the border crisis by increasing fentanyl
sentencing and increasing support for law enforcement interdiction of
drugs, among other measures,” the governors said.
Drug
deaths have been a particular focus for lawmakers as dangerous drugs
have continued to be smuggled across the border. In Tennessee, the
state’s bureau of investigation has raised alarm bells over drugs linked
to Mexican cartels that it says are “very engaged in operations in Tennessee.”
Ford Motor Co. reached a series of
deals to buy lithium from projects in Canada to Chile, as automakers
rush to secure the materials needed to build electric vehicles.
Ford has struck deals with Albemarle Corp., the world’s top producer,
Chile’s SQM and Canada’s Nemaska Lithium, according to separate
announcements Monday. The deals come ahead of the second day of an
investor event focused on Ford’s $50 billion plan for electric models.
The agreements will look to take advantage of President Joe Biden’s
Inflation Reduction Act, which contains incentives for battery
manufacturing and sourcing of materials from the US and its allies.
Sign Up for the Battery Metals Digest
The availability and cost of crucial battery materials, including
nickel and cobalt, have been key concerns for years among EV makers
trying to build out their electric lineups. The issue has gained more
urgency in recent months due to rising competition to strike supply
pacts with miners and project developers and by wild swings in raw
material costs. Processing is the “limiting factor,” said Ford chief
executive officer Jim Farley.
“The mining part is not the constraint. It’s really the processing,” Farley said Monday in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
“So turning those raw materials, especially lithium and nickel, into
processed materials we can put into a slurry to make the cells
themselves.”
Companies including Ford and General Motors Co. have included
prepayments or loans in recent pacts to help accelerate the development
of new projects.
Farley is seeking to use the two-day investor event in Dearborn,
Michigan, to convince investors on the merits of a strategy to lift
annual electric vehicle output to 2 million by the end of 2026. The
company has already locked up the lithium and cobalt supplies it
requires for that expansion, the CEO said.
Albemarle said Monday that it will supply more than 100,000 tons of
battery-grade lithium hydroxide to Ford, enough to make for about 3
million EV batteries. The deal will start in 2026 and run to 2030.
Ford also agreed a supply deal with Energysource Minerals.
Ford in March agreed to take a direct stake in a battery-nickel plant
under construction in Indonesia, and last year sealed a pact with
Liontown Resources Ltd., the developer of an Australian lithium mine.
The processing constraints are also political, Farley said, since 80% of the processing is now done in China.
“Onshoring the processing is going to be the most important
controller of cost and also politics,” the CEO said. “Eighty percent of
the processing for nickel and lithium are being done in China and we
need to localize that.”
(By Keith Naughton, David Stringer and Matthew Miller, with assistance from Thomas Biesheuvel and Mathieu Dion)
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks to reporters outside the
West Wing following debt limit talks with President Joe Biden at the
White House on May 9, 2023. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) vented frustration over
President Joe Biden’s unwillingness to reduce federal discretionary
spending in 2024 in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling.
“It didn’t seem like it’d be this hard,” McCarthy told reporters at midday on May 24.
The Speaker then listed a litany of complaints against Biden and the Democrat party.
McCarthy said that Democrats have overspent, driving the country into
debt, causing inflation, increasing dependence on China, and causing
four bank failures, all while the president refused to negotiate on
raising the debt ceiling for more than three months.
Though he expressed hope that an agreement could still be reached in
time to prevent a default on U.S. obligations, McCarthy often struck a
defensive tone.
“I’m not a senator. I don’t control the Senate. Why didn’t they pass
something? The president didn’t talk to us for 97 days. So don’t blame
me for reaching out to the Democrats, for begging the president to meet
with me, and trying to find [a solution],” McCarthy said.
The Limit, Save, Grow Act—a Republican plan to increase the debt
ceiling while reducing federal spending—passed the House on April 26 by
one vote.
The measure would reduce federal spending in 2024, cap spending
growth for 10 years, increase work requirements for some recipients of
social services, take back unspent COVID-19 funds, and loosen permitting
requirements for oil and gas.
