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Biden Supports 'Safe And Secure' Gain-of-Function Research, White House Says

Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClear Wire,

While the White House reported Monday that the U.S. intelligence community has not yet reached a “consensus” on the origins of the COVID-19 virus, the Biden administration voiced support for the practice of gain-of-function research, so long as it was done safely, securely, and with transparency.

As complicated as it is complex, such research generally refers to the intentional manipulation of viruses to make them more transmissible, and therefore more dangerous, in order to study them. Critics argue the risks outweigh any potential reward if this kind of research goes wrong.

Congressional Republicans, led by Sens. Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, and Rand Paul, say that the coronavirus likely leaked from a Chinese research facility in Wuhan that was engaging in that kind of research and have called for a moratorium on federal funding to any university or organizations conducting gain-of-function studies.

When RealClearPolitics asked Monday if President Biden thought gain of function was “prudent,” John Kirby, the president’s National Security Council spokesman replied that he did.

He believes that it’s important to help prevent future pandemics, which means he understands that there has to be legitimate scientific research into the sources or potential sources of pandemics so that we understand it so that we can prevent them and we prevent them from happening obviously,” Kirby said before adding that the president believed any such research “must be done in a safe and secure manner and as transparent as possible to the rest of the world.”

To sum up, Kirby then told RCP, “I think that’s a fancy way of saying ‘yes.’”

The Obama administration reached a different conclusion in 2014 and halted taxpayer funding for such research. Three years later, during the Trump administration, the National Institute of Health lifted that moratorium.

Republicans have accused the NIH of funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through an intermediary, the American biomedical company EcoHealth Alliance. Dr. Anthony Fauci, formerly the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Congress in May of 2021 that NIH “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

Critics have returned to that controversy in light of new reporting by the Wall Street Journal that the Energy Department has concluded the COVID-19 most likely arose from a laboratory leak. That theory was first posited during the Trump administration and widely dismissed at the time as a conspiracy theory. It increasingly seems plausible after a separate earlier analysis by the FBI concluded that the lab in Wuhan was the “likely” origin of the virus.

If we have learned anything from this pandemic, it’s that risky virus-enhancing research – like the type conducted in Wuhan that was funded by the U.S. government – needs more oversight and regulation,” Rand Paul told RCP.

A physician and a vocal critic of Fauci, Paul added that “worldwide approximately 15 million people died – the memory of their deaths demands that we have more scrutiny of this dangerous research.”

Congressional Republicans already promised more oversight and investigations into the issue, especially after the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General wrote in a report last month that “NIH did not effectively monitor or take timely action to address” whether EcoHealth Alliance complied with reporting requirements. 

The White House did not confirm the WSJ report but reiterated that Biden had “doubled down” and ordered that considerable resources are put behind “getting to the bottom of the origins of COVID-19.” Republicans, meanwhile, continue to argue that Biden is going soft on Beijing.

The Biden White House won’t have credibility on safe scientific research so long as it continues to dismiss the growing evidence that COVID came from a gain-of-function lab accident in China,” Marco Rubio, the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told RCP.

Biden drew the ire of Republicans last summer when his administration declined to say whether the president personally urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to cooperate with international investigations of the pandemic’s origin. So far, Beijing has not done so, blocking the World Health Organization, for instance, from conducting additional on-the-ground probe.

Asked if the president has broached the issue, Kirby noted how the administration has regularly called on Beijing to be more transparent and told RCP that Biden called for additional cooperation “when he met with President Xi in Bali just a couple of months ago.” A White House readout of that meeting, as the New York Post reported at the time, did not include any mention of the origins of COVID.

Controversy continues on the gain-of-function front. The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NASB) recommended sweeping new changes to how the government regulates gain-of-function experiments last month. As the New York Times reported, the decision now rests with the Biden administration as it seeks to balance the apparent need for research to prevent a pandemic with the possibility of that kind of research inadvertently jumpstarting a plague.

“If the government implements the spirit of what they’ve written,” Gregory Koblentz, a biodefense specialist at George Mason University, told the Times, “this would be a major overhaul of dual-use research oversight in the United States.

That kind of research remains “vital for ensuring the United States is prepared to rapidly detect, respond to, and recover from future infectious disease threats,” Acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak said last year. What is needed is balance, he explained in a February 2021 statement announcing the review by the NASB board. “Such research can be inherently high risk given the possibility of biosafety lapses or deliberate misuse,” Tabak said. “However, not doing this type of research could impair our ability to prepare for and/or respond to future consequential biological threats.”

As the New York Times noted, the White House will soon decide whether to adopt the new recommendations for how gain of function should be handled. Biden, as Kirby told RCP, believes that kind of research can be done prudently.

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How Politically Divided Are Social Media Networks?

Social media has the reputation of being a battlefield of political ideology, with the political left and right in constant conflict on networks like Twitter or Facebook.

But do people further on the left or on the right really prefer social media more than centrists?

And does political affiliation have an influence on someone’s preferred social media network?

As Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, some answers to these questions can be gleaned from the Statista Consumer Insights survey when cross-referencing preference for the use of social media with participants' self-reported political orientation.

According to the results, there are no major gaps in preference for most social media platforms among Americans, but there are some interesting differences.

