The owner and operator of the cargo ship that caused a Baltimore bridge collapse has agreed to pay nearly $102 million to settle a civil lawsuit with the Department of Justice, the DOJ announced Thursday.

The Dali collided with one of the columns of the Francis Scott Key bridge in March, after the ship suffered mechanical issues, which caused the bridge to collapse and kill six workers. 

The incident forced Baltimore to close its port and federal channel for months, which slowed commercial shipping traffic that flowed through Maryland’s largest city.

As The Epoch Times’ Caden Pearson reports, the DOJ announced the settlement with Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, the owners and operators of the Motor Vessel Dali, on Oct. 24.

The deal resolves a portion of the legal dispute that began in September when the DOJ sued the companies for damages linked to the federal government’s response to the incident.

The $101.9 million settlement will cover the federal government’s costs for cleaning up the wreckage and reopening the port. However, it does not address the cost of rebuilding the bridge itself, which the state of Maryland is pursuing in a separate claim.

“Thanks to the hard work of the Justice Department attorneys since day one of this disaster, we were able to secure this early settlement of our claim, just over one month into litigation,” Benjamin Mizer, principal deputy associate attorney general, said in a statement.

“This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy and not the American taxpayer.”

In a separate move, Grace Ocean has already paid nearly $100,000 to the Coast Guard to address the oil spill threat caused by the wreck.

“This is a tremendous outcome that fully compensates the United States for the costs it incurred in responding to this disaster and holds the owner and operator of the Dali accountable,” said Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general at the DOJ.

The disaster occurred on March 26 when the Motor Vessel Dali lost power while departing the Port of Baltimore for Sri Lanka.

After regaining and then losing power again, the ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse into the water below.

The collapse halted shipping traffic in and out of the port for weeks and severed a critical highway connection.

Federal, state, and local agencies worked together to clear over 50,000 tons of debris from the water. Shipping resumed by June after temporary channels were created to ease the jam.

The $100 million settlement does seem a little shy of the estimates of the costs involved in rebuilding the bridge.

As Shailen Bhatt, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, confirmed to lawmakers in May, a preliminary estimate to replace the bridge at $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion. It will take four years to construct, with completion estimated to come sometime in 2028, he said.

So while they may claim the “American taxpayer” is off the hook,  we suspect that is another lie (because the optics would be bad).

Authored by Austin Alonzo via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

While Congress stagnates, America’s state houses are drafting and passing policies affecting millions. Now, more than ever, those legislative bodies operate without input from an opposition party or dissenting governor.

As of Oct. 21, there are 23 Republican trifectas, 17 Democratic trifectas, and 10 divided governments where neither party holds trifecta control, according to Ballotpedia. A trifecta means one party holds the state governorship and a majority in the state house and senate.

Heading into November’s general election, legislative supermajorities exist in 57 of the 99 legislative chambers in the union, according to data compiled by state and local government consultancy Stateside.

Republicans hold 41 of those veto-proof advantages, while Democrats own 20. All told, there is a partisan supermajority in at least one house of the Legislature in 35 of the 50 states.

However, in 14 of those states, the supermajority is held by an advantage of three seats or less. Michael Behm, Stateside’s co-CEO and principal, told The Epoch Times that organizations aligned with the Democratic and Republican parties are spending heavily on down-ballot races that could make or break a supermajority in the coming legislative term.

Even though voter interest is low in statehouse races compared with high-profile campaigns for national offices, Behm and others who spoke with The Epoch Times said the stakes are high. Most of the legislative actions that affect the public, such as policy on abortions, education, energy, health care, taxes, and transportation, come from decisions made in statehouses.

“With the federal government being so polarized and hamstrung these days, the action is at the state level,” Behm said.

Supermajorities

The definition of a supermajority varies from state to state. Generally, attaining a supermajority means a state legislative body has enough members from one party to pass laws without any votes from the minority party and enough votes to override the governor’s vetoes.

Heading into the 2024 general election, Republicans hold a supermajority in both houses of the state Legislature in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Additionally, Republicans hold a supermajority in one chamber of the Legislature in Iowa, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

Democrats own a supermajority in both houses of the state Legislature in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island. Democrats have a supermajority in one chamber of the state Legislatures of Colorado, Connecticut, and Nevada.