The Treasury could lack the funds to meet all financial obligations
in full as soon as June 1 without additional borrowing, according to
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
“It’s not my fault that the Democrats today have become so extreme,
so far toward the socialist wing that they are now opposed to work
requirements, that they are now opposed to saving $1 less than you spent
the year before. That, to me, really seems that the problem [is] the
Democrats,” McCarthy said.
Republicans began by demanding that federal discretionary spending
for 2024 be reduced to the 2023 level. That has emerged as a central
sticking point in negotiations. However, McCarthy has lately used the
phrase “spend less than we spent last year,” perhaps signaling a
willingness to accept a smaller spending cut.
“When have I ever said, ‘You have to agree to 100 percent of what I
want?’” McCarthy asked, indicating his willingness to make some
concessions to Democrats. However, he reiterated his one non-negotiable:
no increase in the debt limit without some agreement to reduce spending
in 2024.
Asked whether the public would blame Republicans if a default
resulted from the the fight over the debt ceiling, McCarthy first
brushed off the suggestion that a default would occur. He then shifted
any blame for the current impasse to Democrats.
“I don’t think I have to say who’s to blame. If the Republicans have
passed a bill that raised the debt ceiling, did it in a responsible,
sensible way, I think the American people understand that.” McCarthy
added.
Democrats continue to portray the disagreement in opposite terms,
accusing McCarthy and the GOP of using the debt limit to strong-arm
their agenda into law rather than following the legislative process.
“I just heard Kevin McCarthy’s press conference. It sounds like he
really is anxious to have a default on the debt, which I think would be
damaging to our economy,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).
“You know, he’s not negotiating. He’s giving us ransom notes,”
McGovern added, evoking the metaphor often used by the president that
Republicans are holding the U.S. economy hostage to their demands.
“This is about paying bills we’ve already accumulated,” McGovern said
of the debt ceiling negotiation. “If you don’t want to accrue these
bills, then don’t spend. But the place to do that is in the
appropriations process.”
About 60 percent of Americans believe Congress should raise the debt
ceiling only if spending cuts are also made, according to a poll by CNN
and SSRS released May 24. About 24 percent of respondents said the limit
should be raised no matter what.
Just 31 percent of respondents said the president has the right
priorities, though the number for Republicans was 29 percent. Only 35
approved of the way Biden is handling the federal budget.
Despite the impasse in negotiations, McCarthy said he is determined to find a solution.
“I am not going to give up. We’re not going to default. We’re going
to solve this problem. I will stay with it until we can get it done.”
Republican negotiators were headed back to the White House to continue talks on May 24, McCarthy said.
A few more bites out of Apple's (AAPL) stock by investors, and we may find the tech giant's market cap beyond the $3 trillion level.
Shares
of the iPhone maker have surged 35% year to date, out-performing the
S&P 500 pedestrian's 9% gain. Apple is the fourth-best performing
component of the closely tracked FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon,
Netflix, Google) complex, lagging the 105% gain in Meta (META), 41% increase in Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), and 39% appreciation in Amazon (AMZN).
In the process of its push higher, Apple has added about $690
billion in market cap. The company's stock market valuation now stands
at $2.74 trillion, according to Yahoo Finance data, only 9% away from the $3 trillion mark.
Apple is the highest-valued company in the stock market, with Microsoft (MSFT) a close second, sporting a $2.38 trillion market cap.
Pros point to several reasons behind the impressive run in Apple's stock.
First, Apple continues to have a great story to tell investors on multiple fronts.
"For
Apple there is massive installed base momentum going to the iPhone 15
anniversary cycle, and it has put a tailwind in the stock coupled by
demand being solid in the field," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives tells Yahoo Finance.
That two could become a three soon. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
That
installed base momentum could be stoked further at the company's 2023
Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off June 5.
Apple is
widely anticipated to introduce the iOS 17 operating system. But some
Apple watchers are holding out hope the company finally unveils its new
AR/VR headset that has been in the works for years.
Meantime, Apple's latest quarterly results — while not perfect — have been viewed favorably by investors looking for relative safety amid the debt ceiling drama and sticky inflation.
