Just when the automobile industry thought it was out of the clutches of the Covid-induced supply chain SNAFU that had taken place over the last several years, it looks as though China’s strict Covid policy threatens to pull them back in again. 

“At least three major automakers” are once again shuttering production, according to a new report from Bloomberg this week. Honda has shut down operations in Wuhan for the time being due to “limitations around movement” in the area, the report says.

The company also suspended operations at a lawnmower engine plant in Chongqing.

Yamaha has also been hit by the new Covid lockdowns, partially suspending operations at a motorcycle plant in Chongqing. Bloomberg reports that 8,721 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the area on Monday this week. 

VW also halted production at a joint venture plant that it has with China FAW Group on Monday of this week, the report continues. Volkswagen is attributing the shutdown to a shortage of components. It has also shut down two of five production lines at its factory in Changchun and has no date for resuming operations.

Nissan, Mazda and Mitsubishi told Bloomberg that their operations had not been affected. 

Recall, just last week we published on how China’s Covid restrictions were actually tightening when the country’s market had assumed they were easing. 

We published:

“More than a week after Beijing fine-tuned its Covid Zero strategy, local governments are struggling to balance the need to control the pandemic while also limit the economic damage. Shijiazhuang, a closely-watched city that had experimented with a version of “living with the virus,” has reversed course, suspending schools and asking residents to stay at home for five days. As infections multiplied, subway rides in some big cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing have tumbled.

The result is that Goldman Sachs’s Effective Lockdown Index has increased in recent weeks, despite Beijing’s new order to reduce the need for mass testing and citywide shutdowns.”

Authored by Madalina Vasiliu via The Epoch Times,

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers militia group, was found guilty by a jury on Nov. 29 of seditious conspiracy connected to the events on Jan 6, 2021.

One co-defendant, Kelly Meggs, was also found guilty of seditious conspiracy on Tuesday, while three others—Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell—were acquitted of that charge.

In total, Rhodes was found guilty on three out of five counts: seditious conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, and tampering with documents or proceedings.

Meggs was found guilty on five counts out of six: seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, and tampering with documents.

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, center, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, on June 25, 2017. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo)

The other three defendants were each found guilty on multiple lesser charges.

In closing arguments, defense attorneys said the government failed to prove that the Oath Keepers planned to attack the Capitol or to interfere with the certification of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021.

A defense lawyer said that none of the 50 witnesses in the Oath Keepers trial testified that they heard any of the defendants discuss or plan to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

However, in the final rebuttal, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler said that according to the jury instructions (pdf), the government did not have to prove that the defendants had a detailed plan to breach the Capitol and meet in person to discuss their alleged scheme. An implicit agreement and mutual understanding were enough to prove the defendants’ conspiracy, he said.

Sharon and Thomas Caldwell at the Peace Monument during the January 6, 2021 protest in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy of Sharon Caldwell)

Nestler told the jury that the three defendants who decided to take the witness stand to testify in their defense (Stewart Rhodes, Thomas Caldwell, and Jessica Watkins) allegedly lied.

“But it’s important to ask not just whether they lied. Ask yourself, why? Because the truth is so damning,” Nestler emphasized.

The government told the 14 jurors that the defendants deleted evidence that could prove even further their plan to breach the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

A sign outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington on Sept. 29, 2022. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

James Bright, the attorney for Rhodes, asked the jury how the Oath Keepers could conspire as early as November 2020 to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, if the Jan. 6 rally wasn’t announced until late December 2020.

Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers organization in 2009 to assist in natural disaster situations, Bright said, to volunteer to provide security for small businesses that could not afford security services from a regular company and to offer personal security details for VIPs.

Several members of the Oath Keepers testified during the weeks-long trial, saying that the organization gave them a sense of purpose since most members were retired veterans who found meaning in continuing to serve the country.

During nearly two months of trial, the U.S. prosecutors presented exhibits showing contact between the five defendants on trial and others who allegedly plotted to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Most of the government’s evidence came from the FBI agents assigned to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. Text messages, video footage, Signal messages (an encrypted messaging app), and Zello audio recordings (a walkie-talkie app) were frequently shown in the courtroom, among other exhibits.

