New
York Gov. Kathy Hochul is under fire for vetoing a retail crime task
force as retailers in the state report a loss of billions of dollars to
shoplifting
The
bill, which received bipartisan support, would have created a panel of
experts to outline ways to respond to retail theft in New York State.
Hochul rejected the bill last week, sparking outrage from retailers and
lawmakers statewide.
“Retailers
throughout the state are extremely disappointed to learn that Governor
Hochul vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have established the New York
State Organized Retail Crime Task Force,” Melissa O’Connor, the
president and CEO of the Retail Council of New York State, wrote
in a statement. “I spoke with Governor Hochul at length to discuss the
need for immediate action and an effective, collaborative response to
this problem. She made it abundantly clear that retail theft prevention
will be a priority for her administration, and we look forward to
working with her to achieve results.”
O'Connor's
organization highlighted state retailers' self-reported loss of $4.4
billion to shoplifting in 2022 as reason to form the task force.
Both
Republican and Democratic lawmakers also condemned Hochul for the move,
arguing that passing the bill would have brought "relief" to store
owners.
“I am disappointed the governor did not sign this legislation,” Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon, D-Marcy, said.
"It is important to support our hardworking local businesses and this
task force would review solutions to creating a safer environment for
business owners as well as customers.”
Retailers
and law enforcement from the Capital Region have stressed the need for a
statewide response to theft, noting that it is having a "devastating
effect" on communities.
"When we see these organized retail theft operations, we've got to respond to it," Albany Police Department Chief Eric Hawkins told CBS6 Albany. "So, now we're diverting resources from places that's sorely needed."
New
York City Mayor Eric Adams launched the city's own retail theft task
force earlier this month, touting its “360-degree” capability to
confront shoplifting.
“I
am proud to convene this group of experts and practitioners as we
continue to take a 360-degree approach to combatting retail theft and
curbing this serious issue that plagues cities across the country,”
Adams said.
“Together, we recognize the importance of safeguarding our businesses,
protecting jobs, and ensuring a safer and more vibrant city for all who
live in, work in, and visit our great city.”
Organized retail crime is growing into a substantial threat for store owners throughout the U.S. Stores have lost a combined $112 billion in sales in 2023. Major retailers like Walmart and Cosco are beginning to rethink their self-checkout offerings, which they believe contributes to additional shoplifting and lost profits due to customer error.
A petition for bankruptcy purportedly filed by the St Petersburg
Stock (SPB) Exchange has been rejected, according to reports which come
less than a month after the U.S. imposed sanctions on it.
However, media in Russia have reported that the request for insolvency
by the country's second-largest bourse—behind the Moscow Exchange—may
have been a fraudulent ploy by attackers to manipulate the market and
that an investigation has been launched.
Rumors of an impending
insolvency prompted a slump in the stock exchange's shares by more than a
third (34.9 percent) before partially recovering as speculation mounts
over whether the request was genuine, according to financial website
quote.ru.
Newsweek has contacted Russia's Central Bank for comment.
On November 2, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control
added the SPB Exchange, which gives investors access to the
international stock markets, to its sanctions list before suspending its
trading in American securities.
The U.S. measures also targeted
seven Russia-based banks and a banking executive to further punish the
country over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and isolate it from the
world's financial system.
On Monday, the brokerage denied media reports that filings with Moscow's
Arbitration Court from November 24 showed it had applied for
bankruptcy. The name of the applicant and the amount of the claim were
not indicated on the application. The exchange said in a statement it
"has a stable financial position and there are no signs of bankruptcy,"
according to the Moscow Court of Arbitration.
But the Moscow court said it had received an application from some source, according to media reports.
This was rejected because it violated the legal procedure by not being
published on Russia's financial registry, Fedresurs, and did not contain
the required evidence needed "to verify its validity," the court said.
The ruling said that rejecting a petition does not prevent a request for
bankruptcy from being filed again.
SPB Exchange issued a statement that it will "contact law enforcement
agencies and initiate an investigation into a case of forgery of
documents and unlawful filing of a bankruptcy petition by attackers."
The Bank of Russia said it would investigate whether there had been
violations of legal requirements on insider trading and market
manipulation and would examine the actions of investors with shares of
the trading platform, the newspaper Vedemosti reported.
Meanwhile, the bank's head of consumer rights protection, Mikhail
Mamuta, called for an investigation because there had been an "obvious
manipulation" of the price of the stock exchange's shares.
"This
is not an abuse of rights, this is close to a crime and it seems to me
that law enforcement should figure out what happened," he said,
according to business outlet RBC.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a key figure in shaping
U.S. foreign policy during the late 20th century, has died at the age of
100.