"Overall,
the results [from Apple] and guidance are exactly what investors were
looking for from the company to feel reassured of its defensive
positioning and at the same time the greater resilience of Big Tech in
general in the current macro as well as on potential further macro
deterioration, making it palpable to still keep paying 26x near-term
earnings for Apple shares," said JP Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee in a
client note.
Chatterjee added: "While we can see some investors
squirm about a 26x earnings multiple, we believe the resilience of the
business proving out in the numbers currently as well as the early part
of the pandemic (2020) will amply justify the reasons to pay a premium."
FILE
- In this May 7, 2018, photo, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO
Warren Buffett smiles during an interview in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Nati
Harnik, File)
Another vote of confidence from a special investor has helped sentiment on Apple, too.
Billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett
said earlier this month he purchased more shares of Apple. Berkshire
now owns a $151 billion stake in Apple, up from $1 billion in May 2016.
Berkshire is Apple's third-largest institutional shareholder, behind BlackRock (second) and Vanguard (one), according to Yahoo Finance data.
As
for what could trip up Apple's stock, pros find it hard to come up with
a major selling event. Many highlight China's economic recovery
stalling as a key risk to Apple's stock price in 2023, however.
Said
Ives: "Outside of the usual black swan events, the biggest risk to
Apple’s stock is around the demand environment in China taking a step
down. China is the hearts and lungs of the Apple growth story and so far
so good, but that is the biggest risk for the stock."
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Tips on the banking crisis? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com
(Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp. agreed to buy Denver-based oil and gas
producer PDC Energy Inc. in a $6.3 billion all-stock deal as it seeks to
expand amid what’s expected to be a busy year of mergers and
acquisitions in US shale.
Chevron
will pay $72 a share, a roughly 14% premium on a 10-day average based
on May 19 closing prices, according to a statement Monday. The deal will
increase Chevron’s production by just under 10% and expand the oil
giant’s holdings in the Colorado and West Texas shale basins. Separately
Monday, Exxon Mobil Corp. agreed to sell assets in the Williston Basin
to Chord Energy for $375 million.
Though a small deal by Chevron’s
standards — the price is less than the company’s first quarter cash
flow from operations — PDC fits neatly into Chief Executive Officer Mike
Wirth’s strategic plan to grow prudently in areas that fit with its
existing assets rather take on large, transformative acquisitions.
Chevron was widely praised for buying Noble Energy for $5 billion in a
similar bolt-on deal in the midst of the pandemic in 2020 but has come
under scrutiny recently about its lack of growth relative to Exxon Mobil
Corp.
“PDC’s attractive and complementary assets strengthen
Chevron’s position in key U.S. production basins,” Chevron CEO Mike
Wirth said in the statement. “This transaction is accretive to all
important financial measures and enhances Chevron’s objective to safely
deliver higher returns and lower carbon.
Chevron will increase its
capital expenditure budget by $1 billion per year, after realizing
about $400 million in cost savings once the transaction closes by the
end of the year, pending regulatory and PDC shareholder approval. Its
new global spending range will be $14 billion to $16 billion a year
through 2027.
Oil and gas producers are flush with cash after
raking in record profits over the past year, leaving the US energy patch
ripe for a takeover boom. Companies are looking to bulk up and
consolidate, particularly in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New
Mexico, the most prolific US shale play.
PDC shares climbed as much as 8.5% before the start of regular trading in New York. Chevron shares fell 0.7%.
The
total enterprise value, which includes debt, of the deal is $7.6
billion. PDC shareholders will receive 0.4638 shares of Chevron for each
PDC share.
Chevron said it expects the tie-up to add about $1
billion in annual free cash flow at $70 per barrel Brent oil and Henry
Hub natural gas at $3.50 per thousand cubic feet. Morgan Stanley and
Evercore advised Chevron, while JPMorgan advised PDC.
Military vehicles carrying DF-21D intermediate-range anti-ship ballistic
missiles participate in a military parade at Tiananmen Square in
Beijing on September 3, 2015, to mark the 70th anniversary of victory
over Japan and the end of World War II. China kicked off a huge military
ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II
on September 3, as major Western leaders stayed away. (GREG BAKER/AFP
via Getty Images)
Two former military officials are sounding the alarm that the depletion
of U.S. munitions as a result of Washington’s support of Ukraine could
end up benefitting China. This is occurring as the communist regime is
modernizing its military posing a grave threat to the United States,
they say.