Behm said that’s the largest number of supermajorities he has ever observed in state legislatures. Ideologically, the domination of the legislatures by a single party reflects intense political polarization in these states, he said.

Chris Cooper, director of the Haire Institute for Public Policy at Western Carolina University, said a supermajority effectively limits the governor’s power to carry out policy priorities in a state with a divided government.

Four governors—Kansas’s Laura Kelly, Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, North Carolina’s Roy Cooper, and Vermont’s Phil Scott—preside over divided state governments in which the opposition party holds a legislative supermajority.

The four governors’ legislatures stripped them of much of their policymaking potency. In June, Scott, a Republican, told members of the news media, “I think the power has gotten to their head,” referring to the Democrat-controlled Vermont General Assembly’s overriding of six of his vetoes in a single override session.

In North Carolina, a supermajority almost wholly nullifies the will of a governor who already commands limited influence under the state’s constitution, Chris Cooper said.

With their supermajority, Republicans passed new abortion restrictions, drafted new election laws, and further throttled back Gov. Roy Cooper’s power during the most recent legislative session.

“They have taken away appointment power from the North Carolina governor,” Chris Cooper said. “They have made a number of changes that make the already powerful state Legislature into something even more powerful.”

National Efforts

Behm said the rise of legislative supermajorities can be attributed to growing involvement from national partisan groups known as 527 organizations. These are tax-exempt entities that can receive and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence federal, state, and local politics and elections.

Three decades ago, statehouse races were usually local contests directed and financed by city and state chambers of commerce, unions, and other parochial political organizations, Behm said. Now, national groups such as the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) and Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) invest vast national resources into the state’s legislative caucuses.

Behm said both party committees use professionals to recruit candidates and organize the partisan campaigns designed to build majorities in statehouses.

“These 527 groups have turned state legislative races into national races,” Behm said.

Chris Cooper said Republicans began to take over the statehouses in 2010 when the Republican Party introduced an initiative known as Project REDMAP. The plan called for investing huge sums into state legislative races that were previously overlooked in Washington and flipping chambers to the GOP.

“They did as advertised,” he said. “They turned maps red.”

Read the rest here…

Lebanon has accused Israel of committing a war crime after a group of journalists in south Lebanon came under attack by Israeli warplanes. Three journalists were killed during an air raid on a hotel or guesthouse in Hasbaya, about 50km south of Beirut and near the Syrian border.

BBC is reporting that “The attack was carried out on a guesthouse in a compound in Hasbaya being used by more than a dozen journalists from at least seven media organizations – with a courtyard containing cars clearly marked with ‘press’.

The three slain journalists worked for regional broadcasters Al-Manar TV and Al Mayadeen TV, which confirmed the deaths in statements, identifying the deceased as Ghassan Najjar, Mohammad Reda, and Wissam Qassem.

While Israel did not offer immediate comment, it might rationalize or seek to justify the killings given that Al-Manar is a Hezbollah-run news network, and Al Mayadeen is seen as pro-Iran.

But Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary charged that this was an intentional assassination of journalists.

“The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists’ nighttime break to betray them in their sleep… This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists there representing seven media institutions. This is a war crime,” Makary wrote on X.

Other reporters, including from MTV Lebanon were present during the attack but escaped unscathed. “All official parties were told that this house was being used as a stay-house for journalists. We coordinated with them all,” an Al-Jadeed journalist described during a subsequent live broadcast from the location.

And an MTV Lebanon reporter, Youmna Fawwaz, detailed the following:

She said ceilings had fallen in on them, and they were surrounded by rubble and dust, with the sound of fighter jets overhead.

Each news organization had their own building in the compound, she said, and the building housing the Al Mayadeen reporters was “obliterated” while Al-Manar employees were inside.

Images from the bombed-out scene indeed show cars with large English markings indicating ‘Press’…

Fawwaz further accused Israel of conducting assassinations in order to prevent the Lebanese correspondents from covering the fighting in the south. “The airstrike was carried out on purpose. Everyone knew we were there. All the cars were labelled as press and TV. There wasn’t even a warning given to us,” she said.