Mr. Kissinger died at his home in Connecticut on Wednesday, according to Kissinger Associates, Inc.
A
German-born American diplomat, he served as secretary of state for two
presidents. While serving under Republican President Richard Nixon in
the 1970s, Mr. Kissinger, Ph.D., played a key role in many significant
global events.
In
his later years, the former U.S. diplomat faced restrictions on his
travels as other nations sought to question or arrest him regarding past
U.S. foreign policy decisions.
President Gerald Ford, who
referred to Mr. Kissinger as a "super secretary of state," also
acknowledged his prickly demeanor and self-assurance, which critics
viewed as paranoia and egotism. President Ford once remarked that Mr.
Kissinger "had the thinnest skin of any public figure I ever knew."
Former
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who served under former President
Donald Trump, paid his respects to Mr. Kissinger on Wednesday.
"From the day he came to the United States as a teenager
fleeing Nazi Germany, Dr. Kissinger dedicated his life to serving this
great country and keeping America safe," Mr. Pompeo said.
"He left
an indelible mark on America's history and the world. I will always be
grateful for his gracious advice and help during my own time as
Secretary," he continued. "Always supportive and always informed, his
wisdom made me better and more prepared after every one of our
conversations."
Born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923, in
Furth near Nuremberg, Germany, Mr. Kissinger relocated to the United
States with his family in 1938 to escape the Nazi campaign targeting
European Jews for extermination.
He anglicized his name to Henry
and obtained U.S. citizenship in 1943. He served in the U.S. Army in
Europe during World War Two and later attended Harvard University on a
scholarship. He earned a master's degree in 1952 and a doctorate in
1954, subsequently joining Harvard's faculty, where he remained for the
next 17 years.
China and Saudi Arabia signed a currency swap agreement worth around $7 billion.
It's yet another push towards dedollarization as countries attempt to wean off use of the greenback.
China's o utstanding balance of forex swap lines hit a record 117.1 billion yuan, Bloomberg reported.
China and Saudi Arabia reached a currency swap agreement worth around
$7 billion, marking another step in the dedollarization trend as
countries around the world shift away from the greenback.
The three-year deal allows for a maximum of 50 billion yuan or 26 billion riyals.
While relatively small, the deal could loom larger symbolically as
Saudi Arabia is the world's top oil exporter, and most global oil trades
are conducted in dollars.
And although Russia is China's top
oil supplier, China imported $65 billion worth of Saudi crude oil in
2022, according to Chinese customs data cited by Reuters. That adds up
to roughly 83% of the country's total exports to China.
More
broadly though, China has been on a campaign to boost the
internationalization of the yuan in an attempt to dethrone the dollar.
Meanwhile, the o utstanding balance of China's foreign-exchange swap
lines notched a new high of 117.1 billion yuan in September, according to data analyzed by Bloomberg.
China has signed other currency swap agreements this year with
countries like Argentina. In fact, the Chinese central bank currently
has 29 active swap agreements, topping 4 trillion yuan, according to a
report released last month.
Beijing has also encouraged foreign
investors to access Chinese markets through the issuance of panda bonds.
At the latest Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese banks also signed a
series of yuan-denominated loans for countries like Peru and Malaysia.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a handbook for global
central banks regarding the development and implementation of central
bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
The IMF’s “Central Bank Digital Currency Virtual Handbook” published last week
pointed out that the increased use of CBDCs can “reduce dollarization”
of the global economy—a situation where countries move away from relying
on the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency. De-dollarization would push
up borrowing costs in the United States, making loans expensive for
businesses and individuals, thus affecting economic growth. Stock market
values can also crash, reducing the savings and investments of
Americans.
In addition to de-dollarization, a CBDC “could
increase risks of flight to safety from retail bank deposits in periods
of market stress.” During times of market volatility, customers withdraw
their deposits and move it into safe assets to avoid losing money in
scenarios like bank collapses.
If CBDCs were available, pulling out funds from a bank and
putting them in such assets will come across as a safe option for many
people, thus triggering a bank run.
The organization pointed out
that CBDCs could offer “a safe store of value and efficient means of
payment, which can increase competition for deposit funding, raise
banks’ share of wholesale funding, and lower bank profits.”
The IMF handbook was published as the organization’s Director Kristalina Georgieva promoted
the use of CBDCs during the Singapore FinTech Festival on Nov. 15,
arguing that such digital currencies could bring an end to the
cash-based economy.