Air Force Col. (ret.) Rob Maness, a former bomber squadron commander
who served the U.S. military for over 30 years, told The Epoch Times
that China is overtaking the U.S. military while the country is
unnecessarily distracted with Ukraine, “wokeism,” and more. Force
structure is one of his primary concerns, considering the naval fleet of
the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is larger than that of the
U.S. Navy.
He contends that national security experts in the West underestimate
the impact of the size of Beijing’s navy, deflecting to the superior
quality and technology of the U.S. Navy. “While that’s not necessarily
untrue, numbers matter and these [experts] know that numbers matter,” he
said. “They matter in ground forces, they matter in air forces, and
they certainly matter in naval forces.”
In Senate testimony in April, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro
said the Chinese navy will have will increase the size of its navy by
nearly 100 ships, “moving towards a fleet of 440 ships by 2030.”
Previously, Del Toro also revealed that “by 2028, [the U.S.] will have
approximately 291 ships or so.”
The Epoch Times also spoke to Brigadier General (ret.) Blaine
“Blaino” Holt, a former deputy U.S. military representative to NATO and
cofounder of the nonprofit Restore Liberty. He is considerably less
concerned about the size and strength of the Chinese navy. For example,
he said, reports of a new Chinese aircraft carrier, or supercarrier,
have created quite a stir in the media.
“But these kinds of things are built for Chinese prestige,” he said.
“Yes, they’ve got a big blue-water navy with more ships than we do, but
how are their ships?” he said, adding “they’re not that great.” “They
don’t have the same firepower we offer [with our naval vessels].”
Maness, however, contended that size still matters given that “the
entire Indo-Pacific theater is navy-centric.” If communist China’s
aggression leads to war, he said naval forces will be at the center of
it. If this confrontation is imminent, he said, the United States should
be focused on increasing the size and capability of its navy.
Ukrainian service members fire a shell from a towed howitzer FH-70 at a
front line, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Donbas Region,
Ukraine, on July 18, 2022. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)
Rising Threat, Depleting Inventory
In addition to his concern about the U.S. Navy, Maness also expressed
concern about the threat of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)
and nuclear arms. “The Chinese have redoubled their efforts to increase
that force capacity to come to a more of parity with the United States
in these areas,” he said.
Earlier this year, a congressional notification
from U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), which oversees the nuclear
arsenal, revealed that China has more intercontinental ballistic missile
launchers than the United States. “The U.S. must put more effort into
increasing our production capability on these,” Maness said.
Holt agreed, saying, “The U.S. should not be focused on the Chinese
military’s size and strength. He said, “We should be looking in the
mirror.” In agreement with Maness, he said, “We’re overly engaged in
Ukraine, giving up equipment and munitions.”
Maness said, “I only have access to what’s publicly available, but it
certainly doesn’t look like the United States is doing the things it
needs to do to deter China, which on the surface appears to be a
near-peer competitor.” Even so, he said, “I still think they’re a
second-grade power in that part of the world, but it is quite clear
their goal is to become the great power across the globe—and we’re not
doing what needs to be done to deter them.”
Maness criticized the billions in aid sent by the United States to
Ukraine, arguing that “Ukraine has never been a vital national interest
to the United States.” According to him, “western Europe under NATO is
more than capable of defending itself.”
To date, the United States has provided $46 billion in military
assistance to Ukraine, including drones, tanks, missiles, and artillery,
as well as training, logistics, and intelligence support.
“We keep putting our [U.S.] resources in Ukraine, not just with
dollars, but also with our war reserve materials and weapons,” Maness
said. “After the 20-plus year wasted effort in Afghanistan, our war reserve stocks are low, and haven’t been replenished.”
