Zero Hedge

Warren Buffett Controls 3% Of Treasury Bill Market, More Than "International Organizations, Stablecoin Issuers ..." 

Warren Buffett Controls 3% Of Treasury Bill Market, More Than "International Organizations, Stablecoin Issuers ..." 

Berkshire Hathaway has struggled to find sizable deals in recent quarters, leaving Warren Buffett sitting on a mountain of cash and cash equivalents. According to JPMorgan analysts, Buffett now wields control over a staggering 3% of the entire US Treasury Bill market.

At Berkshire's annual meeting in May, Buffett told the audience, "It's a fair assumption" that its cash pile would exceed $200 billion at the end of this quarter amid the dearth of big-ticket deals due to very few opportunities. 

Buffet's growing cash and or cash equivalents stockpiles intrigued fixed-income analysts at JPM, including a team led by Teresa Ho, who wrote in a recent note to clients that Berkshire Hathaway keeps excess cash primarily invested in T-bills. 

"Over the years, their T-bill position has grown so large that, as of March-end, it owned $158bn in T-bills, comprising 3% of the market," Ho said. 

She continued, "Berkshire Hathaway currently holds more T-bills than international organizations, stablecoin issuers, offshore MMFs, or LGIPs." 

Berkshire Hathaway's current cash position is about 17.5%, which is in line with its long-term average when measured against the firm's total assets. Since 1997, the firm has kept cash on its balance sheet at an average of 13%. 

Current figures from Bloomberg show Berkshire's cash and cash equivalents total $188 billion. 

"We'd love to spend it, but we won't spend unless we think there's really something that has very little risk and can make us a lot of money," Buffett said at last month's annual meeting. 

Buffett and his companies are cautious about finding deals as the high-for-longer interest rate environment unfolds, especially after Friday's screaming hot payrolls data forced Citi to shift its first rate cut forecast from July to September. 

Fed swaps are only pricing in 1.58 cuts through the end of the year. 

The absence of deals will only mean Berkshire's giant cash and cash equivalents pile will continue growing until valuations become more attractive. 

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/09/2024 - 16:55

Israel's Gantz Quits Coalition Government, Charges Netanyahu With Making "Total Victory Impossible"

Israel's Gantz Quits Coalition Government, Charges Netanyahu With Making "Total Victory Impossible"

Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz on Sunday announced that he is quitting Israel's emergency government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

In a statement he blamed Netanyahu for making "total victory impossible" and further accused him of neglecting achieving the release of the remaining hostages. Gantz blasted Netanyahu and urged him to prioritize returning the hostages above his own "political survival". Netanyahu's coalition still holds a 64-member majority in the Knesset, and won't immediately fall apart, but this is expected to unleash destabilization toward an unclear outcome.

Gantz was initially expected to announce his departure Saturday, but postponed it amid news of the successful IDF hostage recovery operation in central Gaza, which resulted in the return of four Israelis in good health.

Below are Gantz's words wherein he called on other coalition leaders as well as members of the Knesset to join him in forming a new government, and to hold new future elections

Exiting the coalition, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz calls on all members of the Knesset “who understand where we are going” to join forces with him and “obey the command of your conscience,” particularly Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

“Yoav, we have known each other for many years. Even when there were tensions between us, I always respected and appreciated you. In this war – I learned to appreciate you even more,” he says of his now-erstwhile war cabinet colleague.

“You are a brave and determined leader and above all – a patriot. At this time, leadership and courage are not only saying what is right – but doing what is right,” he adds.

He tells the nation he is not a conman and nor is he a politician who will put his political career above the needs of the state. “I will promise you one thing: I’m prepared to die for your children,” he says. “My colleagues and will always stand up and be counted when the country needs us… at any political price. I risked my life for the state in the line of fire dozens of times,” he says, and vows he won’t be deterred by political risk.

Gantz also apologizes to the families of the hostages for failing to save their loved ones. “We did a lot [but] failed when it came to results,” he says. “We haven’t been able to get many of them back home yet. The responsibility is also mine.”

Gantz has also previously punched hard against the more extreme members of Netanyahu's coalition, calling them "fanatics"..."If you choose the path of fanatics and lead the entire nation to the abyss — we will be forced to quit the government," he has warned in prior weeks leading up to Sunday.

The centrist politician had already previously verbalized a plan to hold new elections by October, and three weeks ago he demanded in a provocative ultimatum that Netanyahu had until June 8 to present a clear strategic plan for the Gaza war.

Gantz hopes to inspire a domino effect of departures, eventually collapsing the Netanyahu war government...

Huge anti-Netanyahu protests have continued in Tel Aviv and in front of government buildings and even Netanyahu's residence, and have been led by hostage victims' families. They are outraged there's been lack of clarity or prioritization of getting the rest of the hostages home, also as truce negotiations with Hamas have all but collapsed.

Gantz's Tamano-Shata party has previously stated that "The 7th of October is a disaster that requires us to go back in order to receive the public's trust, to establish a broad and stable unity government that can lead us safely in the face of the enormous challenges in security, the economy and, above all, in Israeli society. Submitting the bill now will allow us to bring it up in the current session."

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/09/2024 - 15:45

It Leaked From A US-Backed Lab

It Leaked From A US-Backed Lab

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

For The New York Times, which started this whole fiasco dating from Feb. 27, 2020, with a podcast designed to drum up disease panic, it’s been a drip, drip, drip of truthiness ever since.

A fortnight ago, the paper finally decided to report on vaccine injury from shots that vast majorities never needed and that stop neither infection nor transmission. And now, as of June 3, we have as decisive an article as one can imagine that shows that “a laboratory accident is the most parsimonious explanation of how the pandemic began.”

“Whether the pandemic started on a lab bench or in a market stall, it is undeniable that U.S. federal funding helped to build an unprecedented collection of SARS-like viruses at the Wuhan institute, as well as contributing to research that enhanced them,” the article reads.

“Advocates and funders of the institute’s research, including Dr. Fauci, should cooperate with the investigation to help identify and close the loopholes that allowed such dangerous work to occur. The world must not continue to bear the intolerable risks of research with the potential to cause pandemics.”

The author is scientist Alina Chan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For purposes of documentation, let’s go through the points she makes.

1. The SARS-like virus that caused the pandemic emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, the Chinese city where the world’s foremost research lab for SARS-like viruses is located.

2. The year before the outbreak, the Wuhan Institute, working with U.S. partners, had proposed creating viruses with SARS‑CoV‑2’s defining feature.