“CBDCs
can replace cash, which is costly to distribute in island economies,”
she said during a speech. “CBDCs would offer a safe and low-cost
alternative to cash. They would also offer a bridge to go between
private monies and a yardstick to measure their value, just like cash
today, which we can withdraw from our banks.”
Back in May, Ms. Georgieva said that the world was heading towards widespread CBDC adoption without considering the risks involved in such a transition.
“What
we are careful about is the choice between wholesale and retail CBDCs.
We think that wholesale CBDCs can be put in place with fairly little
space for undesirable surprises. Whereas retail CBDCs, they completely
transform the financial system in a way that we don’t quite know what
consequences it could bring,” she said during a discussion.
Wholesale
CBDCs are meant to be used in interbank settlements as well as
transactions between institutions and other market participants, while
retail CBDCs are for use by the general population and other
institutions.
A potential risk of retail CBDCs is
that funds get pulled out from traditional commercial banks and
deposited as CBDCs in central banks. The depletion of deposits will
affect the lending ability of commercial banks, possibly worsening any
banking crisis.
US Government CBDC
While the IMF pushes ahead with the promotion of CBDCs, Republican
lawmakers are taking steps to prevent the U.S. government from issuing
such digital currencies. In September, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.)
reintroduced the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act.
In a Sept. 12
press release, Mr. Emmer pointed out that unlike decentralized
cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, CBDCs are designed and issued by a
government “and [transact] on a digital ledger that is controlled by
that government.” This could give the administration the power to
“surveil Americans' transactions and choke out politically unpopular
activity.”
The bill imposes the following prohibitions:
It prevents the U.S. Federal Reserve from issuing a
CBDC directly to individuals, thus making sure that the Fed cannot
mobilize itself as a retail bank and collect personal data of Americans.
It prohibits the Fed from indirectly issuing a CBDC
to individuals via an intermediary, thereby blocking the central bank
from launching a retail digital currency through a two-tiered financial
system.
It bans the Fed from using any CBDC to implement
its monetary policy. This ensures that the central bank is not able to
use these currencies as a “tool to control the American economy.”
In March 2022, President Joe Biden signed
an executive order asking the Fed to continue its ongoing research and
experimentation of CBDCs and to evaluate the benefits and risks of a
digital dollar.
Talking about the issue, Mr. Emmer said that
“agency reports to that executive order have made it clear that the
Biden Administration is not only itching to create a CBDC, but they are
willing to trade American’s right to financial privacy for a
surveillance-style central bank digital currency.”
“We’re not
going to let this happen,” he said. The CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act
“ensures the United States digital currency policy is in the hands of
the American people—not the Administrative State—so that it reflects our
American values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free market
competitiveness.”
On Sept. 20, the House Financial Services Committee passed the bill.
Back in April, Federal Reserve Board member Michelle Bowman warned in a speech that a CBDC may pose “significant risks, challenges, and tradeoffs.”
There
is a “risk that a CBDC would provide not only a window into, but
potentially an impediment to, the freedom Americans enjoy in choosing
how money and resources are used and invested.”
A CBDC could also
lead to the politicization of the payments system, potentially
undermining the independence of the Fed, Ms. Bowman said.
In May, Florida’s House of Representatives passed
a bill banning the use of CBDCs in the state. The bill defined money to
exclude CBDC. Weeks before the bill was passed, Florida Gov. Ron
DeSantis had pointed to China as a potential example of how CBDCs could
negatively affect people.
“Look no further than China, in seeing
the impact of centralized digital currency,” he said. “The People’s
Bank of China uses its central bank to monitor citizen behavior,
allowing for the surveillance of spending habits and to cut off access
to goods and services.”
The EU will need to have a “big buffer” of gas in storage at the end
of the current winter to help prepare for the following winter, a
senior European Commission official said Nov. 14.
Paula Pinho, energy security director at the EC’s energy directorate,
said Brussels was maintaining a “very high level of monitoring and
preparedness.”
“I think we are prepared but we really cannot just sit back and relax,” Pinho said in comments posted to the EC website.
“We know that storage facilities are now full, but we cannot afford to just use up all the gas during the winter,” she said.
“As at the end of last winter, we still need to have a big buffer to
allow us to go through into the next heating season,” she said, adding
that the EC was already preparing for winter 2024-2025. “We cannot lower
our guard.”
EU gas storage sites were filled to 99.5% of capacity as of Nov. 12,
according to Gas Infrastructure Europe data, having hit 99.6% fullness
last week.
The past summer’s stock build was made considerably easier by the
warm winter of 2022/23, which left the EU’s storage sites still 55.6%
full as of the end of March.
