Authored by ‘Mandiner’ via Remix News,

Organized crime is on the rise in Finland, and there’s a high demand for weapons. Criminal networks have already established weapon smuggling routes between Finland and Poland.

Europol, the European police cooperation organization, is reported to have warned in the summer that armed criminal groups could soon start smuggling weapons from Ukraine to EU member states.

According to Christer Ahlgren, superintendent of the Organized Crime Intelligence Unit of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (Keskusrikospoliisi, KRP), Europol’s prediction has already become a reality in Finland:

“We are seeing signs that these weapons are already in Finland, (…) and we have already seen signs that weapons delivered to Ukraine have been found in Finland,” Ahlgren says.

The Finnish law enforcement official said this mostly means handguns and heavier weapons used by the military, such as machine guns. However, they know from their foreign colleagues that there is also great demand for explosive grenades and military drones, and “in other parts of Europe, we have also found anti-tank missiles from Ukraine.”

There are fears that the Javelin anti-tank missile could also make its way into the hands of Europe’s criminals. The missile was one of the keys to the Ukrainians’ successful defense in the early stages of the war, and the U.S. and Britain have been supplying Ukraine with countless quantities of this easy-to-handle weapon, which is highly effective against tanks. The missile reportedly appeared on the dark web for sale this summer, but there is no documented case of it being used in any attack outside of Ukraine.

Rifles, handguns and other weapons from Ukraine are not only landing in Finland, but have also turned up in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands

The smuggling routes are set

Ahlgren says that “the routes, processes and connections for the illegal smuggling of weapons from Ukraine to Finland are already in place.” The arms are mostly transported via the country’s international ports, which are considerably less protected than airports, and the smugglers are criminal gangs, such as the big international motorcycle gangs. One of them, Bandidos MC Ahlgren, which is also active in Finland, has branches in all major Ukrainian cities.

Yle reported on Sunday that Europol is already expecting criminal gangs to set up arms depots near Ukraine’s borders; it also knows of Ukrainian refugees who have paid for transportation to the border with weapons rather than money.

According to Ahlgren, the amount of weapons in question is much greater than during the Yugoslav war, when gangs in Sweden stockpiled weapons. Now, as a result of illegal migration, “we have clans based on blood ties and ethnicity that are engaged in criminal activity.”

Ahlgren said he believes that while supplying weapons to Ukraine is the right thing to do, it has consequences.

“Ukraine has received a tremendous amount of arms, and that’s a good thing, but we will be dealing with these weapons for decades, and we are paying the price here,” he said. “The decision-makers have forgotten that the war in Ukraine has also increased the workload of the police.”

Moscow says it has firm evidence that Britain’s military assisted with last weekend’s large-scale drone attack on its Black Sea fleet off Crimea.

Russia said it plans to summon the British ambassador “in the near future” in order to present “evidence” the UK was behind the operation, which had threatened to collapse the UN-brokered Ukrainian grain export deal.

While Russia has on Wednesday announced it is re-entering the grain deal after receiving “guarantees” from Ukraine and Turkey, it is still pointing the finger at London for sending “specialists” to help Kiev forces launch Saturday’s drone attack.

Kremlin officials have yet to provide proof, but stated the following on Wednesday:

“The U.K. ambassador will be summoned and will be given the appropriate materials,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, adding the meeting would take place “in the near future.”

“The basic materials will be handed over as evidence to the British side and will also be shown to the general public,” she added. 

Zakharova then said the evidence will be published for the world to see, following a blistering Saturday statement which alleged the Ukrainian army launched the drone attack “under the leadership of British specialists in the city of Ochakiv” in southern Ukraine. 

As for the major drone operation, which likely damaged multiple Russian Navy vessels, The Guardian described based on videos which emerged of some of the attacks:

Russia’s Black Sea flagship vessel, the Admiral Makarov, was damaged and possibly disabled during an audacious Ukrainian drone attack over the weekend on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, according to an examination of video footage.

Open-source investigators said the frigate was one of three Russian ships to have been hit on Saturday. A swarm of drones – some flying in the air, others skimming rapidly along the water – struck Russia’s navy at 4.20 am. Video from one of the sea drones shows the unmanned vehicle weaving between enemy boats.

Ukrainian officials said it was unclear if the Admiral Makarov was badly crippled, or had escaped with light damage. Unconfirmed reports said its hull was breached and radar systems smashed. Social media recorded loud explosions in the southern part of Sevastopol, in an area known as Riflemen’s Bay. A Russian navy school is located nearby.