3. The Wuhan lab pursued this type of work under low biosafety conditions that could not have contained an airborne virus as infectious as SARS‑CoV‑2.

4. The hypothesis that COVID-19 came from an animal at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan is not supported by strong evidence.

5. Key evidence that would be expected if the virus had emerged from the wildlife trade is still missing.

Keep in mind that people saying exactly this from the very outset of the crisis were censored by social media at the behest of government agencies. Media personalities ridiculed this view. It was called a wild conspiracy theory, unworthy of any respectable and responsible person. This went on for three years, with brutal results. People lost large channels and social media followers and accounts. This ruined whole livelihoods.

Now, here we are four years later, and we have the paper of record willing to admit that it was true all along.

Yes, it is infuriating.

Why does this matter? Because it is the turning point in the history of modern civilization. All the top public health officials had suspicions of this from the very outset. We know this from their own writings.

Instead of opening a clear and open investigation, they pursued a different path: Deny the leak, roll out the supposed antidote (vaccine), use experimental technology, and lock down the world’s population to stop the spread so that the vaccine would get the credit for ending the pandemic.

That’s the summary of what happened, based on my four years of research into this. In other words, to deflect blame, these people hatched an audacious plot to wreck rights and liberties the world over, in a futile attempt to prohibit natural exposure from ending the pathogenic wave (as always happened before). Instead, they would use the crisis to shove through approval of a technology that had never before received regulatory approval.

This explains the disparagement of natural immunity, the absence of seroprevalence tests, the removal of repurposed generics from the market that could have helped people, the rise of censorship of any dissident scientists, and the complete absence of any serious research into early spread in the last quarter of 2019. It’s quite simply an astonishing plot of immense importance to the whole of the world, all stemming from an attempt to cover up a lab leak.

That’s why the topic is important. This is not just a technical point. It is the first chapter of a wild and seemingly fictional novel of apocalyptic implications. The House subcommittee now investigating the public health response is barely scratching the surface in public, but behind the scenes, there is plenty of knowledge among investigators that there is much more going on.

Here’s the key point. The national media does not want this discussed. The agencies don’t want this investigated. The tech companies that censored people all along do not want this considered. The Democrats certainly don’t want this subject pursued. Many Republicans don’t want to examine this in any detail.

There is only one force at work that is pushing any of this forward, and that is public opinion, which, in turn, is fed by the handful of writers, researchers, scientists, moms, and many other grassroots people who correctly refuse to let this go.

This is the only reason these hearings are happening. It is the only path to getting the truth.

Of this, I’m thoroughly convinced. If we think the American people have already lost trust in public health and government, we haven’t seen anything yet. Once the whole story is out in the open, and we are headed in this direction, we’ll see a collapse without precedent.

The timeline is going far too slowly. There is no excuse for why we are only getting clarity on the basics fully four years later. Meanwhile, there is absolutely no basis for approving any more funding for these agencies or biodefense research and no basis for approving any new treaties or agreements from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Let’s not forget that it was the WHO that pushed hard for the world to copy the Chinese Communist Party in its crazy virus-control methods of violating human rights on a scale that should never have been tolerated in the West. And yet based on that advice, the United States, the UK, the European Union, and nearly every nation in the world adopted these policies, in contradiction to all laws and human rights.

Out of nowhere, our Constitution and Bill of Rights were overridden by bureaucracies about which most Americans knew absolutely nothing.

It boggles the mind that this happened, and we are still paying an egregious price in terms of inflation, learning loss, excess death, collapse of public health, expansion of government, pervasive censorship, and much more.

It felt like martial law at the time, and it is not clear that this ever went away. We absolutely must know the truth. More than that, we need to repudiate every bit of the COVID-19 response, including the mandates to get a vaccine that was, in fact, never proven to be safe or effective.

So yes, it matters that this virus likely leaked from a U.S.-funded lab. That was the beginning of the story. There is much more to it.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/09/2024 - 15:10

Turkey Sends Anti-Assad Syrian Mercenaries To Africa To Guard Mines

Turkey Sends Anti-Assad Syrian Mercenaries To Africa To Guard Mines

Via Middle East Eye

Syrian "rebels" have been hired to fight and provide security at gold mines and factories in African countries, several rebel sources told Middle East Eye this week.

Syrian fighters, who are mostly affiliated with the Syrian National Army (SNA), a coalition of armed opposition groups that works closely with Turkey in northern Syria, told MEE that hundreds of fighters were deployed in Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria. There they guard Turkish-operated businesses, factories and mines, or provide protection services in countries where the Islamic State group poses a danger to local security.

Members of the Turkish-backed "Syrian National Army", Anadolu/Getty Images

An SNA fighter using the pseudonym Deyri, who was recruited for a mission in Africa, told MEE that the recruits weren’t operating alone but in groups. “The command is not in Syrian hands. Sometimes we sign up for the protection of Turkish businesses, sometimes for fighting the Islamic State, and sometimes for guarding mines or factories,” he said.

Reports of Syrian rebels being sent to Africa first surfaced in the western media, which said they had been given short-term combat training before deployment. MEE could not identify which organization trained the recruits.

SNA members told the media that they were recruited through the Sultan Murad Brigade faction, and signed contracts ranging from six months to a year for a monthly salary of $1,500.

According to reports, the controversial private Turkish military company SADAT is allegedly behind the recruitment of SNA members for Africa. However, the company’s executives frequently deny these allegations. Turkish opposition parties have long claimed that SADAT, led by a former Turkish presidential adviser, functioned as a private military company that is used in secretive Turkish state operations in the Middle East.

SADAT has repeatedly denied such allegations and asked for proof. The company says it is transparently engaging states in the region for only advisory and training roles.

Deyri, the rebel, said that he could not confirm the allegations regarding SADAT’s involvement. “I’ve heard their name before, but I signed with Sultan Murat,” he said.

At least 500 Syrian fighters sent to Africa

Rebel sources said the first group that has been deployed, in February, included at least 500 fighters, with many staying in Niger and others leaving for Nigeria and Burkina Faso. Those West African countries purchased Turkish military-grade drones last year.

The rebels' recruitment is believed to have begun in October. Another SNA member currently in Niger, speaking under the pseudonym Mahmut, told MEE that he has been assigned a protection mission, while avoiding giving further details.

Both Mahmut and Deyri said they belong to different groups within the SNA but signed their contracts with the Sultan Murad Brigade, a Turkmen division supported by Turkey.