Infographic: How Politically Divided Are Social Media Networks? | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

Facebook is the platform where centrists feel most at home. The group tends to stay away more from other social media than those who see themselves as more distinctly on the right or on the left politically. While Facebook is somewhat underused by those on the left, if only by a small margin, TikTok and Instagram are the networks with the most equal left-right distribution.

On Twitter, partisanism is the most pronounced, with somewhat more use by those on the right.

Linkedin also shows slightly more use from this group, while the opposite is true on another less used network, Reddit. The results of this survey suggest that political stance has only very limited influence on social media use. There are differences, but they are only by a few percentage points and should therefore not be interpreted too strongly.

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Pennsylvania Chick-fil-A Bans Diners 16 And Under Without Adult Supervision

As an increasingly disturbing trend of outright chaos spreads through U.S. cities, with leftist politicians unable to grasp the elementary concept that crime should not be encouraged, one Chick-fil-A in Pennsylvania is starting to enforce their own rules to maintain order.

In a trend we are sure will likely spread, a Montgomery County, PA Chick-fil-A is now banning people under the age of 16 from dining on its premises without adult supervision. The decision came after a sequence of "unacceptable behaviors", according to CBS News.

The company announced its decision on Facebook last week, stating: "We contemplated long and hard before posting this, but decided it was time. Often on Saturdays and days when schools are off, we have school-age children visiting the restaurant without their parents. Usually, these children and teens are dropped off for several hours at a local bounce park and groups of them then walk over to our restaurant."

It continued: "While we love being a community restaurant and serving guests of all ages, some issues need to be addressed." The restaurant said of the children and teens that they are "loud, and their conversation often contains a lot of explicit language. We are a family friendly restaurant where this is not tolerated."

They also said that "Food and trash are often thrown around and left on the tables, chairs, and on the floor. Tables and restrooms are vandalized. Decorations are stolen."

The restaurant also stood up to protect its employees, stating that they are "laughed at, made fun of and treated rudely. Employees are cursed at and ignored when they ask the children and teens to either change their behavior or leave."

The restaurant concluded:

As you can imagine, this is not a pleasant experience. We want to provide a comfortable and safe environment for our guests and our staff, and also to protect our building. Therefore, we cannot allow this to continue. As a result, to dine in our restaurant, anyone under the age of 16 is required to be accompanied by an adult. If not accompanied by an adult, they may come in to purchase food, but must take it to go.

To those unaccompanied children and teens that have visited us and acted appropriately, we thank you. But we also apologize. Due to the numerous extreme behaviors of many of your peers, we must make a blanket rule covering anyone under the age of 16.

One father said: "It makes sense. When kids get together, it's the herd mentality and I've seen it. I like the way they've handled it, saying it's not parents' fault, just kids getting together. I think they're just loud. Common sense is not common, so they don't know to keep down the tone of their language and the volume. I'm sure my kids are the same way."

Customer Gary Walens told CBS: "If the kids are getting unruly and going into places like this, the owners have to do something. These are businesses that are trying to make a profit and if the kids are coming in and causing havoc in this restaurant and not allowing normal business, I don't think that's a good thing."

While law abiding patrons and the owners/franchisees of the restaurant likely see this as a common sense solution to a growing problem across the nation, we're sure it's only a matter of time before some ACLU lawyer files a discrimination suit on behalf of unaccompanied children under the age of 16 as a class. Heck, maybe the carrot on a string of a possible settlement will actually get the parents involved in their childrens' lives for a while and bring them closer.

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A Partisan Judge's Parting Rampage

Authored by Julie Kelly via American Greatness,

Defense lawyers call it “January 6 jurisprudence”—a unique set of rules and laws that only apply to those ensnared in the Justice Department’s unstoppable push to punish individuals who do not believe Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president of the United States. So far, nearly 1,000 Americans have been arrested and charged, mostly on low-level misdemeanors, for their involvement in the Capitol protest as the regime circles its ultimate prize: Donald Trump.

The fundamental “crime” that acts as the basis of January 6 jurisprudence is not necessarily the four-hour disturbance that temporarily delayed the certification process that day. No, the real crime—to hear regime apparatchiks, the media (but I repeat myself), and Democratic Party politicians (including Biden himself) tell it—is promoting the “Big Lie,” the notion that the 2020 presidential election was rigged or stolen.

Efforts to uncover election irregularities or lawfully object to the outcome are under criminal investigation resulting in the unprecedented weaponization of legal and judicial authority conducted by unaccountable prosecutors and judges.

Enabling this farce in the nation’s capital is Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the D.C. District Court. A former Democratic staffer on Capitol Hill, Howell was appointed to the bench by Barack Obama in 2010 and elevated to chief judge in 2016. Since then, Howell has steered the government’s yearslong effort to put Trump in handcuffs. She managed the grand jury proceedings for Special Counsel Robert Mueller and is currently overseeing the Justice Department’s latest iteration of its “Get Trump” campaign—a sweeping investigation into alleged attempts to “overturn” the 2020 election.