Very epic footages from today’s attack by drones on the Port in Sevastopol, Crimea
/1 pic.twitter.com/9kDbDBkWPV

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) October 29, 2022

It should be noted that Russia has also of late accused British special operatives of helping to plan the September sabotage attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic. The US has rejected these charges as “false claims on an epic scale.” 

Via Eurasianet,

• Krgyzystan’s graveyard of factories is a chemical time bomb. 

• For more than two decades, 80 tons of dangerous chemicals have sat in disused Kristall. 

• The site is now owned by Computer Power Center LLC, a crypto-mining company registered in Kyrgyzstan 2019.

Even after he retired in 2019, chemical engineer Suidumbek Kalmurzayev remained preoccupied by the fate of his former workplace in Tash-Kumyr, a Kyrgyz city that sits at the gateway to Central Asia’s Fergana Valley and is known locally as “the graveyard of factories.”  

“I used to say to him: ‘What’s it to you? Leave that factory well alone’,” Kalmurzayev’s widow Uububyu Kalmurzayeva told Eurasianet during an interview at her home.  

“He would say that Tash-Kumyr was sitting on an ecological time bomb. He tried until the end to find out where all the money went.”

Kalmurzayev died last year after a brief illness, leaving behind a trove of documents and press cuttings connected to the Soviet-legacy Kristall polysilicon factory where he was the last employee. 

But the time bomb he referred to with regularity is still ticking.

For more than two decades, 80 tons of dangerous chemicals have sat in disused Kristall, which once transformed volatile compounds into materials for semiconductors and was slated to become one of the biggest plants in the world of its type. In the age of microchips and solar panels, its output would have been in high demand.  

Instead, neglected and ignored by the government, residents fear these corrosive chemicals are now slowly leaking out into the local environment, spelling ecological catastrophe for both the city and the wider region, including the populous Fergana Valley below.

Kalmurzayev began working at Kristall as a foreman in 1985 and later became a production manager. 

Over the years he saw the site constantly divided into different sections with different companies in charge as Kyrgyzstan’s political tides shifted, with two presidents felled within five years of each other during the second decade of independence.  

The site is now owned by Computer Power Center LLC, a company registered in Kyrgyzstan 2019.

Its director, Maksat Oskonbayev, confirmed that it now hosts a crypto mining farm, although he claimed that the rigs aren’t currently running.

During a meeting in Tash-Kumyr, Oskonbayev claimed that he is not allowed to access the territory and that the large vats of chemicals are not the company’s responsibility since they are owned by a separate firm called Tash-Kömür Silicon Production CJSC (TSP), from whom Computer Power Center LLC acquired the land and building three years ago. 

“Everybody knows that there is poison in these tankers, residue in the pipes. We raised these questions [with the state property fund] right after we bought the plant. Everyone knows that we won’t get any investors here until the issue is resolved,” said Oskonbayev.

Computer Power Center LLC is Chinese-owned, Oskonbayev said, without providing details.  

The shifting of responsibility for the chemicals has been a pattern at the plant, which has mostly stood idle after being prepped for privatization in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse in the early 1990s.

According to a 2012 report by news website 24.kg assets on the territory were from 2007 onwards controlled by Belize-registered companies linked to then-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s son Maksim Bakiyev and his business partner and former classmate Alexey Eliseev.

These years were the most productive during independence for the factory, which began producing polycrystalline silicon in line with world standards. 

But at 750 kilograms in 2009, annual output was well short of the 165-200 tons that the new investors were setting as their ultimate target. 

The following year brought bloody revolution, nationalization and accusations of mass embezzlement and worse aimed by the new regime at the fugitive Bakiyevs and their associates.

Kristall was declared bankrupt, placed under external administration and kept in standby mode with a skeleton staff. 

Initially unaddressed was the fate of the large tanks of trichlorosilane, a clear liquid that is both flammable and corrosive enough to separate muscle from bone.

In 2011, the government under Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev allocated 6.4 million soms ($152,000 at the time) to deal with the problem. A former colleague of Kalmurzaev’s, a scientist who requested anonymity, showed Eurasianet government documents dated from May 23, 2011, that confirmed the order to dispose of the chemicals.

But the money was never used for its intended purpose.  

“The lifespan of the tanks is only 12 months, but they’ve been standing there for 20 years,” the scientist said.

There are “huge risks” of the rusting tanks exploding during the middle of Tash-Kumyr’s summers, when temperatures regularly rise over 40 degrees Celsius, or in winter, when fierce winds batter the area, the scientist added. 