The rebels gave conflicting accounts of how many SNA factions were involved and how many fighters were deployed. However, they confirmed that at least five SNA groups have directed their fighters and some commanders to the three African countries.

Turkey has previously deployed Syrian fighters to Libya to back a Tripoli-based administration locked in a civil conflict, and supplied them to Azerbaijan when it was fighting Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ankara's use of armed drones, Syrian forces and Turkish commanders is believed to have been key to helping repel eastern commander Khalifa Haftar’s forces from taking Tripoli in 2020. Similar tactics proved useful as Azerbaijan conquered Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023.

Turkey officially denied it deployed foreign forces to such theatres, but sources told MEE in December 2019 that Ankara had planned to deploy Syrian rebel fighters in Libya to fight against Haftar's forces.

The only job sector is being a mercenary

A senior Syrian rebel commander told MEE that Turkey's recruitment of SNA members for work in Africa has been a topic of controversy among opposition armed groups from the beginning. “We have a special alliance and brotherhood with Turkey. However, this relationship has been exploited by some greedy commanders over time,” he said.

Many groups that maintain their revolutionary essence [against the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] and deep brotherhood and alliance with Turkey have not sent fighters to Libya, Azerbaijan, or any other country. The problem is that the entire SNA is being labelled as mercenaries due to the ambitions of a few commanders.”

A second SNA commander said he believes that unemployment and poverty caused by the prolonged war, which affects 90 percent of the Syrian population, has pushed fighters to work as mercenaries abroad to make a living.

The commander served for many years in the Free Syrian Army, the wide coalition of opposition groups created at the beginning of the war in 2011, and then moved to areas under Turkish control after losing battles against al-Qaeda former affiliate the Nusra Front, now known as Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham.

He said rebel-held areas of northern Syria had seen aid flow disrupted by Russian and Chinese pressure, referring to UN Security Council votes that have imperilled relief efforts. The World Food Programme has ended its mandate for the country as of 2024.

“Today, an SNA fighter tries to support his family with a salary of 1,500 Turkish lira [$47], of which half is taken by commanders as kickback,” the second commander said. “From Afrin to Hasakah, from Damascus to Abu Kamal, the only job sector needing manpower nationwide is being a mercenary.” 

A lawyer in areas controlled by the opposition Syrian Interim Government in northern Syria said rebel deployments abroad pit revolutionaries against mercenaries.

“Commanders who gain power and money from missions abroad have moved away from the revolution and established their small empires,” he told MEE. “They stopped following the rules. They thought their crimes would be overlooked. And they were right. Turkey ignored the crimes committed,” he added, in reference to the human rights violations that have been documented in the parts of northern Syria controlled by the SNA.

The lawyer also believes that mercenary activities have a negative impact on the cause of the Syrian revolution. “The missions outside Syria weaken the political representation of the Syrian opposition as well as its legitimacy in the public eye.”

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/09/2024 - 13:25

If AI Is So Great, Prove It: Eliminate All Surveillance, Spam, And Robocalling

If AI Is So Great, Prove It: Eliminate All Surveillance, Spam, And Robocalling

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

AI is for the peons, access to humans is reserved for the wealthy.

Judging by the near-infinite hype spewed about AI, its power is practically limitless: it's going to do all our work better and cheaper than we can do, replacing us at work, to name one example making the rounds. It's going to revolutionize everything from science to marketing, all the while reaping trillions of dollars in profits for those who own the AI tools, apps, etc.

All these extravagant claims make good clickbait, but let's set a higher standard: if AI is so great, then prove it by eliminating all the surveillance, spam and robocalling that's making daily life such a chore. If AI is so powerful and can do pretty much anything a human can do only faster, better, cheaper, then why doesn't someone assign it a simple task: make all surveillance, spam and robocalling go away and become a thing of the dreary, dreadful past.

I mean, come on, how hard would that be? Humans can spot spam and robocalling a mile away, so shouldn't AI be even better at completely eliminating these miseries from our already-digitally-overloaded lives? as for surveillance, how hard would it be to identify and block every tracker, data vacuum, etc. on all our connected devices?

How hard would it be for AI to identify the entities and humans profiting from ruining our lives with surveillance, spam and robocalling? Wouldn't a publicly updated list of those responsible, including names, business addresses, email accounts, etc. be transparency in action?

As I outlined in Is Anyone Else's Life as Stupidly Complicated by Digital "Shadow Work" as Mine Is? (May 22, 2024), we're squandering our lives dealing with completely needless, useless complexity imposed on us by monopolies, scammers (oh wait, isn't that a redundancy?), rapacious tech platforms, fraudsters and marketers.

If AI is so great, why doesn't it do all this stupidly burdensome "shadow work" for us? When yet another corporate monopoly's products and/or services fails miserably, then why can't AI get on the phone with a tech-support person halfway around the world and get it sorted?

We all know the reason why AI will only add to our misery and shadow work: there's no profit in making our lives easier unless we pay for the "privilege" of not being surveilled, spammed and robocalled to death. This is the price we're paying for allowing tech/corporate monopolies and cartels to dominate our economy, society, political order and daily lives: the only way AI will reduce our shadow work is if reducing our misery is more profitable than adding to it.

If we lived in a truly well-ordered economy / society, every individual participating in surveillance, spam and robocalling would be renditioned to Devil's Island where they could enjoy the company of all the other grifters and scammers who profited from our immiseration.

But alas, we live in an economy / society that has been optimized for parasitic predation and exploitation. And so AI will be deployed not to eliminate the obvious sources of our immiseration but to increase them, until our desperation reaches such an extreme that we're willing to sign up for a special deal, only $99.99 a month (for six months, then the price reverts to $399.99/month, plus applicable taxes), a service that comes with an AI app to fix everything that's broken and dysfunctional.

If you want to actually fix what's broken, well, that requires speaking with a human being, and that's going to cost you extra. AI is for the peons, access to humans is reserved for the wealthy.

*  *  *

Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

Subscribe to my Substack for free

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/09/2024 - 12:15

US Admits Role In Israeli Rescue Operation That Killed Over 200 Palestinians

US Admits Role In Israeli Rescue Operation That Killed Over 200 Palestinians

The United States has denied ongoing allegations that it was militarily involved in Israel's Saturday raid on a central Gaza Hamas stronghold which returned alive four hostages who had been kidnapped on Oct.7. 