In his closing argument, defense counsel Bradford Geyer walked the jury through a video where he pointed out that unknown provocateurs broke through the Capitol doors first.

“Please send Ken home,” Geyer told the jury.

Another defense attorney, David Fischer, explained an unsent message that Thomas Caldwell, an Oath Keeper affiliate, deleted containing a link. That shouldn’t be considered evidence, the attorney said, since a link is not a document. That link was a video available to everyone, Fischer continued.

The prosecution distorted timeframes throughout its presentation of when the defendants walked up the stairs and entered the building, argued Jonathan Crisp, Jessica Watkins’ attorney. He also said that the government’s evidence was mostly out of context. Crisp explained that the stack formation was a way to get through the dense crowd and not for attacking the Capitol.

Only defendants Jessica Watkins, Kelly Meggs, and Kenneth Harrelson entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Rhodes and Caldwell did not.

In the aftermath of Jan. 6, the U.S. government charged Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell with seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, conspiracy to prevent an officer from carrying out any duties, destruction of government property, civil disorder, and tampering with documents.

Before passing the trial to the jury on Nov. 21 evening, Judge Amit Mehta, an appointee of Barack Obama, reminded the jurors that the trial was against the five defendants on trial and not against the Oath Keepers’ organization.

Edward Tarpley, attorney for Rhodes said, “The judge treated us with respect.”

“There was no evidence ever introduced that there was a plan,” Tarpley told The Epoch Times, “I am grateful for the jury for not finding them guilty on all counts.”

“Jessica testified well, however, the government will seek multiple enhancements,” Jonathan Crisp, attorney for Jessica Watkins, told The Epoch Times.

Seditious Conspiracy

The most recent charge of seditious conspiracy was in 2010 when the government accused nine members of the Hutaree Militia from Michigan of “levy war against the United States.” An FBI agent who infiltrated the militia group provided most of the prosecution evidence.

When the defendants’ trial began two years later, in 2012, U.S. district judge Victoria Roberts dismissed the conspiracy charges. The judge explained that the government’s evidence mainly consisted of the defendants’ controversial speech protected by the First Amendment and did not prove the group’s alleged plan to overthrow the government.

The U.S. government pressed multiple charges, including attempted murder and seditious conspiracy, against five members of the Puerto Rican Nationalists who attacked the Capitol in 1954. The group opened fire on the House of Representatives and injured five Congress members.

Another seditious conspiracy charge was pressed in 1995 against Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine of his followers. They were found guilty of planning to bomb bridges, tunnels, and other landmarks in New York City.

In 2006, Adam Gadahn was the first American charged with treason since World War II. He “gave al Qaeda aid and comfort … with intent to betray the United States.”

Read more here…

The United States is considering transferring new longer-range rockets to Ukraine which are capable of striking targets 100 miles away, despite the Biden White House previously shutting the door on the possibility, citing worries that long-range systems could strike inside Russian territory, potentially bringing Moscow and Washington into direct confrontation. 

But those legitimate worries over stumbling into WW3 are apparently quickly going by the wayside, as Reuters reports this week that Boeing is getting involved by proposing its Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) for the Ukrainians, which could be delivered as early as spring 2023.

Time is indeed of the essence from NATO’s point of view, given rapidly depleting stockpiles in the militaries of the West, which the Pentagon has also of late expressed alarm over. 

The GLSDB is seen as versatile and capable of being quickly delivered to the battlefield given it combines small-diameter bombs with a key rocket technology said to be widely available among Pentagon inventories – the M26 rocket motor.

Boeing says it can easily manufacture many of these small precision-guided bombs cable of fitting into a variety of common rocket systems. Neither Boeing nor the Pentagon have yet to officially confirm, but Reuters details:

Although the United States has rebuffed requests for the 185-mile (297km) range ATACMS missile, the GLSDB’s 94-mile (150km) range would allow Ukraine to hit valuable military targets that have been out of reach and help it continue pressing its counterattacks by disrupting Russian rear areas.

GLSDB is made jointly by SAAB AB and Boeing Co and has been in development since 2019, well before the invasion, which Russia calls a “special operation”. In October, SAAB chief executive Micael Johansson said of the GLSDB: “We are imminently shortly expecting contracts on that.”