“If that happens, the air, earth and water will be poisoned. There will be tragic consequences not only for Tash-Kumyr and Jalal-Abad, but for the whole region.”

Tash-Kumyr’s new mayor, Kelsinbek Bektemirov told Eurasianet that local authorities are ready to get involved in the waste disposal effort if funds are forthcoming.

During an interview in his office, both Bektemirov and his deputy cast doubt on the crypto mining firm’s claim that the chemicals in the tanks are still the responsibility of TSP – the Bakiyev-linked company that was nationalized. 

Computer Power Center LLC agreed to take on all assets when they concluded the deal, the officials have said.

Leaks at the site – albeit small ones with no visible effects on the surrounding area – have been reported in the past. 

Back in 2017, Tash-Kumyr’s prosecutor received complaints about a leak at the plant and requested government inspections. In response, the Jalal-Abad region Interdistrict Court ordered the destruction of the chemicals under specialist supervision. But no work has taken place to this day.  

Bishkek-based activist and photographer Vlad Ushakov, one of the co-founders of ecomap.kg, a map of environmental stress around Kyrgyzstan, was able to enter the plant in 2020 and document what he said were signs of the leak and a slapdash attempt to fix it.  

“You can see from photos inside the plant the poor condition of the tanks. You can see where somebody tried to caulk the pipes. If the authorities continue to ignore the problem, Tash-Kumyr will face an ecological catastrophe,” Ushakov said.

The Guardian has obtained documents marked “official sensitive,” which show the government has “war-gamed” emergency plans for power blackouts lasting up to a week. 

Documents are not for public consumption, warn a “reasonable worst-case scenario” power blackout would roil all segments of the economy. Transport, food, water supply, communications, and energy would grind to a halt. 

In such a scenario, the government will provide citizens with food, water, and shelter if power blackouts last more than several days. 

Earlier this week, UK’s Met Office published a three-month outlook for winter. Despite warm weather today, temperatures are expected to be colder than average as the heating season begins shortly:

“The likelihood of a colder three-month period overall is slightly greater than normal,” the forecasts said.

Preparing for the inevitable crisis has already begun. Whitehall officials’ secret plan, dubbed “Programme Yarrow,” has held a number of exercises with government departments and councils across the country in recent weeks to stress test collaboration efforts. 

We first caught wind of increasing power blackout risks across the UK in early October when the British National Grid warned there might not be enough natural gas and electric imports from other parts of Europe later in the cold season. 

“We’re heading into winter in an unprecedented situation. Even during the cold war, the Soviet Union kept the gas flowing so it’s very unpredictable,” said one senior industry source.

The Guardian said government insiders have admitted to planning exercises and preparing for the inevitable as an energy crisis is unavoidable this winter. 

“All governments do contingency planning for worst-case scenarios but the truth is that we are vulnerable as a country as a direct consequence of a decade of failed Conservative energy policy.

“Banning onshore wind, slashing investment in energy efficiency, stalling nuclear and closing gas storage have led to higher bills and reliance on gas imports, leaving us more exposed to the impact of Putin’s use of energy as a geopolitical weapon,” Ed Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, said.

Last month, The Guardian revealed secret scripts prepared for BBC news anchors to read on air if rolling blackouts strike the country. The purpose of the talking points is to calm the public during a “major loss of power” event. 

Only analog FM radio stations will broadcast messages to the population during a national emergency because power grid failures would cripple communication networks. 

One source made it clear that Brits aren’t supposed to know about Programme Yarrow: 

“The government doesn’t want any publicity on Yarrow, as they don’t want it to be seen as linked to Ukraine, energy supply and the cost of living. But we need to think about how we can help people in advance. The fact they’re talking about it now means they have a real concern it could happen.”

The good news so far is that weather has been on the warm side across the UK for October but is set to slide from here as the heating season begins. 

How many cold snaps will it take for the UK to stumble into a situation where it might have to ration power? 

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

Poland has begun constructing a razor-wire fence on its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad, where Moscow has a significant military presence, officials said on Nov. 2.

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and defense minister Mariusz Blaszczak meet with service members near the frontier, as hundreds of migrants gather on the Belarusian side of the border with Poland in an attempt to cross it, near Kuznica in Bialostocka, Poland, on Nov. 9, 2021. (Polish Prime Minister’s Office/Handout via Reuters)

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told reporters at a news conference that he has ordered the temporary barrier to be built immediately to ensure that Poland is secure. The barrier will measure 2.5 meters (eight feet) high and three meters (10 feet) deep along the 210-kilometer (130-mile) border.