"Well, the one thing I can say is that there were no U.S. forces, no U.S. boots on the ground involved in this operation. We did not participate militarily in this operation," US National Security advisor Jake Sullivan said in a CNN interview on Sunday. There have been widespread claims that US special forces advisers were on the ground in some capacity, but this hasn't been met with confirmation.

However, it has been reported that "A U.S. official told Axios the U.S. hostage cell in Israel supported the effort to rescue the four hostages." The precise level of 'support' and details of this involvement hasn't been revealed, but The New York Times has so far described that US officials in Israel had been "providing intelligence and other logistical support."

IDF/TOI: Shlomi Ziv embraces a soldier as he lands in Israel after being rescued from Hamas captivity, June 8, 2024.

Despite the freeing of the four hostages being a clearly big 'win' and victory for Israel, which the White House also congratulated, it quickly emerged that the refugee camp at Nuseirat suffered a massacre during the operation.

The Palestinian side is saying that at least 274 people were killed, mostly civilians, in the large-scale attacks which reportedly paved the way for the elite counterterror team to go in and rescue the captives while under heavy fire. Israel launched significant strikes on the surrounding area to protect the Israeli elite hostage rescue team.

Sullivan confirmed during the same CNN interview that "innocent people were killed" in the Israeli military operation to free the group of hostages. He didn't say how many civilian casualties there were, however. "We, the United States, are not in a position today to make a definitive statement about that. The Israeli defense forces have put out one number. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has put out another number," Sullivan said.

"But we do know this, Dana. Innocent people were tragically killed in this operation. The exact number we don’t know, but innocent people were killed. And that is heartbreaking. That is tragic," he added. He then followed by saying something which can be seen as an indirect criticism of Netanyahu's decision-making. He stressed that Biden "thinks the best way to get all of the hostages home is in a deal where they’re brought out diplomatically, where there’s no need for military operations to get every last hostage out."

"In the absence of that, without Hamas saying yes to the deal, unfortunately, we are going to continue to see ongoing conflict and military operations in which Israel makes efforts to recover its citizens and, frankly, to recover American citizens. What we would much prefer to see is a cease-fire where the hostages come out peacefully," he added.

One big claim that neither the US nor Israeli side has acknowledged is that the Israelis transported an elite counter-terror troops into central Gaza by using a humanitarian aid truck from the US-constructed pier as a decoy. Some videos have circulated which purport to show this, but there's yet to be substantial evidence proving it. But there is some video evidence that the Pentagon's humanitarian pier location was used by Israel forces, at least as a staging ground area...

Middle East Eye explains of the video:

Citing a source familiar with the matter, CNN reported that there were "no US boots on the ground," adding that the American cell has been in place since 7 October, supporting Israel with information gathering. 

However, videos circulating online on Saturday showed a helicopter taking off from the beach in Gaza with the US pier in the backdrop.

Two US officials told CBS News that the pier was not used in the operation and in a series of statements released later on Saturday, US Central Command (Centcom) said that the "pier facility, including its equipment, personnel, and assets were not used in the operation to rescue hostages today in Gaza."

Importantly, on Saturday The Times of Israel's chief military correspondent Emanuel Fabian confirmed that the video showed an IDF helicopter extracting a hostage: "Footage shows one of the hostages (presumably Noa Argamani) being extracted from the Gaza Strip in a helicopter after being rescued from Hamas captivity in Nuseirat," he wrote on X. One initial commenter picked up on what can clearly be seen in the immediate background, "Right next to the US pier?"

US Central Command (CENTCOM) attempted to address allegations that the Gaza pier was used in Saturday's Israeli military operation:

On Sunday, Hamas' armed wing is claiming that three Israeli hostages killed, including a US citizen (dual national), during the Israel rescue raid in Gaza. Hamas also says the whole operation resulted in a civilian massacre of the area, and especially in a refugee camp. One eyewitness account is as follows:

"The occupation has annihilated the Nuseirat refugee camp. Innocent and unarmed civilian were bombed in their homes. I've never seen anything like this. It's a catastrophe," local resident Nidal Abdo told Middle East Eye. 

"I came from the camp to here in the hospital on foot. I can't describe how we fled. I saw dead children and body parts strewn all over as we fled. No one was able to assist them. I saw an elderly man killed on a animal-drawn cart.

"Nuseirat was being annihilated. It was hell."

Meanwhile, some pundits are asserting that all of this makes the Pentagon complicit in the massive casualties in central Gaza that resulted from the IDF rescue op. They are pointing out that hundreds were killed and wounded in order to rescue four Israelis.

These critics are alleging that the US aid pier is really all about providing "cover" for a deepening US military role in the conflict. Already, US anti-air systems have been spotted on the pier, and US troops overseeing its operations have been given a 'right to return fire' order if fired upon.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/09/2024 - 11:40

"Damage Control Underway": Cargo Ship Hit By Missile In Gulf Of Aden In Suspected Attack By Houthi Rebels

"Damage Control Underway": Cargo Ship Hit By Missile In Gulf Of Aden In Suspected Attack By Houthi Rebels

More than six months since the Biden administration launched Operation Prosperity Guardian to defend the critical maritime chokepoint Bab al-Mandab Strait from Iran-backed Houthis and ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, we're witnessing yet another alarming development. Late Saturday, rebels targeted a Western-linked cargo ship with missiles. This underscores the ongoing threat to the shipping lane and the utter failure of Biden's disastrous foreign policies. 

AP News cites a report from private security firm Ambrey, which said the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden was struck by a missile on its forward station, sparking a fire. A second missile missed the vessel, and rebels "on board small boats in the vicinity opened fire on the ship during the incident," the security firm said, adding no crew on the vessel was hurt in the attack. 

"The Master reports that the vessel was hit by an unknown projectile on the aft section, which resulted in a fire. Damage control is underway, the Master reports no casualties and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call," the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations wrote on X

AP notes, "Suspicion for the attack immediately fell on the Houthis. The rebels did not immediately claim the assault, though it can sometimes take hours or even days for them to acknowledge their attacks." 

 In the global economy, the continued Red Sea disruption is generating a supply shock. Containerized shipping costs for several major shipping lanes are exploding. 

Meanwhile, Houthis continue to claim a successful attack on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Nimitz-class supercarrier in the Red Sea last week despite US CENTCOM denying any such attack. 

Houthis also mentioned that their attack coverage expanded into the Mediterranean Sea. The terror group claimed a successful attack last month on an Israeli-linked ship in the Mediterranean area. 