According to Holt, “Whether someone agrees with our involvement in
Ukraine or not, the mathematics is the same.” Agreeing with Maness, he
said, “We’re giving up our stocks and ammunition for a war in Ukraine
that comes off of 20 straight years of warfare in Afghanistan.” In the
meantime, he said, “China has been happy to have the opportunity to
build up its conventional forces while watching us weaken ourselves.”
Peace Through Strength
Like Maness, Holt said “wokeism” has infiltrated the ranks of the
military and the cultural shift is harming service members. “At a time
when we should be strengthening our own military and guaranteeing
victory against any of the nation’s enemies, we’re asking [service
members] for their pronouns,” he said.
House Armed Services Committee members Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) recently
called attention to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, inquiring
about forced participation in sensitivity training that included
“understanding and respecting” others’ preferred pronouns.
“Patriots are being called extremists and they’re rooting them out
from the military’s ranks,” he added. “Loving your country is not
extremism.” Instead of a “love for country” or the values of the
Constitution being taught, he said, the military is pushing divisive
race theory-based equity training and policies. “It’s a dangerous game
for the U.S. to do what it’s doing to itself culturally.”
Holt said, “Patriotic service needs to be something that’s honorable
again. It’s in our best interest to teach our military leadership about
the concept of victory, not maintaining little wars all over the world.”
It’s not too late to achieve “peace through strength” throughout the
world, Maness said. Not only must wokeism be brought to an end, he said,
“we need to be stronger than [our adversaries], and we need to stay
stronger than [our adversaries],” he explained. “We also have to have
the political will to use force when it’s necessary, and that’s not
something I’d expect to see from the Biden administration.
“What we are seeing while we focus on Ukraine is Russia push more
towards China,” Maness said. “Combine their nuclear forces together, and
they absolutely created a very large risk for the United States, NATO,
and Indo-Pacific allies.”
Holt said, “If the U.S. is going to be any kind of deterrence, we
need to sober up and show some strength.” According to him, the “State
Department needs to start getting interested in diplomacy again.” Those
are the things that will deter China, he added.
The Pentagon did not respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.
Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi will visit
China next week as the two nations look to conclude the re-negotiation
of a $6.2 billion mineral-for-infrastructure deal, people with direct
knowledge of the trip said.
It’s the president’s first visit to the country, Congo’s biggest
trading partner. The two nations did $21.7 billion of trade in 2022,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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The trip comes as Tshisekedi prepares for elections scheduled for
December. Spokespeople for the president and the government didn’t
respond to text messages requesting comment. China’s Foreign Ministry
announced on Friday that Congolese Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula
would visit China May 21-24.
Tshisekedi is scheduled to travel to Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen
May 24 through May 29 with a contingent of government officials
including his ministers of mines, hydropower and defense. Besides
meeting with counterpart Xi Jinping, Tshisekedi is also scheduled to
visit a number of battery, energy, mining and tech companies.
China is the primary destination for most of Congo’s copper and
cobalt, a key ingredient in electric-vehicle batteries. The central
African nation produces 70% of the world’s cobalt and was tied with Peru
as the second-biggest source of copper last year.
In 2008, Congo signed a deal with Chinese state companies to finance
$3 billion of infrastructure projects using the proceeds from a $3.2
billion copper and cobalt mine. The landmark agreement was signed at a
time when Congo was struggling to secure financing after years of war.
‘Bad contract’
In January, Tshisekedi told Bloomberg the contract was
“badly drawn up” and that Congo had “derived no benefit from it.” The
president said the deal needed to be “rebalanced.”
While the mine is pumping out metal, the Chinese partners have only
disbursed about $822 million of infrastructure funding over 14 years,
the country’s inspector general said in a report in February.
The watchdog accused the Chinese companies of financial malfeasance,
including transfer pricing and dumping, and called for them to be fined
$100 million for breaching capital controls under the nation’s mining
code by not repatriating more than $2 billion in export revenue.
The inspector general called on the Chinese partners to release $1
billion in infrastructure funding this year and amend the contract to
ensure half of future infrastructure contracts go to Congolese
companies.
China’s embassy dismissed the report’s conclusions at the time.