Since the start of the conflict after Oct.7, 2023 – dozens of journalists have died – mostly in Gaza. Israel has particularly cracked down on Al Jazeera, expelling the Qatar-based network from Israel and the West Bank.

Authored by David Harsanyi via PJMedia.com,

Vote. Don’t vote. I don’t care. Just stop telling me that Vice President Kamala Harris is going to save democracy.

Do I wish Republicans had nominated a more coherent, principled, competent candidate for the presidency? Of course. But if anyone is under the impression Democrats tapped such a person, I have news. Spend some time trying to decipher Harris’ swirling, platitude-ridden, incoherent rhetoric and you will only be further convinced that we live in an idiocracy.

Sure, there are many reasons why a movement conservative might feel uncomfortable voting for former President Donald Trump. I get it. I’m not a fan. But there are plenty of completely rational reasons to vote for him, as well. First and foremost, the existence of the contemporary Democratic Party.

Liz Cheney, and other Never Trumpers, tell me that the former president poses a uniquely dangerous threat to the Constitution, and thus, I must set aside any policy disagreements with Democrats and put country over politics.

No doubt, this kind of self-glorification feels great, but it doesn’t really comport with reality.

For one thing, most of the Left’s scariest warnings about Trump are fiction. I don’t believe The Atlantic when it tells me that Trump is a would-be Hitler. I’m sorry, I don’t believe he’s going to throw all his political enemies in concentration camps. Save the story for the next Mueller investigation.

Considering recent history, in fact, it’s clear to me that the Left is far more adept and willing to weaponize the state to punish their enemies. And I’m not just talking about the unprecedented lawfare launched at Trump. I’m talking about debarring lawyers. I’m talking about raiding the homes of pro-life activists. I’m talking about the spying on Catholic churches and the Justice Department’s chilling speech by smearing parents who stood up to authoritarian school boards as terrorists.

Moreover, even if Trump acted on his worst instincts, the damage would likely be confined to his own presidency. Trump is about Trump. Harris and Democrats, though, have openly embraced a string of consequential, long-term attacks on the constitutional order. Ones that we can never come back from.

Sorry, I don’t accept that a woman who once complained to CNN’s Jake Tapper that “millions and millions of people” were speaking “without any level of oversight or regulation, and that has to stop” is going to be my champion of the Constitution.

Harris’ running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently argued that there is “no guarantee” for free speech when it came to “misinformation” or “hate speech,” “especially around our democracy.” If this were a properly functioning republic, Walz would be thrown to the curb.

No honest person could possibly believe Democrats are better for free expression.

Let’s not forget either that Harris once promised to bypass Congress and sign an executive order seizing rifles from millions of law-abiding Americans. Though Democrats like to pretend otherwise, the Second Amendment is still part of the Constitution.

Indeed, Harris is in no position to lecture anyone about any governing norms.

She frequently praises Biden for ignoring courts and “forgiving” student loans by forcing taxpayers to foot the bill. She supports trashing the legislative filibuster, empowering slim majorities to destroy any semblance of federalism. Harris has backed bills that would have overturned thousands of state laws, allowing national Democrats to strip state election security measures, make abortion legal until crowning, compel local religious hospitals to perform gender transition surgeries, shut down religious foster care organizations, and many other outrages.

None of this is to even speak of her efforts to destroy the Supreme Court. Harris, who gleefully took part in the vile smearing of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, supports packing the court — the most serious attack on the judicial branch since President Franklin Roosevelt’s effort in the 1930s. Senate Democrats say it is “virtually certain” they will pass a “Supreme Court reform” bill that, among other assaults on the judicial branch, will empower legislators to strip individual justices of their power.

This is all just blatantly authoritarian stuff. 

Right now — in part, because of Trump — the court is the only institution in the United States that properly functions. There is no telling what kind of arsonist Harris and Democrats would install.

At the very least, I know Trump has a track record of not only nominating decent jurists but sticking with them under massive pressure.

It is odd, indeed, that Democrats, who support price controls, state mandates and a slew of other economic intrusions that force corporations to bend to their will, are constantly warning us about the specter of “fascism.”

We have no clue if the Trump presidency plays out. Trumpism is whatever Trump says it is whenever he feels like it. It might well be a disaster. But Harris offers me nothing.