And there's news just days ago from AP that Houthis unveiled a solid-fuel missile that "resembles aspects of one earlier displayed by Iran that Tehran described as flying at hypersonic speeds." 

With Israel recently mentioning the war against Hamas could last another seven months, there's reason to believe the Red Sea area will become hotter. What's also concerning was Biden's 'greenlighting' of Ukraine to attack Russian territory with US-made weapons.

All of this is a sign that the world continues to fracture into a multipolar state, full of conflict and danger. The investment theme in this period is defense

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/09/2024 - 09:55

The Global Gulf In Organ Donation Rates

The Global Gulf In Organ Donation Rates

Data from the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and Health Care (EDQM) shows that Spain came out on top for the highest rates of organ donors in 2022, with 47 deceased donors per million population, respectively.

 The Global Gulf in Organ Donation Rates | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

This high rate is often linked to its opt-out system.

Or, in other words, when someone dies, the default will be to donate their organs where possible, unless the person had specifically turned down the option of a transplant.

Relatives can also usually reject the process if they say the deceased person would not have wanted it.

The United States’ organ donation rate is 44.5 deceased donors per million population. This is perhaps more surprising, given that it has an opt-in system.

In its case though, the barrier for registration is relatively low, as in most states, you can register to be a donor when applying for or renewing a driver’s license.

This is a fairly logical, if macabre, step, considering the grim reality that one third of organ donations in the U.S. come from people who have been in fatal vehicle accidents, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/09/2024 - 08:45

Next Month's NATO Summit Might See Most Members Joining The "Military Schengen"

Next Month's NATO Summit Might See Most Members Joining The "Military Schengen"

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

NATO logistics chief Lt. Gen. Alexander Sollfrank is responsible for last November’s “military Schengen” proposal, which bore fruit in February after Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland – the last of which has comprehensively subordinated itself to Berlin – agreed to optimize their military logistics.

This is intended to streamline the dispatch of emergency American military forces to the Russian border via the Dutch port of Rotterdam and the next two countries’ rail systems in the event of a major crisis.

The Telegraph updated their audience about Sollfrank’s brainchild on Tuesday a little more than a month before the next NATO Summit in DC from 9-11 July in their article detailing how “Nato land corridors could rush US troops to front line in event of European war”.

It included a handy map showing the five corridors that are being relied on to this end, with the most prominent being the abovementioned Dutch-German-Polish one.

In the order that they were enumerated by that outlet, the others include Italy-Slovenia-Croatia-Hungary; Greece-Bulgaria-Romania; Turkiye-Bulgaria-Romania; and Norway-Sweden-Finland. The first is presently unviable given Hungary’s resistance to NATO’s anti-Russian warmongering (unless Orban is neutralized); the next two require expanding Romania’s “Moldova Highway” project to the Aegean Sea; while the last one is dependent on just a few chokepoints. They’re all therefore works in progress.

Therein lies the reason why the upcoming NATO Summit might see most of the bloc agreeing to join the “military Schengen” as its most important outcome in order to increase these corridors’ efficacy. Removing red tape in order to facilitate the free movement of troops and equipment entails sacrificing more of each member’s sovereignty, which Hungary and Slovakia probably won’t agree to, but the rest’s participation would set the basis for the US’ envisaged “Fortress Europe”.

This concept refers to the American-backed but German-driven militarization of the EU, which would see Berlin lead the bloc’s anti-Russian containment on Washington’s behalf after the Ukrainian Conflict inevitably ends in order for the US to “Pivot (back) to Asia” for more muscularly containing China. “Fortress Europe” is therefore a long-term project, not something that’ll be completed anytime soon, especially since NATO also needs to ramp up its military-industrial production to compete with Russia.

Nevertheless, the importance of optimizing military logistics across Europe can’t be overestimated since increasing the efficacy of the five corridors that The Telegraph drew attention to will make it much easier for Germany to manage Russia’s post-conflict containment under the US’ supervision. Getting most members to agree to join the “military Schengen” is also the easiest way for NATO to spin its next summit as success and placate some of Ukraine’s disappointment at once again not being invited to join.

Kiev can be told without any sugarcoating that the steps taken during that event will make it easier for those who’ve extended it “security guarantees” to fulfill their promises to immediately dispatch military aid during a crisis. This could also help reassure those hawkish anti-Russian policymakers who believe that any pragmatic compromise on Ukraine would be to Moscow’s advantage since NATO could pair its forthcoming military-industrial production sites with the “military Schengen” during peacetime.

This can be done during the ongoing NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine, but the rate of the latter’s force depletion prevents the bloc from replenishing its own stockpiles since it has to continue supplying Kiev, and that in turn reduces the confidence that EU leaders have in their ability to “deter” Russia. Accordingly, freezing the conflict by year’s end becomes more attractive if they come to see it in this way, which could then enable them to more effectively prioritize these plans over the coming years.

In that event, new military-industrial sites could pop up along these five “military Schengen” corridors as well as supplementary ones like the German-Estonian corridor via Poland for fortifying the new Iron Curtain’s “Baltic Defense Line”, the purpose being to maximally militarize the EU. Conscription might return across the bloc, emergency training could be taught in all schools, and everyone would remain on edge like during the height of the Old Cold War, but this cold peace would still be better than a hot war.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/09/2024 - 07:00

The Speech That Military Recruiters Don't Want You To Hear

The Speech That Military Recruiters Don't Want You To Hear

Authored by Casey Carlisle via AntiWar.com,

Before we get into this, let’s discuss what most would label “a hypothetical.” Tonight, I’m going to break into your home, point a gun at you, and rob you – all the while claiming that I’m not your enemy. Your enemy, I’ll say, is elsewhere, and I don’t mean across the street but in a different country. What will you do? By a show of hands, will you fight back and protect those in your home by evicting me or even by killing me? By a show of hands, who will thank me and travel to said country in search of the enemy, leaving those in your home vulnerable to me? Anyone? Nobody? It sounds absurd, but for reasons that I’ll soon explain, you’ll understand that it’s more real than hypothetical.

Hello, I’m Casey Carlisle. I’m a West Point graduate, and I spent five years in the Army, including 11 months in Afghanistan. Some of you are thinking about serving your country, and most of you are asking yourselves, “Why am I listening to this guy?” I’m glad that both of these groups are here, and I promise that my remarks will cause both groups to think differently about military service.