The last winter even saw a period of net injections in January 2023 —
typically a peak withdrawal month — as temperatures rose well above
seasonal norms.
The still healthy stock level in March 2023 was in stark contrast to
the end of the 2021/22 winter when stocks were drawn down to just 25.6%
of capacity.
Pinho also said the EC remained vigilant in terms of key energy
infrastructure in light of damage to the Balticconnector between Finland
and Estonia last month.
“Our infrastructure is critical and because of that, it remains at
risk and we cannot exclude the possibility of bad things happening to
critical energy infrastructure,” she said.
“If our infrastructure is exposed, we can all of a sudden lose the means to supply the stored gas.”
Demand reductions
Pinho also said the EU had reduced gas demand by 18% compared with
the average of the past five years. “We believe that a big part of that
is the result of structural measures — and these will stay in place,”
she said.
“This means we will be able to continue to simply consume less, which
is also our objective, if it doesn’t mean destroying industrial output,
and we have good signals in that sense.”
EU member states in July last year agreed to voluntarily cut their
gas consumption between August 2022 and March 2023 by 15% compared to
the five-year average, and beat the target with demand reduced by 17.7%.
The agreement was extended in March this year and is now set to continue until the end of March 2024.
The biggest cuts in consumption last year were in the autumn on the back of high gas prices and warm temperatures.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the
benchmark Dutch TTF month-ahead price at an all-time high of
Eur319.98/MWh in late August 2022.
Prices are now lower thanks to healthy storage levels and demand
curtailments but remain historically high, with Platts assessing the TTF
month-ahead price on Nov. 13 at Eur47.76/MWh.
The EU rules on demand reduction also provide the possibility for the
EU to trigger a “Union alert” on security of supply, in which case the
gas demand reduction would become mandatory.
Pinho said “everyone” had contributed to the demand cuts. “When we
look at the reduction in gas demand, the contribution from households
and industry is 50/50 — so it’s really something that pulled everyone
together,” she said.
A California man’s family is pleading for his release after they say
he was wrongfully arrested in Venezuela and held for tens of thousands
of dollars in ransom just days after the Biden administration eased
crippling oil sanctions on the socialist-run government.
Savoi
Wright’s Oct. 24 arrest, which had not been previously reported, has
become the latest flashpoint in the tenuous relationship between the
U.S. and Nicolás Maduro’s government that critics say should lead to a
return to sanctions.
But all
Wright’s family wants is for the 38-year-old businessman to be returned
home. They know precious little about the circumstances of his arrest.
No criminal charges have been filed, he has not been allowed to see a
lawyer and the Venezuelan government hasn’t said where he is being held.
“It’s
a nightmare. It’s like you’re watching a horror movie but you’re in
it,” his mother, Erin Stewart, told The Associated Press in a telephone
interview from her Oakland home.
Wright
joins at least seven other U.S. citizens who remain imprisoned in
Venezuela. But his arrest stands out because it came on the heels of a
politically risky move by President Joe Biden to roll back crippling oil
sanctions against the OPEC nation in tandem with an Oct. 17 agreement
in Barbados between Maduro’s government and its opponents to hold
elections next year.
Almost immediately, Maduro seemed to disavow
the deal when the nation’s Supreme Court, which is packed with
loyalists, suspended the results of an opposition-run primary won by
Maria Corina Machado, a pro-U.S. former lawmaker.
The Biden
administration has said it is prepared to reinstate sanctions if Maduro
wavers from his commitments, which include reversing bans preventing
Machado and others from holding office, and starting to release
political prisoners and wrongfully detained U.S. citizens by the end of
November.
That position was reaffirmed Friday by the U.S. State Department in response to questions about Wright’s arrest.
“Failure
to abide by the terms of this arrangement will lead the United States
to reverse steps taken,” said spokesman Matthew Miller.
Former
President Donald Trump’s administration ratcheted up sanctions on
Venezuela in 2019 after accusing Maduro of staying in power through a
fraudulent election, and then recognized instead the democratically
elected opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the country’s legitimate
president.
Some former Trump administration officials say Wright’s arrest is just the latest example of Maduro acting in bad faith.
“Maduro
playing games with American lives is unacceptable,” said Kimberly
Breier, a former top U.S. diplomat to Latin America and an architect of
Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Maduro. “There will be
bipartisan agreement in Washington in the coming days that the Barbados
agreement, which is just a month old, is finished.”
Added Elliott Abrams, the Trump administration’s special envoy to Venezuela: “Maduro is calling Biden’s bluff.”