Her latest broadside is aimed at Representative Scott Perry (R-Pa.). FBI agents, acting at the direction of the rogue Washington Field Office, stole Perry’s cell phone on August 9, 2022, the day after the same office executed an armed raid at Mar-a-Lago. Perry was traveling with his family in New Jersey at the time when agents seized his phone, copied its contents, and returned the device. 

Perry’s lawyers immediately attempted to keep the contents of the phone out of the hands of a leak-happy Justice Department, citing privacy and privilege factors, including the Constitution’s speech and debate clause, which basically protects the legislative branch from retaliatory actions by the executive branch. When Perry initially refused to waive that protection at the request of the Justice Department, the government successfully sought a second warrant a few days later to review what investigators collected from the phone.

And that’s when Judge Howell stepped in.

“After a determination that there was probable cause to believe that evidence of criminal activity would be found on the targeted cell phone, the government’s search warrant was approved,” Howell wrote in one motion filed in the mostly sealed case.

The second search warrant was reportedly approved by Howell on August 18.

Since then, Howell has wielded her power to prove herself right. A grand jury under her purview is “investigating potential federal criminal law violations stemming from efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election,” Howell wrote. According to the government, Howell noted, Perry used his phone “to communicate with individuals allegedly engaged in those efforts over critical time periods at issue in the investigation.”

That’s just a sliver of the crazy talk in Howell’s 51-page motion rejecting most of Perry’s arguments about why roughly 2,200 emails and texts qualify for protection under the speech and debate clause. Perry’s motions remain under seal, but his privilege claims appear to be centered around Congress’ obligations to administer the Electoral Count Act.

Following a private review in October of the records that Perry sought to protect, Howell determined only a handful met the clause’s standards. The remaining 2,055 records, including correspondence and materials exchanged between other House members and Executive Branch officials, were fair game, Howell concluded.

“In the broadest possible terms, Rep. Perry believes the Clause shields all these responsive records from investigative review because they are part of his informal fact-finding efforts to understand election security issues in the 2020 election since the ECA process obligated Rep. Perry to vote on whether to confirm the electors and certify the 2020 election,” Howell wrote in December. “What is plain is that the Clause does not shield Rep. Perry’s random musings with private individuals touting an expertise in cybersecurity or political discussions with attorneys from a presidential campaign, or with state legislators concerning hearings before them about possible local election fraud.”

On that point, Howell unintentionally tipped the government’s hand. Why would the Justice Department need those communications for a criminal investigation? It’s not illegal to have any of those discussions, even for the imaginary crime of attempting to overturn an election. Clearly, prosecutors want Perry’s texts and emails to leak to regime media cut-outs in an effort to embarrass him, its modus operandi since January 6.

In one particularly sneering line, Howell mocked Perry’s “wide-ranging interest in bolstering his belief that the results of the 2020 election were somehow incorrect—even in the face of his own reelection.” (Howell routinely condemns January 6 defendants in her courtroom for believing the “Big Lie.” Last April, Howell asked a man pleading guilty to trespassing whether he still believed that Biden did not legitimately win the presidency. He answered no.)

In a follow-up order filed on January 4, Howell raised “the public’s interest in an expedient investigation” as to why she would not halt her demand for Perry to turn over the records in question to the Justice Department. She gave Perry two days to file an appeal with the D.C. Circuit Court.

And the very next day, the appellate court issued an emergency order to put Howell’s ruling on hold.

A three-judge appellate court panel heard arguments in the case last week. According to Politico, at least two judges were skeptical of Howell’s—and the Justice Department’s —thinking. “‘Why wouldn’t an individual member’s fact-finding be covered?’ Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, asked a Justice Department lawyer.

It could be a few months before the appellate court issues a ruling. In the meantime, investigators don’t have access to Perry’s cell phone records. (Or at least that is how it’s supposed to be.)

By then, the D.C. District court will have a new chief judge; Howell’s stint ends soon. Which is one reason the Justice Department is accelerating the pace of its investigation, including subpoenaing former Vice President Mike Pence a few weeks ago. 

“The frenzy of subpoenas comes as Judge Beryl Howell’s seven-year term as chief judge of the D.C. district court enters its last month,” the Wall Street Journal recently observed. “In that post, she has presided over all grand-jury matters in Washington and repeatedly ruled for the Justice Department in closed-door disputes with Mr. Trump over executive privilege.”

Prosecutors undoubtedly will miss Howell’s machinations on behalf of the government. As her rulings in Perry’s case once again show, Howell is a shameless partisan willing to twist the law, and the U.S. Constitution, to advance her own political agenda. She is the queen of January 6 jurisprudence.

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WTI Limps Lower After API Reports 10th Straight Weekly Crude Build

Oil prices ended the day to the upside with WTI topping $77 intraday (but ended Feb with its 4th straight monthly loss).

"Oil prices have fallen for the month due to an extremely warm winter in the U.S. and Europe," Jay Hatfield, chief executive officer at Infrastructure Capital Management, told MarketWatch.

"In addition, recent mixed data on inflation and associated hawkish [Federal Reserve] commentary have been a headwind for oil as the dollar strengthened and stock prices came off of highs."

Overhanging the market is uncertainty around the global economic outlook as the Federal Reserve and other major central banks continue to push interest rates higher in a bid to rein in inflation, and the signs from week-after-week of inventory increases remains an ominous one.