Authored by Sundance via The Conservative Treehouse,

Many people might think that Attorney General Ken Paxton filing a letter of notice for criminal referral to the U.S Dept of Justice is an act of futility, because the DOJ is not going to investigate or indict criminal conduct by leftist political operatives.  However, there is a strategic process to follow, particularly if the Texas AG is likely to become the next U.S. Attorney General.

In a way this step-by-step proactive approach is exactly why my efforts to intercept fraudulent ballot printing operations in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania were targeted to the Postmasters General in specific locales.  It is unlawful to use the U.S.P.S. to conduct fraud through the postal system.  Additionally, it is specifically illegal for a postmaster to be provided with direct evidence of mail fraud, and to knowingly – with intent, allow further unlawful activity therein.

Texas AG Ken Paxton is following a procedural process that builds a legal pathway.

[SOURCE pdf]

TEXAS – Attorney General Ken Paxton made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) detailing the results of an investigation that revealed how suspicious actors seemingly use ActBlue’s political fundraising platform to make illegal straw donations.

The investigation into ActBlue began in December 2023 following allegations that the company could be facilitating illegal campaign contributions. As a result, in August 2024 ActBlue began requiring donors using credit cards to provide “CVV” codes, a common security measure. That does not prevent all the abuses that Attorney General Paxton’s team has identified on ActBlue, including that straw donations apparently are being made on a large scale using false identities, through untraceable payment methods.

On Monday, Attorney General Paxton sent a petition for rulemaking to the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) urging changes that would close loopholes that can be exploited to illegally funnel money into American elections. When the FEC previously considered adopting rules that could prevent straw donation schemes like those uncovered by the investigation, ActBlue opposed such changes.

“I have made a criminal referral to the U.S. Department of Justice based on the findings from our investigation into ActBlue. My investigation uncovered evidence showing that bad actors are likely using ActBlue’s platform to make illegal campaign contributions,” said Attorney General Paxton. “It is illegal to engage in election fraud and it is illegal to obscure one’s identity to flout election rules. The Department of Justice must take immediate action to prevent illegal conduct in our elections.” (link)

Reminder….. With the Legislative Branch compromised by their own creation, and with the Judicial Branch stuck inside an old paradigm of “national security” you can see how confronting the DOJ operation can only come from one place, THE OVAL OFFICE.

The President of the United States, hopefully Donald J Trump, is going to have to do what the other branches have failed to do, take apart the DOJ and change all the functions of Main Justice to their pre-Patriot Act status.  This is not going to be easy and will take a very specific type of person as U.S. Attorney General who both understands the issue and can, more importantly, articulate the problem to the larger American public.

• The President Trump Attorney General needs to be ultra clean with a spine of steel and a laser focus.  The AG needs to totally understand the goals and objectives, without being told what the goals and objectives are.  The AG needs to be independent, stable, strategic, brutally honest and keenly confident in his/her communication style with the attack media.

President Trump cannot spend exhaustive time instructing the AG on critical priorities.  The AG needs to operate with skill, focus and self-motivated energy.   The AG will be the focus of the Lawfare crew for removal/recusal. (Weissmann, McCord, Eisen, etc.)

• The Deputy AG needs to be intensely capable to stay on task with minimal supervision.  The DAG is the git-r’-done person, no excuses, no apologies, no explanations.  Raw, brutal, cold, quiet and determined.  The DAG needs eyes of a mouse and ears of an elephant.  The DAG needs to be a sponge, with total loyalty to the mission.  The DAG also needs to be the bridge to the FBI.

A few days after Goldman’s Thomas Evans advised clients to “keep pressing shorts” on natural gas through December, the NatGas futures market in New York exploded Thursday, spiking up to 10%. Another Goldman analyst wrote on Friday morning that the magnitude of this surge signals “short CTA/positioning unwinds.” The price surge may have been sparked by a new cold weather forecast for the Lower 48 and or reports of multiple outages stretching from Norway to the US, heightening concerns about a market tightening ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter. 

On Thursday, NatGas futures spiked as much as 10%. From the low of about $2.25 per million British thermal to start the week, prices have surged 15% to as high as $2.57. Prices are still locked in a multi-year lateral base, with $3 marking a critical level to watch for a potential breakout.