Crucially, the main appeal and priority is beginning to rest on availability… “According to the document – a Boeing proposal to U.S. European Command (EUCOM), which is overseeing weapons headed to Ukraine – the main components of the GLSDB would come from current U.S. stores,” Reuters writes.

“The M26 rocket motor is relatively abundant, and the GBU-39 costs about $40,000 each, making the completed GLSDB inexpensive and its main components readily available,” the report adds. “Although arms manufacturers are struggling with demand, those factors make it possible to yield weapons by early 2023, albeit at a low rate of production.”

Given that some US generals and officials have forecast that the Ukraine conflict could take years before the fighting ceases, and given already arms availability is becoming a major determinant for what gets sent, the massive Western weapons pipeline to Kiev could be growing thinner by the month. 

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republicans this week said that Apple’s alleged threat to remove Twitter from its App Store warrants congressional investigation.

“That would be a huge, huge mistake, and it would be a really raw exercise of monopolistic power that I think would merit a response from the United States Congress,” DeSantis told an audience in Duval County, Florida, on Tuesday.

The “old regime” at Twitter attempted to “suffocate the dissent” in regards to COVID-19 reporting, DeSantis said, adding that Apple is acting as a “vassal of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]” while using “corporate power in the United States … to suffocate Americans.”

The governor appeared to have been referring to reports that Apple blocked some features of its popular AirDrop service for only Chinese users prior to widespread protests against the regime’s “zero COVID” policies.

Top story: @FLVoiceNews: ‘WATCH: Ron DeSantis says Apple removing @elonmusk‘s Twitter from app store warrants Congressional response

“That would be a huge, huge mistake, and it would be a really raw exercise of monopol… pic.twitter.com/vmJ2ACglGb, see more https://t.co/whhQ7jVrUh

— NewsNosh (@NewsNosh) November 29, 2022

The Florida governor was referring to a claim from new Twitter owner Elon Musk’s posts on Monday that Apple, considered the world’s most valuable company, threatened to remove the Twitter app from its App Store. Apple has not yet issued a public comment on the matter, and The Epoch Times has contacted the firm for comment.

“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” Musk asked on Twitter.

“Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store,” he posted, “but won’t tell us why.” The tech billionaire also directly asked CEO Tim Cook: “What’s going on?”

Outside of DeSantis, other Republicans said that Apple and Google have too much control over the internet via their respective app-downloading stores. Removing Twitter from both would mean that the social media app would be heavily limited in its growth and usage.

Parler, a social media platform favored by conservatives, was removed from the App Store, Google Play, and Amazon Web Services days after the Jan. 6 Capitol incident. For more than a month, the website was not accessible, and data shows that its usage significantly dropped during that time period and has never recovered.

“This is why we need to end the App Store duopoly before the end of this year. No one should have this kind of market power,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo) wrote.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who co-sponsored a Senate measure targeting app stores, added that “Apple and Google currently have a stranglehold on companies and have used their leverage to bully businesses.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at a gaming convention in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 13, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

In the first quarter of 2022, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter, spending $48 million and accounting for more than 4 percent of total revenue for the period, the Washington Post reported, citing an internal Twitter document.

Cook, Apple’s CEO, has not yet weighed in on Musk’s comments. When asked about possibly removing Twitter from the App Store in an interview on Nov. 15, he replied: “They say that they are going to continue to moderate and so … I count on them to do that.”

Read more here…

Saudi Arabia has unveiled plans for a massive new airport in Riyadh as part of the kingdom’s ambition to diversify its economy so its fortunes aren’t solely determined by the price of oil.  

In announcing the plan, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) said the airport would be named after his 86-year-old father, King Salman. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund — the Public Investment Fund — will own the airport.

The move is part of a previously-announced Saudi intention to invest $1 trillion to transform the head-chopping kingdom into a tourist destination.  

The airport is slated to have six parallel runways on a 22-square-mile expanse, subsuming the existing King Khaled airport. The initial goal is to accommodate upwards of 120 million travelers by the end of this decade.  

It’s not all about tourism. Today, just a half-million tons of airfreight transit the kingdom each year. By 2030, MBS wants to see that skyrocket to 4.5 million tons.    