API

  • Crude +6.203mm (+350k exp)

  • Cushing +483k

  • Gasoline -1.774mm (-300k exp)

  • Distillates -341k (-700k exp)

If API's data is confirmed tomorrow, this will be the 10th straight weekly build in crude inventories and 9th straight build in stocks at Cushing. Products, on the other hand, did see a drawdown...

Source: Bloomberg

Crude has struggled to find direction in February, trading within the smallest monthly range since July 2021, hovering just below $77 ahead of the API print and limped slightly lower on the report...

Still, crude has been stuck in a trading range since December, with WTI trading between a bottom near $70 and highs just above $80 a barrel.

Notably, the last few weeks have seen one of the fastest builds in crude inventories in history...

Not exactly a bullish/no-landing signals.

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Dear Despots & Tyrants, Generative AI Could Be The Authoritarian Breakthrough In Brainwashing You've Been Waiting For

Via Climateer Investing blog,

Have you ever found yourself sitting at home in the Palace thinking: "If only there was an easier way to get people to do my bidding?"

Well now there is, take your nudge game up a notch with the new "They'll think it's free will" starter pack...

From The Hill, February 27:

Generative AI is poised to be the free world’s next great gift to authoritarians. The viral launch of ChatGPT — a system with eerily human-like capabilities in composing essays, poetry and computer code — has awakened the world’s dictators to the transformative power of generative AI to create unique, compelling content at scale.

But the fierce debate that has ensued among Western industry leaders on the risks of releasing advanced generative AI tools has largely missed where their effects are likely to be most pernicious: within autocracies. AI companies and the U.S. government alike must institute stricter norms for the development of tools like ChatGPT in full view of their game-changing potential for the world’s authoritarians — before it is too late.

So far, concerns around generative AI and autocrats have mostly focused on how these systems can turbocharge Chinese and Russian propaganda efforts in the United States. ChatGPT has already demonstrated generative AI’s ability to automate Chinese and Russian foreign disinformation with the push of a button. When combined with advancements in targeted advertising and other new precision propaganda techniques, generative AI portends a revolution in the speed, scale and credibility of autocratic influence operations.

But however daunting Chinese and Russian foreign disinformation efforts look in a post-GPT world, open societies receive only a small fraction of the propaganda that Beijing and Moscow blast into their own populations. And whereas democratic powers maintain robust communities of technologists dedicated to combating online manipulation, autocrats can use the full power of their states to optimize their propaganda’s influence.

In 2019, China’s Xi Jinping demanded just that when he ordered his party-state to leverage AI to “comprehensively increase” the ability of the Chinese Communist Party to mold Chinese public opinion. Russia’s Vladimir Putin has similarly doubled down on AI-enabled propaganda in the wake of his Ukraine invasion, including a fake video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calling for Ukrainians to surrender. These efforts are buttressed by a dizzying array of Chinese and Russian agencies tasked with thought control, cultivating a competitive ecosystem of digital propaganda tools underwritten by multibillion-dollar budgets each year.

China and Russia are, in other words, fertile ground for generative AI to usher in a historic breakthrough in brainwashing — a recipe for more international catastrophes, greater human rights abuses, and further entrenched despotism.

As China refines and exports its techno-authoritarianism, would-be tyrants the world over are likely to cash in on the propaganda revolution.

...

Companies instead need to treat generative AI development with the caution and security measures appropriate for a technology with immense potential to fuel despotism, and refrain from open-sourcing technical specifics of their cutting-edge models.

...

The U.S. and allies should also invest aggressively into counter-propaganda capabilities that can mitigate the coming waves of generative AI propaganda — both at home and within autocracies.

Luckily, companies in the United States and allied nations have largely led the advance of generative AI capabilities...

Read more here...

Batteries sold separately. 

And why is it "lucky" that the U.S. has led the development?

[ZH: The message is clear - we Americans have nothing to fear from generative AI misuse... apart from by Russia and China... and if you believe that, we have a bridge we'd like to sell you.]

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Republicans React To Energy Department’s Reported Finding That COVID 'Likely' Leaked From Wuhan Lab

Authored by Gary Bai via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Republican lawmakers responded to a news report saying that the U.S. Energy Department had concluded the lab leak theory was “likely,” saying that the finding supports what many have long suspected.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) speaks during a Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight on Capitol Hill in Washington on Aug. 3, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

A Wall Street Journal article on Feb. 26 reported that a classified intelligence report by the Energy Department said that the virus likely leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

So the government caught up to what Real America knew all along,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote in a Twitter post on Sunday.

The responses came as GOP lawmakers ramp up investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and allegations of government-big tech censorship of the debate.

The Energy Department was previously undecided on the issue but now joins the FBI in corroborating the lab leak hypothesis, according to the report. Several people who have read the report said the Department’s judgment was made with “low confidence,” the Journal reported.

Responding to the report on Sunday, White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN that the intelligence community does not have a “definitive answer” on the matter at this point.

Republican lawmakers have been vocal about the theory that the virus leaked from the Wuhan laboratory soon after the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Initially, some health professionals and legacy media outlets dismissed the theory, labeling the theory’s proponents as racist and conspiracy theorists.