Goldman’s Tallulah Adams told clients that yesterday’s rally in NatGas futures was due to the “possibility of a less than warm November inviting a positioning unwind into a vacuum.” 

Here’s more from Adams’ note:

For the past few weeks, weather runs have consistently rolled warm and October 2024 HDDs will likely end the month the 3rd lowest in the past 50 years.  As a result, the whole curve came off in the first 2 weeks of October, led by an almost 70c selloff in X24.

While the front-end of the curve had started to find bids this week, it was likely the Euro Ensemble run on Wednesday afternoon that ignited this move yesterday.  Until that weather run, most signs pointed to November weather being more of the same as October. X24 was up 18c, Z24 up 11c, and Cal25 up ~7c.

The scale of the move is suggestive of short CTA/positioning unwinds – it’s hard to say that the weather runs from Wednesday alone justify this kind of move. Yesterday was also the first day of limits, so it’s possible unwinding shorts ahead of 2:30 to stay under might have contributed, but we wouldn’t expect the impact of that to be large.

As one would expect, vol and call skew throughout the winter rallied on the flat price move, though the bid for vol really started picking up on the back of large x24 put buying on Monday:

Risk/Reward at this point is a bit tough.  With X now closer to 250, rather than 230, it’s harder to make the argument that producers won’t give more production next month and your ability to meet heating demand in the back half of winter is low and therefore you should own price.  Furthermore, after yesterday’s +80 EIA number (surprise to upside), we conceivably could end the season with ~3.95 TCF in storage and a warm Nov could make it very hard for cash to perform.  On the other hand, as far as we can tell CTAs were max short into this week and it’s unclear what stage we are in of the unwind.

The best risk-reward to us looks like short vol at the moment.  Z24 breakevens are seasonally high, and the burden to outrealize them at this point is quite high.  That being said, it’s early in winter and winter vols can rally substantially off of not much news (this week for example).  It’s probably a positive expected value trade, but we’re sympathetic to wanting to wait until you get a better look at your November weather maps or for X24 to roll off the board.

Building on this note, multiple reports of gas outages from Norway to the US threatened to tighten the market further ahead of the winter heating season. 

Bloomberg Intelligence’s Vincent Piazza and Even Lee commented on US outages and shrinking surplus: 

The US natural gas storage surplus continues to shrink, despite a bearish addition of 80 billion cubic feet (bcf) in the week ended Oct. 18, higher than our view and consensus. Daily production continued its downward trend during the week to below 101 bcf on Oct. 24, which may not be sustained in the near term. Feedgas demand — hurt by reduced flows at Cameron LNG and Sabine Pass — dropped to 12 bcf, while pipeline exports to Mexico were softer too. Weather is offering a slightly more bullish tilt for power generation, residential and commercial consumption as well. Yet weakness early in the week ending Oct. 25 may mute the recent constructive tack.

The $3 level is on watch…

Winter is coming:

• NatGas Bulls Rejoice: Colder Winter Lower 48 Forecasts May “Place Upward Pressure” On Prices

• “Wet Winter Whirlwind”: Farmers’ Almanac Releases New Winter Forecast For US

Brr.

Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times,

Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys argued in a new filing on Oct. 24 that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s superseding indictment should be dismissed since his appointment was unconstitutional.

“Everything that Smith did since Attorney General [Merrick] Garland’s appointment, as President Trump continued his leading campaign against President Biden and then Vice President Harris, was unlawful and unconstitutional,” Trump’s attorneys said in a filing to D.C. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing his election interference case.

“That includes Smith’s separate violation of the Appropriations Clause by relying on an appropriation that does not apply in order to take more than $20 million from taxpayers,” the filing added.

The filing was a motion requesting that Chutkan allow Trump to submit another motion to dismiss based on the legality of Smith’s appointment. Trump is seeking not only dismissal of the superseding indictment but also an injunction preventing Smith from “spending additional public funds” while violating the Constitution.

It’s the latest attempt by Trump to obtain rulings that would severely weaken or end Smith’s prosecution, which restarted after months of delay as the Supreme Court weighed Trump’s appeal on presidential immunity.