Błaszczak cited security concerns as the reason behind the construction at the border, which comes amid ongoing tensions with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Warsaw is also concerned that the Kremlin plans to facilitate illegal border crossings by Asian and African immigrants in an effort to destabilize Europe, concerns prompted by a recent decision by Russia’s aviation authority to launch flights from the Middle East and North Africa to Kaliningrad.

The border area, which is patrolled by border guards, has no physical barrier. Polish soldiers specializing in demining began carrying out the initial prep work on Nov. 2.

The barrier is due to be completed by the end of 2023, Błaszczak said.

He referenced the 2021 crisis during which thousands of African and Middle Eastern illegal aliens attempted to cross the border of Belarus, a close ally of Russia, into Poland. Many of those border crossers died, and Poland subsequently erected a steel wall on the Belarus border to stem the flow of illegal immigrants. That border was completed in June.

At the time, Polish and other European Union leaders accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s government of encouraging immigrants from the Middle East to travel to Minsk and make their way into Europe.

Belarus officials denied those claims.

A member of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service stands near the border with Belarus and Poland in the Volyn region of Ukraine on Nov. 16, 2021. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Poland–Russia Border ‘Stable and Calm’

Human rights groups then accused Poland of double standards after the nation welcomed an influx of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion while simultaneously moving to prevent Middle Eastern and North African migrants from entering via the Belarus border.

“If you give a lift to a refugee at the Ukrainian border, you are a hero. If you do it at the Belarus border, you are a smuggler and could end up in jail for eight years,” said Natalia Gebert, founder and CEO of Dom Otwarty, or Open House, a Polish nongovernmental organization that helps refugees, according to a June report by The Associated Press.

Kaliningrad is a semi-exclave—a portion of a country that’s geographically separated from the main part by a surrounding foreign territory—that lies on the Baltic Sea and is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania and separated from Belarus by a border corridor.

Despite there being no barrier along the border, a spokesperson for the Polish Border Guard told Reuters that there were no illegal entries from Kaliningrad into Poland in October.

“The Polish–Russian border is stable and calm. There has been no illegal crossing of the border,” Polish border spokesperson Anna Michalska said. “We are not only there in times of peace. We are prepared for various crisis situations, and after what happened on the Polish–Belarusian border, we are even more prepared for everything, for all of the darkest scenarios.”

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A medical board has moved to strip top cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough of his certifications in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease, claiming that he provided misleading medical information to the public about COVID-19 vaccines.

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) informed McCullough of the action in a recent letter.

The board stated that McCullough’s statements questioning COVID-19 vaccination for healthy people younger than the age of 50 and pointing out that Americans have died after getting a COVID-19 vaccine triggered a review, which led to a recommendation that McCullough’s board certifications be revoked.

The ABIM’s Credentials and Certification Committee found that McCullough had “provided false or inaccurate medical information to the public,” the letter states.

“By casting doubt on the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines with such seemingly authoritative statements, made in various official forums and widely reported in various media, your statements pose serious concerns for patient safety,” it reads. “Moreover, they are inimical to the ethics and professionalism standards for board certification.”

McCullough was given until Nov. 18 to appeal.

If he appeals, the matter will be considered by a panel designated by the ABIM’s Board of Directors and at least one hearing would be held. The panel could accept the recommendation, rescind it, or impose an alternative punishment.

McCullough told The Epoch Times in an email that he’ll appeal.

Allegations

In a May notice of potential disciplinary measures, the board said it had learned that McCullough made “numerous widely reported and disseminated public statements about the purported dangers of, or lack of justification for, Covid-19 vaccines.”

As an example, the board cites McCullough’s March 10, 2021, testimony before a Texas Senate panel in which he said that people who have recovered from COVID-19 have “complete and durable immunity” and that there was no rationale for vaccinating such a person.

McCullough also said at the time that there was “no scientific rationale” for people who are healthy and younger than 50 to receive one of the vaccines.

In a declaration in a court case, meanwhile, McCullough said that more than 18,000 COVID-19 vaccine deaths had been submitted to the U.S.-run Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System and that the number of reported deaths was far above that of all other vaccines combined.

ABIM says the statements might violate the board’s policy on false or inaccurate medical information, which states that “providing false or inaccurate information to patients or the public is unprofessional and unethical” and could lead to sanctions.

McCullough responded the following month, requesting the matter be dismissed and offering a point-by-point rebuttal.