Fauci

Some lawmakers also accused Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), of colluding with big tech companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, and censoring stories about the lab leak theory via what these companies describe as a crackdown on “misinformation.”\

Fauci knew this immediately but dismissed it because of funding for the Wuhan lab,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) wrote in another post. “We know what happened next — when Fauci spoke Big Tech censored. I exposed this collusion as AG and I’ll work to ensure this type of censorship never happens again.”

“Americans knew this from Day One,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “Unfortunately, Big Tech and Big Government silenced them.”

Republicans and critics of Fauci have raised concerns about the NIAID’s funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology via the non-governmental organization EcoHealth Alliance, including for research described by experts as gain-of-function. The NIAID issued about 3.4 million in grants to EcoHealth.

Gain-of-function research makes the virus more deadly by enhancing its pathogenicity, its ability to cause disease and harm the host, or transmissibility, how easily it spreads.

The NIH has denied that the grants were for gain-of-function research, while Fauci has defended the decision to issue the grants to EcoHealth.

More evidence continues to mount that COVID came from the Wuhan lab. We’ve uncovered emails showing Dr. Fauci was warned that the virus looked man-made & came from a lab, but he may have acted to cover it up. Why? We need answers & accountability,” wrote the official Twitter account of the House Oversight Republican Committee.

Read more here...

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Lithium Industry Reeling After China Shutters 10% Of Global Supply

That's a nice little EV industry you got over there in the US, it's be a shame if suddenly it found itself without the most important commodity.

That's one way to interpret what just happened in China; another - a less cynical - is the way Bloomberg described it, namely that China’s lithium industry itself is reeling as its top production hub -  responsible for around a 10th of the world’s supply -  faces sweeping closures amid a government probe of environmental infringements.

The crackdown in Yichun, Jiangxi province, also known as the country's "Lithium capital" follows a local lithium frenzy over the past year as miners raced to feed rampant demand for the battery material — and to benefit from record global prices. Now, they’re grappling with a close-up inspection by environment officials sent from Beijing.

A lithium battery high-tech industrial park is seen in Hongshe, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province on August 29, 2022. The park hosts 35 companies in the industry and 49 projects, making it the largest such production base in Sichuan and Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality.

According to Yicai newspaper, ore-processing operations in Yichun have been ordered to stop as investigators probe alleged violations at lithium mines. That, Bloomberg notes, threatens somewhere between 8% and 13% of global supply, according to various analyst estimates, although it’s unclear for how long the immediate shutdowns will last.

The sudden probe injects a big dose of uncertainty into a lithium market that has seen  prices drop, bringing some relief to EV manufacturers, as more global output emerges. Jiangxi province was expected to be a big source of extra supply, from a lithium-bearing mineral known as lepidolite.

“This supervision may mean that the inspection and control over lepidolite mining in China will be more stringent in the future,” said Susan Zou, analyst at Rystad Energy. Companies with operations in Yichun include major battery manufacturers Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. and Gotion High-Tech Co., whose shares both fell more than 1% on Monday.

Due to the ongoing probe, all lepidolite mining in Yichun aside from those by a state-owned company have been suspended, but refineries are still operational, Daiwa analysts Dennis Ip and Leo Ho said.

Global lithium prices soared to a record high last year as demand from China’s booming electric-vehicle industry outstripped production. And, as so often happens in commodities, where the cure to high prices is more supply, leading to lower prices, this high-profit, high-demand environment has encouraged miners to skirt regulations.

Some companies had already been targeted for infringements, including incidents of pollution, over the past year. This is a much wider crackdown, and involves officials from central government departments including the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Yucai added that Beijing will mainly look at violations at lithium mines and seek to guide the “healthy development” of the industry; they will largely target those mining without permits or with expired licenses.

Curiously, a recent Goldman report found that the Chinese car industry’s demand for lithium has fallen by more than half in recent months, a dramatic reversal that will drive a further slump in the market. Meanwhile, Chinese prices have dropped more than 30% from last year’s peak.

According to calculations form Citic Securities analyst Bai Junfei, a month-long mining halt in Yichun would reduce lithium output by an amount equivalent to around 13% of the world’s total. Rystad Energy, a consultancy, estimated the amount at 8%.

“At present, the market speculation is that the probe may stop after the two sessions in China next month,” Rystad’s Zou said, referring to the annual parliamentary meetings due early March.

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EPA Orders Temporary Halt To Shipping Of Ohio Toxic Train Crash Contaminated Waste

Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Amid objections from Michigan authorities who said they weren’t aware that hazardous materials were headed into their state, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered a temporary pause on shipments of contaminated waste from the site of Norfolk Southern Railway’s Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

“Everyone wants this contamination gone from the community,” EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore said. “They don’t want the worry, and they don’t want the smell, and we owe it to the people of East Palestine to move it out of the community as quickly as possible.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (L) and Tristan Brown, deputy administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, crouch down to look at part of a burned train-car at the site of a Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 23, 2023. (Allie Vugrincic/The Vindicator via AP, Pool)

Shore vowed that the removal process will resume “very soon.”