I was a high-school senior on September 11th, 2001, sitting in class and stunned after hearing the principal announce that our country had just been attacked. Why would someone want to do this to the greatest country on Earth? I was also livid, and I wanted revenge. I wanted to kill the people responsible for this atrocity, and my dilemma then was between enlisting in the military to exact revenge now or first spending years at a military academy before helping to rid the world of terrorists. I chose the latter, so I didn’t deploy to Afghanistan until 2009. My time there radically changed my views, which was uncomfortable, but, as with failure, discomfort breeds learning.

I learned that not only were we not keeping our fellow Americans safe or protecting their liberty, we were further impoverishing one of the poorest countries in the world. I watched in disgust my alleged allies – the Afghan police – rob their neighbors while on patrol and in broad daylight via traffic stops. Imagine getting pulled over, not for speeding, but because the cop hopes to rob you. My enemy – the Taliban – didn’t do such things, which is why I ended up having more respect for them than for my mission or for those who were allegedly helping us accomplish it. “Oh, but they’re horrible in other ways,” you might argue, and I’d agree; however, it’s much harder to kill an idea than it is to kill a person. Killing someone who holds an idea that you find distasteful only helps that person’s loved ones accept that idea. It turns out that killing someone for their ideas is a great way to spread those ideas.

US Army file image

Instead of dismissing me as an anti-American lunatic, consider the following. In the year 2000, the Taliban controlled most of Afghanistan, and today, they control all of it. This is just one of the reasons why I feel contempt for those who thank me for my alleged service. Our ‘service’ was worse than worthless, and the people thanking me were forced to pay for it. All of those who died there did so for nothing. And the innocent Afghans who were displaced, injured, or killed during our attempt to bring democracy to a country that didn’t want it were far better off in 2000 than they are now.

To be clear, the desire to serve one’s country is noble, but we must first define “country.” Serving one’s country is entirely different from serving one’s government. They are not the same. Serving one’s country is serving one’s family, friends, neighbors, and the land that they’ve made home. Serving one’s country is serving one’s community. Serving one’s government, however, is ultimately what everyone does when they enlist or when they take my path as an officer. Who are these people in government that you’ll end up serving? Are they your family, friends, or neighbors? For the most part, they are not, yet, they are ultimately who will decide your fate while in uniform. Whether they’re politicians or bureaucrats, they decide what serving one’s country entails, and, naturally, they’ll subordinate our country’s prosperity to their job security. If given the opportunity, these people will not hesitate to send you to your death if it means scoring a measly political point against their ideological foes. Serving one’s country in this context – reality – means serving these parasites.

Here’s something else to consider.  When you tell the military recruiter that you want to enlist, what are you implying? You’re telling the recruiter – a government agent – that not only do you want to serve your government but that you’re willing to kill for it. Tell any other recruiter in the real economy of that proclivity, and, at the very least, you won’t be getting that job.  Seems obvious enough, but have you heard of Operation Vigilant Eagle? This operation, headed by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, tracks veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and characterizes them as extremists and potential domestic terrorists. Why?  Because these veterans might be disgruntled or suffering from the psychological effects of war. Yes, you heard that correctly.

The government that bribed the graduating senior into joining the military now views that same patriot as its enemy. You might protest, thinking that getting put on a list isn’t all that bad, but I’d argue that lists are never created as an end; they’re always a means, and in this case, too, they’re diabolical. Not only were these veterans put on a list for the ‘crime’ of justifiably feeling disillusioned, when a veteran was explicitly critical of the regime, these veterans were labeled “mentally unfit” and forced into psychiatric facilities where they’d receive treatment for whatever illness the regime deemed appropriate, indefinitely. I don’t know if this program continues today, but if the regime were to tell us, “We’re not doing that anymore,” would you believe it?

I know you weren’t around for 9/11, but I’m sure you recall March of 2020. I bet you were almost as angry then as I was. We all witnessed a very sad truth: the “home of the brave” is devoid of the brave, and the “land of the free” hasn’t been free for quite some time. Most Americans not only take their liberty for granted, they readily reject it. They’re terrified of it, which is why they hate it. What we all witnessed then undermines the tired slogan – the blatant lie – that those who join the military are “fighting for our freedom.” This is no theory; it’s why, to this day, the military is struggling like hell to recruit people like you. They think you’re stupid.

But you might’ve realized that serving one’s country necessarily implies staying in one’s country. You might be thinking that when one joins the military, he swears to defend the Constitution against all enemies – foreign and domestic; however, the regime would like you to combat only the foreign enemies that it tells you to hate. Who kicked you out of school in 2020? Who cancelled your games, meets, matches, and races? Who prevented you from traveling freely?  Who thought it best that you not embrace your loved ones?  Who masked you? Our own government is our greatest threat, and it has proven to be so scared of those it duped into ‘serving’ that it’ll send you to some other country or to a mental hospital in order to protect itself.

I’m not telling you what to do. I’m making sure that you’re fully aware of what you’re getting into if you decide to join the military, as I’m sure the recruiter didn’t tell you about Operation Vigilant Eagle. He probably didn’t tell you that 18 veterans kill themselves every day, and he probably didn’t tell you that the military is the final political option. But does it seem like the regime waits until all else fails before getting involved, or is it easier to count the countries that do not have U.S. military personnel stationed in them? Did the recruiter tell you that those who don’t ‘serve’ pay the salaries of those who do? Seems a bit backward – to be forced to pay those who allegedly serve you.

Most of the millionaires and billionaires in this country got rich by actually serving their fellow man via voluntary exchange, not by living off of their neighbors. I encourage you to consider taking that route – enriching yourself by enriching your community, not by parasitizing it. And no need to fixate on getting rich. If your interactions with your community are voluntary – no matter how lousy the pay – they’re likely honorable, no killing required. In closing, take a deep breath, and look around. Your country is hereWe are your country, and when things get bad, we will need you here, not fighting those in a different country who pose no threat to us while leaving us vulnerable to our greatest threat. Thank you for listening.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/08/2024 - 23:20

Where Are America's Largest Landfills?

Where Are America's Largest Landfills?

According to the EPA, the U.S. produced 292 million tons of solid waste in 2018. Of that, about 150 million tons headed to the country’s landfills. It would take more than 600 of the largest cargo ships (by dead weight tonnage) to move this much material at once.

Visual Capitalist's Marcus Lu maps out America’s largest landfills, based on their total capacity (measured in millions of tons) for solid waste.

Data for this graphic is sourced from Statista and is current up to 2023.

Ranked: America’s Largest Landfills

Opened in 1993 and located 25 minutes from Las Vegas, Apex Landfill is believed to be one of the world’s largest landfills by both area and volume.