The
State Department has repeatedly warned U.S. citizens not to travel to
Venezuela because of the risk of kidnapping and extortion. Sophisticated
criminal groups, sometimes in cahoots with government security forces,
target unsuspecting men online or in neighboring Colombia with offers of
romance.
Wright appears to
be only the second U.S. citizen detained since Venezuela last year freed
five oil executives from Houston-based Citgo and two other Americans in
exchange for the U.S. government’s release of two nephews of Maduro’s
wife who had been imprisoned on narcotics charges.
The
6-foot-10-inch (208-centimeter) Berkeley, California, native and Loyola
Marymount University graduate has for more than a decade divided his
time between Oakland, Miami and South America while working remotely as a
mortgage loan officer, his family said.
“He loved the nomadic
lifestyle,” said Stewart, who didn’t know her son was in Venezuela until
she learned of his arrest. “Everywhere he went he was seen as a gentle
giant, and immensely loved.”
Stewart says she has spoken to her
son only once since his ordeal began, after family and friends scrambled
to pay a hefty ransom to his captors that they could barely afford.
Wright recounted how he was stopped by police while in a park with a
woman who had drugs on her. His family suspects she was part of a
set-up. Later, once police ruled out any criminal wrongdoing by Wright,
they determined he had no stamp in his passport and handed him over to
immigration authorities for deportation, Stewart says.
It’s
unclear what happened next. But other inmates have told his family that
Wright is being held in a former textile factory-turned detention
center run by Venezuela’s feared military counterintelligence. Scores of
former political prisoners have reported being tortured and abused in
the facility’s basement, referred to menacingly by guards as the “House
of Dreams.”
Stewart says she fears her son is also being subjected
to psychological torture. Her son’s health is also a concern due to
strict dietary restrictions caused by severe food allergies.
Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab didn’t provide any information about Wright’s case.
The
other U.S. citizens detained in Venezuela include two former Green
Berets — Luke Denman and Airan Berry — who were involved in an attempt
to oust Maduro in 2019, as well as three men — Eyvin Hernandez, Jerrel
Kenemore and Joseph Cristella — who were detained for allegedly entering
the country illegally from Colombia.
Wright’s family is speaking
out because they feel the U.S. government hasn’t done enough to free
him. After complaining to the FBI that their son was being extorted,
they were directed to the State Department, which has limited diplomatic
tools to secure the release of Americans in a politically turbulent
country where the U.S. Embassy has been shuttered since 2019.
The
State Department didn’t respond to emailed questions about whether U.S.
officials have raised Wright’s detention with Maduro’s government.
Chilean miner Antofagasta agreed to
treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) of $80 a metric ton and 8 cents
per pound with Chinese smelter Jinchuan Group for copper concentrate
supply next year, three sources said on Saturday.
The charges, paid by miners to smelters to process ore into refined
metal, are 9% lower than the 2023 benchmark level, agreed around the
same time last year, of $88 a ton and 8.8 cents per pound.
Sign Up for the Copper Digest
Antofagasta declined to comment and Jinchuan did not respond to a request for comment.
Global miners and China’s largest smelters typically negotiate their
copper concentrate contracts and settle TC/RCs at this time of year for
the following year.
TC/RCs rise when more supply is available and smelters can demand better terms on feedstock, and fall when supply tightens.
Jinchuan is China’s fourth-largest copper producer. It is not clear
if other smelters will agree to the same pricing in their negotiations
with Antofagasta and other miners.
A group of top smelters was due to discuss the issue on Saturday,
said a source, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the
issue.
This year’s copper charges, set by global miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc FCX.N and Chinese smelters, were at a six-year high.
Participants in the market polled by Reuters prior to this week’s
negotiations had largely forecast the 2024 TC benchmark to stay at or
below this year’s level.
Copper concentrate supply is expected to be adequate next year and
China’s top copper smelters had already lifted their floor TC/RCs in the
third and fourth quarter to a six-year high at $95/9.5c due to abundant
supply.
However, a recent ore processing reduction at First Quantum
Minerals’s FM.TO Cobre Panama mine due to protests had complicated
negotiations for next year’s charges, sources told Reuters this week.
Uncertainty around how much supply from
Freeport-McMoRan’s FCX.N Grasberg mine in Indonesia will be available
from June next year after their export permits expire had also created
some difficulty in forecasting the market balance.
(Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi, Julian Luk in London and Siyi Liu in Shanghai; Editing by William Mallard, Kirsten Donovan)
SAN FRANCISCO—Free hotel, free flight, free food: The Chinese
Consulate in San Francisco hasn’t been tightfisted when it comes to the
first visit to the United States in six years by the leader of Chinese
communist regime.