On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern train carrying 151 cars derailed in East Palestine, a village of 4

A black plume rises as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 6, 2023. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)

The National Transportation Safety Board reported that the train had 20 cars with hazardous materials, 11 of which derailed.

To avoid an uncontrolled explosion that officials claimed would send shrapnel into the air, toxic vinyl chloride was intentionally released and burned from five cars on Feb. 6, sending up a massive cloud of black smoke that could be seen for miles around and was likened to a mushroom cloud caused by a nuclear weapon.

The burn triggered questions about the health effects on the residents of East Palestine.

EPA Takes Over Waste Disposal

Norfolk Southern had been responsible for waste disposal until Feb. 24, Shore said. The railroad provided Ohio environmental officials with a list of disposal sites.

Shore said disposal plans, including locations and transportation routes for contaminated waste, will be subject to EPA review and approval.

“EPA will ensure that all waste is disposed of in a safe and lawful manner at EPA-certified facilities to prevent further release of hazardous substances and impacts to communities,” she said.

On Feb. 21, the EPA ordered Norfolk Southern to pay for cleanup costs in East Palestine.

Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess that they created and the trauma that they inflicted on this community,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. “I know this order cannot undo the nightmare that families in this town have been living with, but it will begin to deliver much-needed justice for the pain that Norfolk Southern has caused.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a Feb. 23 statement, “[Under EPA guidance,] Norfolk Southern brought in large dump trucks to move contaminated soil to U.S. Ecology Wayne Disposal, a licensed hazardous waste disposal facility in Michigan. This will be a continuous effort to properly manage and safely dispose of the waste.

“So far, 4,832 cubic yards of soil have been excavated from the ground and more may be removed as cleanup proceeds. When the process begins to dig up the tracks and remove the soil underneath, that soil will be hauled away immediately and taken to a proper disposal facility.”

More than 1.7 million gallons of contaminated liquid have been removed from the derailment site, according to DeWine’s office. Most of the 1.1 million gallons hauled off-site were sent to a Texas-based hazardous waste disposal facility, which has stated that it will no longer accept shipments.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/27/2023 - 17:40
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Elon Musk Regains "World's Richest Man" Spot

Elon Musk has regained his spot as the world's richest man, unseating LVMH's Bernard Arnault who briefly assumed the position this year after Tesla's stock had taken a beating along with Musk's net worth.

Bezos, Gates, and Buffett aren't even close...

Thanks to a 5.5% surge in TSLA stock today, 51-year-old Musk's net worth jumped to $187.1billion...

...while 75-year-old Arnault has seen his net worth drift slightly lower in the last week or so (after LVMH's strong gains early on), back to only $185.3...

Tesla has recovered to a $650bn market cap (up $315 billion in market cap year-to-date)...

Tesla’s gains this year (+92% YTD) have far outpaced the rally in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index, which is up about 10% in 2023, and crushed LVMH's return year-to-date (+14% YTD)...

Musk's fortune peaked at $340 billion on Nov. 4, 2021... so he is probably still feeling somewhat poorer.

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China Blasts US 'Disinformation, Absolute Hypocrisy' On Russia Ties, Vows Retaliation For Sanctions

China has delivered a blistering response to the US pressure campaign regarding Beijing's closer ties with Moscow. In Monday remarks Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, told a press briefing that China is prepared to retaliate if "illegal" sanctions on Chinese companies involved with Russia are not revoked.

She also rejected accusations from Washington that China is mulling sending weapons to Russia, calling the reports part of US "disinformation". Instead, she said "The U.S., however, has been fanning the flame and fueling the fight with more weaponry."

"This is out-and-out hegemonism and double standard, and absolute hypocrisy," Mao said. "The Chinese side will continue to do what is necessary to firmly safeguard the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies. We will take resolute countermeasures in response to the U.S. sanctions."

She reiterated China's position as one which seeks a peaceful solution through negotiations when it comes to the Ukraine conflict. "On the Ukraine issue, China has been actively promoting peace talks and the political settlement of the crisis," she said.

And from there she once again put the blame for escalation back on Washington

"In addition to pouring lethal weapons into the battlefield in Ukraine, the US has been selling sophisticated weapons to the Taiwan region in violation of the three China-US joint communiqués," Mao noted. "What exactly is the US up to? The world deserves to know the answer."

She said that the US is ultimately busy "spreading disinformation that China would supply weapons to Russia and sanctioning Chinese companies under that pretext."

One of the Chinese companies in question, Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute, previously came under sanctions for allegedly supplying the Russian mercenary firm Wagner Group  with satellite imagery of Ukraine.

US under secretary of State for political affairs Victoria Nuland said last week that sanctions were against Chinese companies that US had observed "sneaking up to the edge and trying to provide" weapons to Russia.

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Coinbase Suspends Binance Stablecoin Trading

Authored by Derek Andersen via CoinTelegraph.com,

The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange referred to its "listing standards" in a tweet.

Coinbase will suspend trading for Binance USD stablecoin on March 13, the exchange announced Feb. 27 on Twitter. The message mentioned “listing standards” as it announced its decision. 