Royalty billions
Congo is also negotiating a final deal with China’s CMOC Group Ltd.,
which is in a dispute with its partner, state-owned Gecamines, over the
Tenke Fungurume copper and cobalt mine. Gecamines says CMOC owes
billions in royalties and a court-appointed administrator blocked
Tenke’s exports last July.
While CMOC and Gecamines have agreed on the outlines of a resolution,
they’ve yet to sign a final agreement, Gecamines Chairman Guy-Robert
Lukama told Bloomberg Thursday in an interview in Kinshasa,
Congo’s capital. In the interim, the joint venture has re-started
exports of copper mined in 2022, but is still blocked by the finance
ministry from exporting cobalt, he said.
CMOC didn’t respond to emailed questions on Friday. Officials from
Gecamines, which is also a partner in the minerals-for-infrastructure
contract, are also traveling to China.
All voters in Nassau County, New York, were identified as Democrats
on their voter ID cards irrespective of political affiliation because of
an error by a printing company, triggering accusations about
“sabotaging elections” ahead of the upcoming primaries.
The primaries are scheduled for June. Voters in the county, who
number nearly a million, began to receive their voter ID cards last
week, with voters supporting Republicans, independents, or another
political party surprised to see themselves identified as Democrats on
the cards, according to NBC.
“We’re already starting to get phone calls from people, saying ‘I’m a
registered Republican, I’m a registered conservative—how come I’m being
identified as a Democrat? Who changed my registration?’ And they’re
quite upset about it,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said.
“There’s a lot of confusion, there’s a lot of people emotionally
upset about this,” he added. Blakeman, a Republican, is pinning the
blame on Rochester-based Phoenix Graphics, the company hired by Nassau
County’s Board of Elections to print the voter ID cards.
The printing company called it an “isolated event” that was the result of a human error.
“We apologize for our mistake, especially to Nassau County officials, who bear no responsibility for this problem,” he said.
However, this isn’t the first time that Phoenix Graphics has
committed such a mistake. In 2020, Phoenix messed up absentee ballots
for 99,000 voters in Brooklyn. The printing firm erroneously sent
mailings to voters containing return envelopes bearing the names and
addresses of other people.
Meanwhile, the campaign of Kari Lake, the 2022 Republican candidate
for Arizona governor who has challenged the outcome of her race, slammed
the incident.
“A ‘printing error’ in Nassau County, N.Y. led to every voter in that
county being listed as a Democrat. There’s that word again. ‘Printer
error.’ This is just their blanket excuse for sabotaging elections and
hoping nobody calls them on it,” her campaign said in a May 21 tweet.
Since New York is a closed primary state, voters registered as
belonging to a party aren’t allowed to vote for any other party. As
such, if a GOP supporter is identified as Democrat in the voter
registration system, that individual would be barred from casting votes
in the Republican primary.
Trust in Elections
Out of the 972,000 voters in the county, Democrats account for around
40 percent. At a press conference, Blakeman ruled out partisanship as a
cause for the mishap and said that the county is investigating the
matter.
“I don’t think the Democratic Party is engaged in a conspiracy to
create havoc in their own primaries. I don’t think the Democratic Party
wants a bunch of Republicans showing up to vote in their primaries,” said Blakeman, according to the New York Post.
However, some voters are now questioning the election process due to the typo error.
“I have no faith in this country today, as far as what the politics
are,” said George Klein, a voter from Nassau. “I’m going to vote
Republican primary day, and Democrat on that is not going to affect it,”
he said referring to the erroneous ID card he received.
During the 2022 midterms, only 56 percent of Republicans thought the
elections would be administered “very” or “somewhat” well, according to
Pew Research.
Accurate Voter ID Cards
According to Phoenix Graphics, they are correcting the error and will
send out new and accurate voter ID cards soon at no additional cost to
taxpayers.
Democratic County Election Commissioner Jim Scheuerman told the New
York Post that Phoenix will be paying around $300,000 required to resend
the correct cards to voters.
Phoenix was contracted more than 10 years ago via a sealed-bid
process. Officials with Nassau County’s Board of Elections are
reportedly not ruling out considering other vendors to ensure that the
recent mistake doesn’t occur again, Fox reported.