Trump is seeking to dismiss the case based on the Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents have some immunity, as well as based on its decision from June in Fischer v. United States, which narrowed Smith’s application of an obstruction statute used against Jan. 6 defendants.

Trump’s latest filing echoes arguments from Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, who dismissed Smith’s classified documents case against Trump in the state. Both Trump and Cannon also cited Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whose concurring opinion in the immunity decision raised doubts about the legitimacy of Smith’s appointment.

That case is headed towards the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit where Smith is seeking an appeal of Cannon’s decision. If the 11th Circuit and Chutkan return differing opinions on this issue, it could prompt the type of circuit split that reaches the Supreme Court.

Chutkan has already indicated that she would reject the type of arguments that Cannon used in dismissing the classified documents case. During a status conference on Sept. 5, she said that she didn’t find Cannon’s opinion “particularly persuasive.”

Cannon’s ruling conflicted with a 2019 judgment by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which upheld former special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment. That 2019 decision wasn’t binding for Chutkan, Trump’s attorneys argued, because it was decided before the Supreme Court issued multiple decisions attempting to rein in agency power through a principle called the “major questions doctrine.”

That doctrine, which the Supreme Court applied in its decision striking down President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness, holds that laws should not be interpreted as allowing agencies to decide major questions unless explicitly stated by the text.

Because Congress didn’t provide a clear statement authorizing the appointment of special counsels like Smith, Trump’s attorneys said, his appointment was illegal.

Smith told the 11th Circuit that Cannon’s decision “needlessly casts doubt on longstanding practices in the Department of Justice and across the Executive Branch.”

He disputed Cannon’s ruling on statutory grounds but also took issue with her interpretation of the Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Nixon. That case centered on former President Richard Nixon’s attempt to resist a subpoena from special prosecutor Leon Jaworski.

In that case, the court’s majority defended the special prosecutor’s appointment.

“Under the authority of Art. II, § 2, Congress has vested in the Attorney General the power to conduct the criminal litigation of the United States Government … It has also vested in him the power to appoint subordinate officers to assist him in the discharge of his duties,” the 1974 majority opinion, authored by Chief Justice Warren Burger, read.

Cannon said in July that the court’s wording was dictum, or nonbinding, on future court decisions. Trump’s attorneys agreed.

So much for Robinhood having a monopoly on overnight trading…

The New York Stock Exchange said in a press release today that it plans on extending weekday trading on its NYSE ARCA Equities Exchange to 22 hours a day. 

“NYSE Group’s NYSE Arca is a fully electronic exchange that ranks as the top U.S. exchange for listing and trading exchange-traded funds,” the release notes. “All U.S.-listed stocks, ETFs and closed-end funds would be available for trading on NYSE Arca during the 22-hour weekday sessions.”

“The extended trading would take place from 1:30 am to 11:30 pm Eastern Time on all weekdays, excluding holidays, subject to regulatory approval,” the release says, noting that the NYSE will “also seek support for extended trading from the U.S. securities information processors”.

Kevin Tyrrell, Head of Markets, New York Stock Exchange, said in the release: “The NYSE’s initiative to extend U.S. equity trading to 22 hours a day, 5 days a week underscores the strength of our U.S. capital markets and growing demand for our listed securities around the world.”

He continued:  “As the steward of the U.S. capital markets, the NYSE is pleased to lead the way in enabling exchange-based trading for our U.S.-listed companies and funds to investors in time zones across the globe.”

“Trades taking place on NYSE Arca during these additional extended hours will continue to be cleared by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, which recently announced plans to extend its hours of operation,” the release concludes. 

As Bloomberg noted this morning, the New York Stock Exchange reignited the 24/7 trading debate in April by polling industry participants. NYSE President Lynn Martin told Bloomberg TV that “there are a lot of things to consider, mainly on the infrastructure side”, when considering implementing the extension. 

Via HeadlineUSA.com,

The editorial editor for the Los Angeles Times quit in protest after the newspaper’s owner blocked a decision to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent,” Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review.

“In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”

Garza’s resignation followed the news this week that Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire doctor who purchased the Los Angeles Times in 2018 for $500 million, shot down the Times editorial board’s attempt to endorse Harris.