The decision will apply to Coinbase.com (simple and advanced), Coinbase Pro, Coinbase Exchange, and Coinbase Prime, according to the tweet thread. The exchange added, "Your BUSD funds will remain accessible to you, and you will continue to have the ability to withdraw your funds at any time."

A Coinbase spokesperson told Cointelegraph:

“Our determination to suspend trading for BUSD is based on our own internal monitoring and review processes. When reviewing BUSD, we determined that it no longer met our listing standards and will be suspended.”

According to the Coinbase website, its digital asset listings group votes on assets to be listed on the exchange, “informed by a rigorous vetting/review process that evaluates assets against legal, compliance, and technical security standards.” In addition, there are additional business assessments and ongoing monitoring to ensure an asset continues to meet standards.

Coinbase's decision comes after The SEC’s enforcement action against BUSD, which, as CoinTelegraph's Prashsant Jha reports, raises questions about whether the regulatory body is focused on the stablecoin market or the crypto exchange Binance.

Binance-branded stablecoin, Binance USD, is a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos Trust Company, and is the third largest stablecoin after Tether’s and Circle’s USD Coin.

Paxos has claimed in the past that BUSD is fully backed by reserves held in either fiat cash or United States Treasury bills. BUSD was reportedly authorized and regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

Paxos partnered with crypto exchange Binance in 2019 and launched the stablecoin, which received approval from the NYDFS. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has stated that the exchange licensed the Binance brand to Paxos, and BUSD is “wholly owned and managed by Paxos.”

However, on Feb. 12, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Wells notice to Paxos — a letter the regulator uses to inform companies of planned enforcement action. The notice alleged that BUSD is an unregistered security. After receiving a Wells notice, the accused is allowed 30 days to respond via a legal brief known as a Wells submission — a chance to argue why charges should not be brought against prospective defendants.

One day later, the NYDFS ordered Paxos to stop minting new BUSD, citing specific unresolved issues around Paxos’ oversight of its relationship with Binance regarding BUSD. Paxos then decided to cut ties with Binance due to regulatory scrutiny, saying they are working with the SEC to resolve the issue constructively.

Binance, on the other hand, hopes the SEC won’t file an enforcement action based on the BUSD saga, telling Cointelegraph:

“The U.S. SEC, hopefully, will not file an enforcement action on this topic. Doing so is not justified by the facts or law. Furthermore, it would undermine the growth and innovation of the U.S. financial technology sector.”

Paxos refused to comment on the issue, citing ongoing talks with the SEC. The company directed Cointelegraph to an internal email with Paxos co-founder Charles Cascarilla reiterating their earlier stance that BUSD is not a security.

The statement from Cascarilla noted that the precedents used to identify securities in the U.S. are known as the Howey test and the Reves test. He stated that BUSD does not meet the criteria to be a security:

“Our stablecoins are always backed by cash and equivalents–dollars and U.S. Treasury bills, but never securities. We are engaged in constructive discussions with the SEC, and we look forward to continuing that dialogue in private. Of course, if necessary, we will defend our position in litigation. We will share more information when we can.”

Tether — issuer of the largest stablecoin by market capitalization — didn’t directly respond to specific questions about stablecoins being classed as securities. However, a spokesperson from the firm told Cointelegraph that “Tether has good relationships with law enforcement globally and is committed to operating securely and transparently in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.”

Are stablecoins the focus or are there bigger fish to fry?

Many crypto community members were baffled by accusations of BUSD being a security, and to see enforcement action against it. This is because BUSD is “stable,” maintaining a 1:1 peg to the U.S. dollar, limiting its usage for speculation.

Just days after the SEC action against BUSD, rumors started circulating about a similar Wells notice being sent to other stablecoin issuers, including Circle and Tether. Circle’s chief strategy officer, Dante Disparte, quashed such rumors and said that the stablecoin issuer had not received such a document.

Speaking to Cointelegraph earlier this month, some legal experts explained how stablecoins might be considered securities. Although stablecoins are supposed to be stable, Aaron Lane, a senior lecturer at RMIT’s Blockchain Innovation Hub, said buyers might benefit from various arbitrage, hedging and staking opportunities.

He further explained that, while the answer isn’t obvious, a case could be made regarding whether the stablecoin was developed to produce money or is a derivative of a security.

Some crypto community members have stated that the issue might not be just about stablecoins as much as it is about Binance, indicating that the SEC didn’t take action against Paxos’ gold-backed stablecoin called Pax Gold (PAXG.)

Carol Goforth, a university professor and the Clayton N. Little professor of Law at the University of Arkansas, told Cointelegraph that the issue might be more about Binance than the stablecoin itself:

“There are unique issues with regard to that particular crypto asset because of its ties to and relationship with Binance. It is possible that some of those unusual features are what the SEC is focusing on, but because part of that is a lack of transparency and accuracy in reported information.”

Goforth added that the price of the stablecoin is designed to be stable, which would appear to be the antithesis of an expectation of profits.

Nonetheless, “I can see a potential argument that stablecoins make fast transactions in other forms of crypto possible and this is, in fact, the biggest use of stablecoins to date, accounting for a disproportionately high trading volume as compared to market capitalization” Goforth said, stating:

“‘Profit’ could be argued to include the extra value obtained from the ability to make such trades, although that seems to be a bit of a stretch. (Expectation of profits is important because it is one of the elements of the Howey investment contract test).”