Greeters who were on hand for Xi Jinping’s
arrival in San Francisco pocketed hundreds of dollars along with an
all-expenses-paid trip that brought some of them from the other side of
the United States, according to some participants, observers, and
screenshots of social media conversations ahead of the Asia–Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Many pro-Beijing demonstrators
donned red caps or uniforms while waving red flags, saturating the
blockaded streets with the color closely associated with communism. At
least one person—a woman donning a black dress who was eating a boxed
lunch while standing with her back against a building wall—was carrying a
red tote bag, which suggests that she has ties to the Chinese Consulate
in New York, according to a dissident who had trailed them.
There are more clues in the attire, the dissident said.
“Anyone
with a red cap came from New York—I followed them from behind,” Qiao
Jie told NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times, adding that
these people were “hired” for the job, raking in—by her account—as much
as $200 a day.
The
woman, who also lives in New York, was part of a small group of
petitioners holding a banner and staging a demonstration in front of the
St. Regis hotel, where Mr. Xi will be staying during the week as he
joins the closely watched meeting with President Joe Biden. As the woman
spoke, swarms of Beijing supporters drew near, drowning out the
petitioners' voices with chants of “welcome.”
Many sources point to money as the motivation for their enthusiasm.
A
recording shared with The Epoch Times showed a man from China’s
southeastern Fujian Province in his 60s, acknowledging that he was
coming to San Francisco at no cost to himself. Screenshots circulating
online also show a leader from the Chinese student group—the Chinese
Students and Scholars Association at the University of Southern
California—informing senior association members about the covered trip
opportunity that the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles had just
announced.
“This
event carries significant responsibilities and a glorious mission,” the
person wrote in the social media chat group, adding that those who
registered would be transported by a van and that no one should travel
on their own or act independently during the trip.
Another
screenshot, which appears to originate from a Chinese student group,
said that anyone who wants to welcome the regime's leader during the
APEC gathering would get $100 for each of the three days that they
attend.
Ling Fei, who has connections with Chinese associations in
New York, confirmed the consulate funding of the trips. A friend of his
had originally planned to partake in a store opening event in Brooklyn,
but the event was canceled because of the groups going to San
Francisco, he told The Epoch Times. The consulate would have these
people travel with different groups to avoid drawing attention, he said.
Protesters apparently weren't the only beneficiaries. A
reporter from a European media outlet, on condition of anonymity, told
The Epoch Times that his colleague in China was sent to San Francisco on
the expense of Chinese authorities.
A man wearing a green apron
was among several people wheeling over lunch boxes to the protest site
on Nov. 14. He was evasive when asked by The Epoch Times whether the
lunches were destined for Mr. Xi's supporters.
“Maybe,” he said.
Lunch boxes are being distributed to pro-Beijing supporters near the
St. Regis hotel, in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 14, 2023. (Eva Fu/The
Epoch Times)
The Chinese
Consulate had been involved in funding similar demonstrations in the
past. In 2015, during Mr. Xi's visit to Washington, a man allegedly
running a secret Chinese police station in New York had helped to organize a counterprotest
against demonstrations by the spiritual group Falun Gong, according to
court documents unsealed in April. The group was calling for the regime
leader to end the persecution of their fellow adherents in China.
Spotted
among those leading the clash with the activists was Chen Shanzhuang, a
New York-based Chinese front group leader with close ties to the
Chinese Consulate. He has helped to facilitate local events featuring
Chinese consular services or advancing the Beijing regime’s narratives.
In
March, Mr. Chen was seen leading hundreds of Chinese demonstrators
shouting slogans in protest against the visit of Taiwan President Tsai
Ing-wen. While he claimed that all of those present at the protest scene
“all came on our own initiative,” Taiwan’s intelligence officials have
disputed such saying, saying that Chinese consulates in New York and Los
Angeles were paying $200 to entice participants.
Activist Yu Dawei stands near the St. Regis hotel in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2023. (Eva Fu/The Epoch Times)
Yu
Dawei, an 18-year-old activist, said that Chinese authorities forcibly
tore down his business, and that his grandfather was sent to prison for
asserting their rights and died after spending a year there.
“I just hope that everyone can have the opportunity to speak
freely,” he told The Epoch Times, as shouts of “Xi Jinping, meet the
petitioners” rang in the background. “This is what people want to say.”
Hannah Cai and NTD’s Iris Tao contributed to this report.