Mariel Garza / IMAGE: Los Angeles Times Events via YouTube

This will be the first election cycle since 2004 in which the Times has not endorsed a candidate.

In a social media post, Soon-Shiong explained he offered the editorial board the chance to “draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation.”

“With this clear and non-partisan information side-by-side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being President for the next four years,” he wrote.

“Instead of adopting this path as suggested, the Editorial Board chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision.”

So many comments about the @latimes Editorial Board not providing a Presidential endorsement this year. Let me clarify how this decision came about.

The Editorial Board was provided the opportunity to draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH…

— Dr. Pat Soon-Shiong (@DrPatSoonShiong) October 23, 2024

Garza alleged Soon-Shiong’s decision not to endorse Harris amounted to greater political interference than if he had just allowed the editorial board to throw its support behind her.

“This is a point in time where you speak your conscience no matter what,” Garza told CJR.

“And an endorsement was the logical next step after a series of editorials we’ve been writing about how dangerous Trump is to democracy, about his unfitness to be president, about his threats to jail his enemies.”

The non-endorsement of Harris is a blow to the Democrat, who began her political career in California, where the paper is based.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a late night interview on the last day (Thurs.) of the BRICS summit hosted in Kazan, and in it he presented Russia as open to compromise in order to achieve peace with Ukraine. He was asked how he envisioned the conflict ending during the interview, the contents of which were released Friday. “Any outcome should be favorable to Russia, and I say that directly,” he said according to translation by state media.

“Russia has never refused to engage with Ukraine on various initiatives but will not compromise its interests in any negotiations,” Putin emphasized. “Moscow does not rule out compromises on its part as long as they are rational,” the Russian leader was further quoted in RT as saying.

That’s when he revealed some new information regarding efforts to jump-start talks:

Ukraine has approached Russia twice with proposals through Turkish mediation but subsequently walked back its initiatives. “When we agreed, it turned out that the Ukrainian side had already withdrawn. This happened twice,” he revealed.

He explained this episode further as follows:

“We agreed to it, and the next day [Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky] publicly announced that he will not negotiate anything,” the president said. “This is irrational behavior, which is hard to predict. No plans can be based on this foundation. So there is no sense in discussing whether we would reach an agreement and what it would be,” Putin explained.

He also warned that Russia “must conduct its special military operation with full commitment and dismiss any notions of the enemy’s fatigue.”

Putin tried to bat down the accusations of Western officials and media reports which portray him as intentionally isolating Moscow from any dialogue. He said he has “never shunned contacts” on the diplomatic front.

“When we hear… that I avoid talking to some European leaders, let me tell you: that is a lie,” he stressed. “We did not reject and are not rejecting anything. If somebody wants to renew relations with us, they are welcome. We reiterated that, but we do not impose ourselves.”

He once again emphasized the possibility of ending the Ukraine war but in a way that results in both sides making reasonable compromises. But he has many times vowed to never give up the four annexed territories in the east, and certainly not Crimea either.

Earlier this week Zelensky floated his own plan of initial compromise which could be the basis of talks. He told journalists in Kiev that both sides should mutually agree on halting all aerial attacks on energy targets and cargo ships, and that this could pave the way for negotiations to end the war.

putin will make no compromises. Any negotiation should be in favour of Russia.

“Any outcome should be in favour of Russia, I’m speaking frankly, without any hesitation. And it should be based on the realities on the battlefield. And, without any doubt, we are not going to make… pic.twitter.com/39DgYXHJCp

— Yasmina (@yasminalombaert) October 25, 2024

The comments were first reported by Financial Times on Tuesday, which quoted the remarks as follows: “when it comes to energy and freedom of navigation, getting a result on these points would be a signal that Russia may be ready to end the war.”

“We saw during the first (peace) summit that there could be a decision on energy security,” Zelensky explained. “In other words—we do not attack their energy infrastructures; they don’t attack ours. Could this lead to the end of the war’s hot phase? I think so.”

But on the battlefield in the Donbass, Russia clearly has the initiative amid severe manpower problems within Ukraine’s military. Ukraine is also set to endure a very rough winter, given much of its energy infrastructure has been degraded and destroyed.