Just weeks after enforcement action against BUSD, the SEC filed a motion to bar final approval of Binance.US’ $1 billion bid for assets belonging to bankrupt crypto lending firm Voyager Digital. The SEC flagged the potential sale of Voyager Token (VGX), issued by Voyager, which “may constitute the unregistered offer or sale of securities under federal law.“

The series of enforcement actions by the SEC against various aspects of Binance’s business led many to believe that the regulator was going after the exchange rather than the stablecoin industry.

SEC’s jurisdiction under question

Amid the ongoing increase in enforcement actions in the crypto market, the SEC’s jurisdiction has also been questioned, especially regarding stablecoins. In a recent interview, Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of USDC issuer Circle, said that “payment stablecoins” are payment systems, not securities.

Allaire argued that SEC is not the suitable regulator for stablecoins and said, “there is a reason why everywhere in the world, including the U.S., the government is specifically saying payment stablecoins are a payment system and banking regulator activity.”

Coinbase — the first publicly listed crypto exchange on the Nasdaq — is fighting a securities battle of its own related to its staking products. It also questioned the SEC’s decision to get involved with stablecoins and claim they are securities.

2022 was a disastrous year for the crypto industry, seeing most crypto assets lose more than 70% of their valuation from their market highs. Outside the crypto winter, the collapse of crypto lending giants, exchanges and asset funds became a more significant concern. Many then questioned regulators for not ensuring investor security and enforcing regulations. In 2023, the tables have turned, with regulatory agencies coming out in full force against crypto firms. However, their approach and intentions are being questioned now that they have sprung into action.

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"This Kind Of Growth Is Almost Impossible For The Human Brain To Comprehend"

By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

Dark Forest

“Sorry to tell you, but there are no aliens,” said the intelligence analyst.

“The Tic Tac videos, balloons, UFOs - they’re not aliens,” he said. “We’re all alone here, it’s just us.”

For those of us who read Cixin Liu, China’s brilliant Sci-Fi author, the notion that we are alone is extremely comforting. Cixin turned me onto the Dark Forest hypothesis, which postulates that while there may be many alien civilizations out there, we see no sign of them because they are silent and paranoid, lest they alert others to their existence and invite invasion, annihilation. 

“What we see is our next generation military technology,” continued the intelligence analyst.

“We all see what the Ukrainians did to Russia’s military using battlefield technology that we would generally consider obsolete relative to our state of the art,” he said. “But America’s actual state of the art is one or two generations ahead of what the public sees today,” he said, which was simultaneously comforting and terrifying.

“It is not in our interest to show our adversaries how far advanced our capabilities have grown.”

“Look carefully at this chart,” said the technology investor.

It was the kind of curve I’ve seen often, an upward sloping trend that accelerates through time. On the vertical axis was the computing power used to train artificial intelligence systems. The horizontal axis was time, going back to the early 1950s. “I know you’re thinking you’ve seen this kind of chart before, it’s a classic hockey stick. But here’s the thing, it’s a logarithmic chart, it should not curve upward. This kind of growth is almost impossible for the human brain to comprehend.”

ChatGPT has had the steepest adoption of any technology in history. It hit 1mm users in five days. Within 2mths, it crossed 100mm users. It is estimated to have 1bln users by the end of the year. It is a remarkable technology, and while we can have no certainty about how it will change the world, there is no doubt that the arc of its influence is only just starting. Governments will lag far behind in regulating it. We don’t yet know what will happen when it gets connected to the internet. And ChatGPT is 2-3 generations behind state-of-the-art AI.

“Time is the one thing that can’t be stopped. Like a sharp blade, it silently cuts through hard and soft, constantly advancing. Nothing is capable of jolting it even the slightest bit, but it changes everything,” wrote Cixin Liu, in The Dark Forest. “Staying alive is not enough to guarantee survival. Development is the best way to ensure survival,” said Cixin. “Do you know what the greatest expression of regard for a race or civilization is? Annihilation. That’s the highest respect a civilization can receive. They would only feel threatened by a civilization they truly respect.”

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"Climate Change Cult At It Again": Apple Users Frustrated With 'Green Charging'

A silly feature introduced with iOS 16.1 called "Clean Energy Charging" has upset some iPhone users as their devices will only charge when lower carbon-emission electricity on the grid is available. 

Some iPhone users reported when iOS 16.1 was installed -- their devices were automatically selected for Clean Energy Charging. Charging when the grid is 'green' has its disadvantages for the user experience, who might incur slower charge times. 

Twitter is a buzz this morning with frustrated Apple users. Some complained about 'slower iPhone charging' and encouraged others to turn off the setting. 

While Apple is forcefully trying to reduce the carbon footprint of iPhone users to fight climate change, don't bring up the sobering reality about all the carbon emissions it takes to mine lithium and other rare Earth metals for Apple products. Also, don't bring up company execs, such as Tim Cook, who fly on private jets. 

What irks the average person is that corporate elites and governments impose life-altering climate change measures on the working poor while the rules don't apply to the rich. Recall the Biden administration is trying to ban gas stoves

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