King Salman International Airport will challenge current airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Doha, Qatar. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is also launching a new national airline, RIA, to compete with the likes of Emirates and Qatar Airways. In discussions with Boeing and Airbus, RIA is slated to take its first flight by the end of this year. 

The Public Investment Fund posted a slick video with renderings of the future “aerotropolis”: 

Introducing King Salman International Airport.

An aerotropolis centered around seamless passenger journeys, world-class efficient operations, and innovation.#KSIA#PIF pic.twitter.com/yNXbAizzFH

— Public Investment Fund (@PIF_en) November 28, 2022

“The airport project is in line with Saudi Arabia’s vision to transform Riyadh to be among the top ten city economies in the world and to support the growth of Riyadh’s population to 15–20 million people by 2030,” Saudi state news agency SPA said. The development is projected to create more than 100,000 jobs.

The lofty goals for the air hub are positively humble when compared to the country’s planned building of Neom, a giant, modern mega-city in the northwest part of Saudi Arabia. Believe it or not, it’s supposed to center on two parallel skyscrapers that will be 110 miles long, 500 meters tall and house 9 million people. 

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Nina Jankowicz, who briefly served as the Biden administration’s “disinformation czar,” has registered as a foreign agent of a nonprofit organization based in the United Kingdom.

According to registration documents received by the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) unit, Jankowicz filed for her foreign agent status this month (pdf). The name of the foreign principal is listed as the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) from the United Kingdom. The nonprofit is founded and directed by Adam Rutland, a UK citizen, and Ross Burley, a dual UK–U.S. national.

The entity is financed by a “foreign government, foreign political party, or other foreign principal,” the documents show. It receives grants from the UK government, including the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development offices.

According to its website, CIR “is an independent, non-profit social enterprise dedicated to countering disinformation, exposing human rights abuses, and combating online behavior harmful to women and minorities.”

What it really is, as it readily admits, is a social media influence operation.

It’s literally for influence operations lmao pic.twitter.com/8dtThxB7j5

— O (@O08678458) November 30, 2022

At CIR, Jankowicz is tasked with supervising research, executing business strategy, overseeing the establishment of CIR’s research, communicating with the media, and briefing individuals and officials on the organization’s research, according to her registration documents.

She will work with CIR employees from the UK via online communication platforms in order to “further the goals” of the organization.

Jankowicz also documented that in the 60 days prior to the obligation to register for the foreign principal, she received money for promoting the interests of the organization. She cited two payments in excess of $12,000 each made in October and November with the purpose stated as “remuneration for services rendered.”

Jankowicz was selected to lead the Disinformation Governance Board under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in April 2022. At the time, the Biden administration had portrayed Jankowicz as an expert in online disinformation.

Her appointment instantly drew criticism, with reports showing that Jankowicz had made posts on Twitter trying to whitewash the Hunter Biden scandal as disinformation.

She also made posts in support of the discredited “Steele dossier” that was used to smear former President Donald Trump by insisting he had ties with the Russian government.

Despite economic uncertainty, pension funds saw relatively strong growth in 2021, and as Visual Capitalist’s Jenna Ross details below, the world’s 100 biggest pension funds are worth over $17 trillion in total, an increase of 8.5% over the previous year.

This graphic uses data from the Thinking Ahead Institute to rank the world’s biggest pension funds, and where they are located.

What is a Pension Fund?

A pension fund is a fund that is designed to provide retirement income. This ranking covers four different types:

• Sovereign funds: Funds controlled directly by the state. This ranking only includes sovereign funds that are established by national authorities.

• Public sector funds: Funds that cover public sector workers, such as government employees and teachers, in provincial or state sponsored plans.

• Private independent funds: Funds controlled by private sector organizations that are authorized to manage pension plans from different employers.

• Corporate funds: Funds that cover workers in company sponsored pension plans.

Among the largest funds, public sector funds are the most common.

The Largest Pension Funds, Ranked

Here are the top 10 pension funds, organized from largest to smallest.

U.S. fund data are as of Sep. 30, 2021, and non-U.S. fund data are as of Dec. 31, 2021. There are some exceptions as noted in the graphic footnotes.