It spans 1,900 acres, or roughly the size of 1,400 football fields. Given its vast capacity, the landfill is expected to be able to accept waste for over 250 years.

Here are the top 10 largest landfills in the country.

In a 2021 PBS interview, a spokesperson for Apex Landfill reported that the facility captured and treated enough landfill gas to power nearly 11,000 homes in Southern Nevada.

In fact, landfills can create electricity through a process called landfill gas (LFG) recovery. When organic waste decomposes, it produces methane gas which can be captured and purified to create fuel for generators.

As it happens, methane gas from landfills is the third-largest source of human-related carbon emissions, equivalent to 24 million gas passenger vehicles driven for one year. Its capture and treatment is a significant opportunity to combat emissions.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/08/2024 - 22:45

Atlas Shrugs Twice

Atlas Shrugs Twice

Authored by Charles Krblich via The Brownstone Institute,

One fateful day in March 2020, the incompetent men shut down the world with lockdowns. It was the opposite of the premise in Atlas Shrugged.

Who is John Galt?

Who cares?

The incompetent people could stop the motor of the world too.

Atlas shrugs either by disappearing competence or by an overwhelming mass of incompetence too great even for Atlas’s broad, strong shoulders.

Competency crises seem to be brewing left and right and are constantly on public display of late. Consider the self-interested testimony of Fani Willis. Jared Bernstein, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, caused an interview to go viral by struggling to explain monetary policy. Several previously 100% effective Covid vaccines have been withdrawn from the market (Johnson & JohnsonAstraZeneca). Lastly, consider the inspiring image of our own Secretary of Defense triumphantly marching off his plane in the Philippines wearing his Covid mask and face shield. It is not-so-reminiscent of the image of General MacArthur triumphantly marching onshore at Luzon to liberate the Philippines. It is difficult to observe these things and think, These are competent individuals.

In Ayn Rand’s novelthe competent individuals who build businesses, products, and industries all go on strike and suddenly disappear. The resulting world becomes increasingly bleak. Government takes a larger role. Simple things start to break. Less value is provided and at the same time, everything is more expensive. That sounds much like the world we begin to find ourselves in today.

Rand witnessed all of this herself. She was born in the city of St. Petersburg in pre-revolutionary Russia, the daughter of a pharmacist. After the revolution, her father’s pharmacy was nationalized and they fled to Crimea which was under White Army control during the ensuing Russian Civil War. Afterward, they returned to St. Petersburg and were forced to live under desperate conditions. Nearly starving, she was granted a visa to visit Chicago. She managed to stay in the US and chose to leave her family behind. She watched as incompetent men destroyed her father’s business, needlessly broke up her family, and repeated this disaster society-wide.

Meanwhile, we can read and laugh about recent trends like quiet-quitting, which may be a darkly alternative concept of Galt’s Gulch. Regardless of competency, people can disappear and simply collect a paycheck. Rather than compete, the goal becomes optimizing work-life balance and pursuing passions outside of work. If competent people begin to do only the bare minimum, is it any wonder that customer service or quality control always seems to be on the decline everywhere we look?

The outcome is always the same: incompetence spreads. In many cases, incompetence becomes celebrated. In 2021, Fauci was awarded the Dan David Prize for “speaking truth to power” during the pandemic. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York was given an international Emmy for his “masterful” pandemic briefings. Today, where do both stand? 

Governor Cuomo’s Emmy was eventually stripped from him after he was forced to resign in response to sexual harassment allegations against him.  Fauci is admitting to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic that much of the rules for social distancing and masking were simply made up. Lying, in spectacular fashion, is “masterful” and “speaking truth to power” only in clown world. In reality, it is neither. 

Maybe, in the upcoming election, we will see Kamala Harris decry the Trump vaccine and claim she never took it. You see, it was the convicted felon Trump’s vaccine and the ineffectiveness and severe side effects were known to all. There will, of course, be video of her being injected, just as there is a video of her at the Vice Presidential debate where she states that she wouldn’t take a vaccine Trump told her to. It is only a coincidence that the Pfizer vaccine was approved in early December, just a little more than a month after the election in November 2020. 

I have long thought that the correct solution to all of this is to not participate, to only focus on what I can immediately control. I imagined that if the Von Trapp family could avoid Nazism and flee across the hills as shown in The Sound of Music, then I would be able to as well. It all seemed so simple. I spent little time contemplating how precarious and close to disaster their situation truly was.

Ayn Rand, on the other hand, fled with her family to Crimea with the White Army. It failed. They were returned to St. Petersburg, Russia. Her parents perished in the city renamed as Leningrad, Russia in 1941 when the Nazis began their Siege of Leningrad.

People pay far too much attention to the charade presented on their television screens. Individuality is lost; energy is squandered. The conflicting messages, hypocrisies, and our own inability to do anything about it affect us in ways that are often not conscious. 

I felt the way he looked. His was one of helplessness, frustration and indignation—but he could do absolutely nothing.

Ayn Rand, speaking about her father in the wake of the 1917 Communist Revolution

How many of us felt this way at the announcement of lockdowns? How many resisted? How many still believe? What does any of it mean? 

Rand’s father, however, did not give in. He refused to work for the Soviet Government, even if it threatened his family’s food security. He helped his daughter escape to America, and he encouraged her to follow her own dreams.

Atlas may shrug, justice may never be served, all of the structures and institutions around us may fall into disrepair or collapse, and the world may be forcefully locked down, but when we give in to apathy and shrug our shoulders in dejected acceptance and passive participation, we also hand over our own individuality, agency, and freedom.

It is then that Atlas shrugs, not once, but twice.

*  *  *

Republished from the author’s Substack

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/08/2024 - 22:10

Copper Breaks Trend Line As Trafigura Questions Spike, Hedge Funds Bet Big

Copper Breaks Trend Line As Trafigura Questions Spike, Hedge Funds Bet Big

Tight supplies from copper mines and the looming threat of a worsening global deficit rocketed copper prices from February to June, and the AI trade, which drove momentum from speculative traders, pushed prices even higher. But in recent weeks, prices have tumbled, breaking a critical trend line that has been intact for months. Now, prices are teetering on a knife-edge, with trading desks and hedge funds speculating on what comes next. 

Let's begin with comments from the world's top copper trader - and as Bloomberg's Jack Farchy puts it, "usually one of the market's most bullish voices" - who called the price surge unjustified due to real-world supply. 