The US government, with its AA+ credit rating, now must pay more than junk-rated Vietnam to borrow.
That's because Treasury bond yields have nearly tripled since 2021 due to Fed rate rises.
US 10-year bond yields are now about 4.5%, compared with about 2.8% in Vietnam.
Global
debt markets are the system that moves big money between big borrowers
and lenders — from governments and central banks to companies and
financial institutions.
To give you a sense of its size and importance, cumulative global debt stood at $235 trillion at the end of 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund. That's almost 10 times the size of the entire US economy.
And it's all held together by trust, and a clear sense of pecking order.
Every
borrower has their proper place in the market, based on their
creditworthiness — or their ability to repay debt. Who can borrow how
much, and at what cost — it's all very clearly understood.
For
instance, the US is the world's biggest economy, with the biggest
businesses, and is a magnet for global investors. Such unrivaled
economic muscle would mean the American government can borrow money much
more cheaply than other sovereign entities — especially,
emerging-market nations with weaker credit ratings.
Or so we thought.
Upside-down bond dynamics
In
a surprising development that upends some of the bond world's
time-honored conventions, the US government's borrowing costs have
surged past those of developing nations with much poorer debt ratings
such as Vietnam, Morocco, and Bulgaria.
It's all due to the
Federal Reserve's war on inflation, which has seen it raise rates at the
sharpest pace since the 1980s. The Fed has lifted its benchmark rate,
which forms the floor for all market interest rates by default, by more
than 500 basis points over the past 20 months.
And
that's driven up the rates on Treasury bonds, which represent the
government's borrowing costs. Yields on benchmark 10-year Treasurys have
nearly tripled since the end of 2021 to about 4.5%. They have retreated
from a 16-year high of just above 5% reached last month.
The rate
surged past the comparable measure in junk-rated Vietnam this year.
Hanoi now pays only about 2.8% to borrow money for 10 years in the local
bond market.
US bond yields have risen above junk-rated Vietnam'sTradingView
S&P
Global ratings ranks Vietnam's debt at BB+ — which the credit assessor
defines as the "highest speculative grade". The US is rated AA+, which
reflects a very strong capacity to meet financial commitments.
"I'm not even sure what to say anymore," Jeff Weniger, head of equities at WisdomTree Asset Management, said in a recent post on X, highlighting the rise in American bond yields above Vietnamese equivalents.
US
10-year yields are now also higher than those in emerging markets such
as Morocco and Bulgaria. Similar rates are at just 3.8% in Greece, the
economy at the center of Europe's sovereign debt crisis a decade ago,
and needed multiple European Union bailouts in the following years.
The
high US yields also reflect investor concerns about America's
deteriorating public finances. US total debt has more than doubled in
the past decade to $33.7 trillion – or 25% more than the nation's GDP.
Moody's
Investors Service lowered its outlook for the US credit rating last
week to negative from stable, citing the growing mountain of debt and
high interest rates. In August, Fitch Ratings downgraded its rating for
long-term US debt to AA+ from AAA.
A
Massachusetts town approved flying the Palestinian flag for a month
despite heated debates among its residents in the wake of Hamas
terrorists’ attack on Israel in October.
The
black, white, green and red flag of the Palestinian Liberation
Organization was hoisted below both the American flag and POW-MIA flag
on the North Andover Town Common flagpole.
A top deputy to Dr. Anthony Fauci indicated in a newly uncovered
email that he purposefully did not keep records that he knew would be
sought by the public and congressional investigators.
"I have
retained very few emails or documents on these matters, and continue to
request that correspondence on sensitive issues be sent to me at my
gmail [sic] address," Dr. David Morens, the deputy, wrote in the June
17, 2021, missive.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) obtained the email and included it in a letter to Health Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Dr. Morens wrote to colleagues after senators,
including Mr. Johnson, wrote to then-National Institutes of Health
(NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins asking for documents on how the NIH
handled the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in a city that features a
laboratory that ran risky tests with funds from the NIH.
"Based
on this email, it appears that Dr. Morens may have intentionally
deleted or destroyed records relating to the origins of COVID-19 given
his admission that he has 'retained very few emails or documents on
these matters," Mr. Johnson told Mr. Becerra. "Further, Dr. Morens'
stated preference to receive correspondence on 'sensitive issues'
through Gmail shows an apparent evasion of federal record keeping
requirements and a complete disregard for transparency."
The
Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the NIH, has
repeatedly failed to hand over records that Mr. Johnson has requested,
the senator noted. Dr. Morens' apparent actions "may have directly
obstructed my oversight efforts," he wrote.