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is the largest in the ranking for the 21st year in a row. For a time, the fund was the largest holder of domestic stocks in Japan, though the Bank of Japan has since taken that title. Given its enormous size, investors closely follow the GPIF’s actions. For instance, the fund made headlines for deciding to start investing in startups, because the move could entice other pensions to make similar investments.

America is home to 47 funds on the list, including the largest public sector fund: the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), overseen by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board. Because of its large financial influence, both political parties have been accused of using it as a political tool. Democrats have pushed to divest assets in fossil fuel companies, while Republicans have proposed blocking investment in Chinese-owned companies.

Russia’s National Wealth Fund comes in at number 19 on the list. The fund is designed to support the public pension system and help balance the budget as needed. With Russia’s economy facing difficulties amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the government has also used it as a rainy day fund. For instance, Russia has set aside $23 billion from the fund to replace foreign aircraft with domestic models, because Western sanctions have made it difficult to source replacement parts for foreign planes.

The Future of Pension Funds

The biggest pension funds can have a large influence in the market because of their size. Of course, they are also responsible for providing retirement income to millions of people. Pension funds face a variety of challenges in order to reach their goals:

• Geopolitical conflict creates volatility and uncertainty

• High inflation and low interest rates (relative to long-term averages) limit return potential

• Aging populations mean more withdrawals and less fund contributions

Some pension funds are turning to alternative assets, such as private equity, in pursuit of more diversification and higher returns. Of course, these investments can also carry more risk.

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, number 18 on the list, invested $95 million in the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The plan made the investment through its venture growth platform, to “gain small-scale exposure to an emerging area in the financial technology sector.”

In this case, the investment’s failure is expected to have a minimal impact given it only made up 0.05% of the plan’s net assets. However, it does highlight the challenges pension funds face to generate sufficient returns in a variety of macroeconomic environments.

Authored by Kelly Song via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Protests demanding an end to COVID lockdowns broke out in the center of Shanghai on Sunday, following outrage over an apartment building fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang, that killed 10 people on Thursday.

Those who perished in the fire were trapped in their apartments under strict zero-COVID lockdown measures.

After the news of the fire spread via social media, hundreds of angry Shanghai residents gathered at central Wulumuqi Road, which is named after Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region.

The Epoch Times spoke with one of the protesters, who used the pseudonym Zhengyi Dong, who took to the streets with her boyfriend on Sunday.

At Wulumuqi Road, Dong said she saw some protesters holding blank pieces of paper, some got into scuffles with police, some were beaten, and some were taken into police buses.

Dong described the scene as “shocking.”

“I was very moved. The people have been suppressed for too long. It was not fear. I felt that my blood was boiling,” she said.

Dong said there were at least 100 police at the location, and they had blocked off the road and taken down the road sign.

Videos online show protesters  chanting slogans such as “Down with the Chinese Communist Party” and “Remove Xi Jinping from office.”

Before Dong left the scene at around 8 pm, she saw at least three protesters arrested. Other protesters were shouting, “release them, release them,” but to no avail, she said.

There were other reports of protesters being arrested, with some being beaten, with one witness stating that he saw one female protestor being beaten by a dozen police, reported RFI.

Other protesters estimated several dozen people were arrested. The exact number of arrests cannot be confirmed.

BBC reported that one of its reporters was arrested when interviewing protesters. The reporter was released several hours later.

Dong’s parents live in Xinjiang, and her grandmother died during the pandemic.

She said she used to trust the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and thought that China would improve and that the police were there to protect society.

After she saw the protest scene, she said she was shocked, “the people’s police were actually taking down the road signs and beating the people!”

“This cannot solve the problem but exacerbate the issue. We will go to protest again,” Dong said.

Someone posted on social media a picture of the street sign Wulumuqi Road being taken down by police. Some suggested changing the road name to “Zero-COVID Road.”

Dong said that she is not easily swayed, adding that the protest had a legitimate reason—concern over the deadly fire in Urumqi.

“I don’t know about other people, but no one told me to go there; I went there out of my own will,” Dong said.

“When we heard the news, we were outraged. At the time, nothing but the fire was discussed on WeChat, Tik Tok, or other platforms. But these platforms keep deleting the posts.”