"Prices of non-ferrous metals have moved much higher than fundamentals in the physical spot market might indicate or justify, especially for copper," Trafigura Chief Economist Saad Rahim wrote in a note with first-half results on Thursday. 

Rahim pointed out that copper's speculative surge in the first half of the year was primarily linked to "investment flows." However, he does believe the closure of First Quantum Minerals Ltd.'s mine in Panama will eventually tighten global supplies

He wrote that sliding mine supply "has led to a significant concentrates shortage, resulting in smelters having to cut production and pointing to tighter inventories of refined metal even if demand is lackluster."

Copper prices on the London Metal Exchange on Friday fell to $9,652 a ton, down 11.5% from the all-time high of $11,104 in May. Furthermore, prices have breached a multi-month ascending trend line, which is happening as the top consumer of copper, China, has printed dismal economic data. 

"Specs got in from Feb, fast money chased in March (AI narrative emerged), April we saw consumers really step back (above 9k) and scrap volumes picked up, May was financial FOMO and stop outs and we saw a pickup in producer hedging. Feels to me like the 2023 range steps a good $1500 higher for now, the low of that range will be what we settle next couple of weeks and the higher end will be the stop out top (10k to 11k give or take)," Goldman's James McGeoch wrote in a note to clients on Friday. 

McGeoch said, "The numbers I hear most is $14-15k. Think this gets the project running, then you drift back to marginal cost." 

Then there are hedge funds Rokos Capital Management and Andurand Capital Management, which bet that prices could rally significantly from current levels.

Per Bloomberg

Rokos has made a flurry of options purchases in the past several months in a bet that copper could rally to $20,000 or more over the next few years, according to people familiar with the matter. At Andurand, copper was the biggest position by market exposure at the end of April, and the trader has recently predicted that prices could hit $40,000. Those targets are well beyond the forecasts of even the most bullish Wall Street banks.

Last week, Andurand told clients in a letter that its main commodities funds were up between 13% and 30% in April, primarily because of its bullish copper bets. 

"We believe that we are at the beginning of the copper bull-market and that the recent move higher in prices is just the start," Andurand wrote,adding, "Copper faces a decade-long supply deficit driven by the confluence of increasing demand due to the energy transition and persistent underinvestment in mine expansion."

In April, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital said it had made a "medium-sized macro position to benefit from higher copper prices." 

"Our thesis now is that copper supply is about to fall short of demand, forcing prices substantially higher," Greenlight said in a letter to clients, adding, "We think the best way to invest in that thesis is the most direct way — in this case through options on copper futures."

Goldman's McGeoch said, "A supply shock doesn't get the price from $10,500 to $12,000. It's what takes us from $15k to $20k." 

Also, Jeff Currie, who led commodities research at Goldman for nearly three decades, recently told Bloomberg's Odd Lots that copper "is the most compelling trade I have ever seen in my 30 plus years of doing this."

Despite China's souring recovery, copper bulls believe the market will tighten as global industrial activity increases, central banks pivot to looser monetary policy, and mining companies struggle to ramp up production. This comes as demand rises due to electric vehicles, renewables, reshoring trends, and AI data centers, as the copper squeeze is likely to reignite again. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/08/2024 - 21:35

FDA Rescinds Ban On Juul E-Cigarettes

FDA Rescinds Ban On Juul E-Cigarettes

Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reversed its two-year ban on Juul’s e-cigarettes on Thursday.

The decision was made in response to new case law and the FDA’s review of the information Juul provided, the agency wrote in its public statement.

An FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times that they could not expand on what case law the FDA is referring to.

The FDA’s initial ban on Juul e-cigarettes started on June 23, 2022, when the agency issued marketing denial orders (MDOs) to Juul Labs, banning all of the e-cigarette company’s products from the U.S. market.

The company immediately filed an appeal that placed a temporary stay on the ban. A week later, the FDA placed an administrative stay on the MDOs “after determining that certain scientific issues warranted additional review,” and Juul’s products remained on the market for two years.

With the new rescission, the FDA said its decision does not mean Juul’s products are now authorized for the U.S. market.

The rescission changes Juul’s application to pending status, and the FDA will conduct a review to authorize or deny Juul’s products.

“All e-cigarette products, including those made by Juul, are required by law to have FDA authorization to be legally marketed. The agency’s continued review does not constitute authorization to market, sell, or ship Juul products,” the FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

The agency stated that its statutes will “significantly limit what the agency can disclose regarding the content of pending applications.”

In a statement published the same day, Juul welcomed the FDA’s decision.

“We appreciate the FDA’s decision and now look forward to re-engaging with the agency on a science- and evidence-based process to pursue a marketing authorization for JUUL products,” said the company.

“We remain confident … and believe that a full review of the science and evidence will demonstrate that our products meet the statutory standard of being appropriate for the protection of public health.”

Juul’s devices and tobacco- and menthol-flavored e-cigarette pods will remain on the market during the review.

Juul’s Past Ban and Controversy

Juul is currently the No. 2 e-cigarette company in the United States.

The company was launched in 2015 and quickly gained popularity among teenagers and young adults. It then caught the attention of lawmakers and regulators due to concerns that Juul intentionally targeted younger people.

Beginning in 2017, the popularity of e-cigarettes in the United States increased by 40 percent, driven primarily by Juul.

At the peak of its popularity in 2019, the company represented the e-cigarette craze, commanding 75 percent of the market share in the United States.

Beginning in 2019, health agencies issued alerts about teenagers ending up in emergency departments due to respiratory injuries from vaping. States and affected families filed personal injury lawsuits against Juul, alleging inappropriate marketing to youths.

In 2020, under a federal court order, the FDA began requiring all e-cigarette and vaping companies to submit applications to continue marketing their products.

In June 2022, the FDA ordered that Juul products be taken off the market due to four unresolved questions in its toxicology data. In its appeal to the FDA, Juul told the agency that these questions could have been clarified through the usual procedures or “a mere phone call.”

Though the ban only lasted a few days, the amassed litigation and FDA action soon sent the company into a financial crisis, with it narrowly avoiding bankruptcy in 2022 and 2024.

Juul has since taken steps to reduce underage usage by not featuring anyone younger than 35 in commercials and requiring age verification for purchase from its website.

Since 2023, Juul’s underage usage has been cut by 95 percent. In December 2023, the company submitted applications to the FDA for next-generation e-cigarette products, but these have not yet been approved.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/08/2024 - 21:00

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