Dr.
Morens is the senior adviser to the director at the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an NIH institute that was headed
until late 2022 by Dr. Fauci. Dr. Morens has worked for the agency for
more than two decades.
Dr. Morens was writing to others who were
part of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (AJTMH),
including Dr. Peter Daszak, whose EcoHealth Alliance group helped
funnel money from the NIH to the Wuhan laboratory.
Dr. Morens said
he had retained correspondence relating to papers he wrote that were
published online but had otherwise "retained no documents that might
lead other members of AJTMH to be approached for similar document
production."
The title of the email was "CONFIDENTIAL WITHOUT OUR SMALL GROUP, PLEASE," according to Mr. Johnson.
Earlier Email
In a missive obtained previously
by the U.S. House of Representatives panel investigating the pandemic,
Dr. Morens wrote to a group of scientists that "I try to always
communicate on gmail [sic] because my NIH email is FOIA'd constantly."
Under
the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), members of the public can
request information like emails from the federal government.
Dr.
Morens disclosed in the July 9, 2021, email that his Gmail had been
hacked and "until IT can get it fixed I may have to occasionally email
from my NIH account."
"Don't worry, just sent to any of my
addresses and I will delete anything I don't want to see in the New York
Times," he also wrote.
Michael Chamberlain, director of the
watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust, told The Epoch Times in an email
that the missive showed "a pretty brazen effort to avoid public records
requirements."
The panel in October subpoenaed the NIH for
documents and communications on what it described as a potential federal
records violation.
Federal law provides in part that people who attempt to conceal or destroy government records face criminal prosecution.
The
National Archives and Records Administration asked the NIH to probe the
matter and the NIH later told the administration that there was "no
evidence that any federal records within their custody have been
prematurely destroyed."
Reference to Grimm
Mr. Johnson, meanwhile, referred the matter to Christine Grimm, the
inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Mr.
Johnson said Dr. Morens's email talking about deleting records "reveal
an attempt to limit public access to certain communications directly
related to the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially in violation of federal
record keeping requirements."
In a new letter this week, Mr. Johnson pressed Ms. Grimm on what action, if any, has been taken, while noting the email he had uncovered.
"Given Dr. Morens’ statements I shared with you in August
2023 and the June 17, 2021 correspondence above, the OIG must continue
to conduct or immediately initiate a thorough investigation into Dr.
Morens’ actions," he wrote. "In light of Dr. Morens’ apparent efforts to
hinder HHS’s response to my June 11, 2021 letter, I am deeply concerned
that HHS officials may have intentionally removed or destroyed
responsive records on the origins of COVID-19 or on other aspects of the
pandemic. I hope you and your office are taking this matter seriously."
A
spokesperson for Ms. Grimm's office told The Epoch Times via email that
the office received the letter "and are reviewing it to determine the
appropriate response."
Iron ore has reached “unreasonable”
levels that are hurting Chinese steel mills, according to China Mineral
Resources Group, the state-backed firm trying to boost Beijing’s sway
over prices.
Elevated costs are squeezing margins at steelmakers in the world’s
top producer, Guo Bin, President of China Minerals, said at an event in
Shanghai during the China International Import Expo. There needs to be
more effort to “improve” pricing systems for raw materials, Guo said.
Sign Up for the Iron Ore Digest
Iron ore futures in Singapore notched their highest close since March
on Monday in a rally largely powered by surprisingly resilient Chinese
steel output. The global iron ore market is in deficit and more price
gains are coming, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a note on Tuesday.
While it’s far from unusual for Chinese steel officials to bemoan
rising iron ore prices, the comments come at a sensitive time for miners
like Rio Tinto Plc or BHP Group. CMRG was established last year with
the aim of centralizing iron ore imports and raising China’s heft
against global mining giants.
Mining executives in the audience at the Shanghai event included Dino
Otranto, chief executive officer of Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., while
Rio’s Chief Executive Officer Jakob Stausholm delivered a speech to the
gathering by video.
“CMRG is quickly becoming a key player in the global iron ore
industry and has an important role in increasing the high quality
development of the steel industry,” Stausholm said. “Our partnership is
going from strength to strength.”
At the same event, a senior official from the China Iron & Steel
Association warned that high iron ore prices could stymie essential
investment in areas including decarbonization. The world’s steel
industry requires massive spending in coming decades to shift away from
reliance on coal-fired blast furnaces.
“The ecological basis for the sustainable development of the iron ore
supply chain is increasingly fragile,” said Jiang Wei, vice chair of
CISA.