She said, “I have had three accounts on WeChat banned.”

Dong said she felt that her blood was boiling at the protest—there was no fear but only astonishment.

“I felt that I was witnessing history in the making. I had goosebumps,” she said.

Read more here…

The prominent Canadian fashion and home decor retailer Simons is coming under fire for glorifying suicide as a marketing ploy. 

The company recently produced and released a three-minute film which celebrates the planned assisted suicide of Jennyfer Hatch. More recently, after the project was completed, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation confirmed that “The 37-year-old died on Oct. 23 and chose medical assistance in dying (MAID) after dealing with complications and chronic pain associated with her diagnosis of Ehlers Danlos syndrome, a group of inherited disorders that affect the connective tissue supporting many body parts.” A snippet of the fuller ad can be viewed below…

Canadian retailer Simons promotes assisted suicide in new ad campaign: pic.twitter.com/WUJbJ5kflr

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 27, 2022

And now she’s the subject of the short film and ad campaign “All is Beauty” – which the company claims is all about building a “human connection” and reflects its “values” (so… death/suicide). “Even now as I seek help to end my life, there is so much beauty,” Hatch narrates in the video for the Canadian clothes retailer.

CEO Peter Simons went so far as to reference lessons learned and the hardships of the Covid-19 pandemic as inspiration for the commercial/short film: 

“We really felt — after everything we’ve been through in the last two years and everyone’s been through — maybe it would resonate more to do a project that’s less commercially oriented and more focused on inspiration and values that we hold dear,” said Simons.

However, given the subject matter and eerie scenes like the below, it seems like something more out of a Black Mirror episode…

Consider too how loose the Canadian government’s “medical assistance in dying” (MAID) law is and how actively it is being promoted. A simple Google search of “Canada euthanasia law” returns info encouraging users to learn about their “rights” – which includes the following dystopian and disturbing aspect to the law… 

“…the law no longer requires a person’s natural death to be reasonably foreseeable to access medical assistance in dying.” 

But again, keep in mind that the “All is Beauty” ad film is ultimately all about a ‘woke’ corporation selling more of its product. As Rod Dreher of The American Conservative aptly points out: 

This is so evil. They are making a sick woman’s decision to end her life into an occasion of beauty, and created a short film glorifying suicide … for the sake of selling fashion and home decor! And that’s the truly creepy part about it: that they’re using a glamorized suicide to encourage people to think sympathetically of their brand, so they’ll buy clothes and furnishings there. (Note: an ad like this doesn’t have to directly market the product; a Japanese luxury car brand in the early 2000s, I think it was, pioneered this kind of advertising, designed to associate a certain aesthetic vibe around a product or company.)

See the full 3-minute version of the Simons short film below:

Dreher further concludes in the following: “First Balenciaga, which its child sex chic, and now Simons, selling frocks and trousers by selling suicide. This is beyond Late Roman Empire stuff. A culture that glorifies death like this has lost its collective will to live. And it won’t.”

And one commenter on Simons’ YouTube channel laments that “This woman was murdered and betrayed by every single person she knew who did not try to stop this. And now her death has been commodified and commercialized.”

Flip-flopping headlines from OPEC+ leaks and China COVID restrictions prompted a volatile day in crude markets today but WTI ended higher.

OPEC+ does “not like contango and that is what has raised market expectations of deeper cuts,” Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at consultant Energy Aspects, said in a Bloomberg TV interview.

“I’m not ruling out deeper cuts — that’s of course on the table — but I would say that’s not our base case.”

Earlier in the session, prices rallied above $79 a barrel after Beijing said it would bolster vaccination among seniors then prices briefly flirted with losses after Reuters reported that the production cartel would stick with its current oil-output policy

API

• Crude -7.85mm (-2.49mm exp) – biggest draw since April 2022

• Cushing -150k

• Gasoline +2.85mm

• Distillates +4.01mm

This is the 3rd sizable crude draw in a row…and the 3rd straight week of sizable product builds…

Source: Bloomberg

WTI was hovering around $78.50 ahead of the API print and extended gains after…

Notably, the shape of the futures curve has flipped in recent weeks, continuing to signal an oversupplied market.

Source: Bloomberg

That is the largest contango since 2020.