To back up his statements on COVID-19 vaccination, for instance, McCullough referenced data that shows people younger than 50 have a minuscule risk of death after contracting the illness, particularly if they don’t have serious underlying medical conditions.

He also noted the availability of COVID-19 treatments, that the COVID-19 vaccine spike protein has been linked to problems such as blood clotting, and that the vaccines have provided poor protection against infection and no protection against transmission.

McCullough also referenced research that found people who have natural immunity—a group excluded from the vaccines’ clinical trials—are at higher risk of side effects from the vaccines and have better protection than the vaccinated.

He said that based on his medical opinion, drawing from his medical education, clinical experience, and review of scientific information, people who have recovered from COVID-19 “have robust and durable immunity against the severe outcomes of adjudicated COVID-19 hospitalization and death recognizing that the Omicron variant has broken through natural immunity.”

He also said that there “is no medical necessity or clinical indication for vaccination of a COVID-19 recovered patient since they have already had the condition for which the vaccines are indicated to prevent” and that the scientific evidence doesn’t support vaccinating people younger than the age of 50.

ABIM Response

In the decision letter, ABIM said the statements on the alleged lack of benefit from COVID-19 vaccines against mortality for those younger than 50 were “not factual, scientifically grounded, or consensus driven.”

The board based that finding on data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that list more than 71,000 Americans in that population dying from COVID-19 as of Oct. 6. The board referenced no studies or other data.

The board stated that the statements about COVID-19 vaccine deaths also weren’t factual because the CDC says COVID-19 vaccine benefits outweigh the risks. According to the CDC, serious side effects from the vaccines include heart inflammation, blood clotting, and severe allergic shock. All three can cause death.

“Nothing in your declaration submitted in response to the Notice, or in the materials submitted to ABIM on your behalf, compels a different conclusion,” ABIM wrote.

The board’s only other citation was to the World Health Organization, which stated in March that billions of people around the world “have been safely vaccinated against COVID-19” and that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines “have been rigorously assessed for safety and clinical trials have shown that they provide a long-lasting immune response.”

The latter statement is false; the protection against both infection and severe disease quickly drops, according to recent CDC data. Some studies have found negative effectiveness within months. The waning effectiveness prompted the CDC to change its definition of a vaccine.

McCullough said he’s concerned that ABIM will “continue to cherry-pick data and claim they have ownership over the ‘truth’ when in reality we are simply discussing data from a rapidly evolving pandemic.”

“ABIM should be only concerned with my clinical track record … which is perfect,” he said. “Board scores and clinical practice are of the highest quality.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who invited McCullough to Capitol Hill to testify, said the doctor “has dedicated his life to saving others” and called for ABIM to reverse its decision.

Read more here…

A federal judge in Arizona has put the brakes on various tactics used by self-described “mule watchers” – who have been surveilling ballot boxes by taking photos and videos and posting information online, often while wearing body armor and weapons.

The group, Clean Elections USA, says it wants to prevent voter fraud by staking out ballot boxes to catch “mules” – people who illegally catch multiple ballots.

In a lawsuit against the “Mule Watchers” – named after the 2022 film “2,000 Mules” which claimed evidence of systematic election fraud – a group called the League of Women Voters said the election integrity group’s actions amounted to “time-tested methods of voter intimidation.”

Prior to a Tuesday hearing on the matter, the mule watchers agreed to cease some activities, such as open-carrying firearms or wearing visible body armor within 250 feet of ballot boxes, the NY Times reports.

Judge Michael T. Liburdi agreed with the League, issuing a temporary restraining order which prohibits the mule watchers “and other persons in active concert or participation with” from taking photos or videos of voters, or spreading information about voters online – as well as “making false statements” about the state’s statutes regarding early voting.

“It is imperative we balance the defendants’ right to engage in First Amendment-protected activity with the plaintiffs’ right to act without intimidation or harassment,” Liburdi said following a long hearing in Phoenix, which included testimony from a man who said he was harassed at a ballot box. He went on to say Clean Elections founder Melody Jennings went on Steve Bannon’s podcast to say they had ‘caught a mule.’

According to the man, who testified without revealing his name publicly for fear of harassment, eight to 10 people filmed the couple and told them they were “hunting mules.” Images of him and his car were posted online and Ms. Jennings subsequently appeared on the podcast of Stephen K. Bannon, the former Trump adviser, saying they had caught a mule and “blasted it out viral.”

Judge Liburdi called his experience particularly compelling, and noted that it went well beyond testimony from last week in a parallel case against Clean Elections USA. In that lawsuit, brought by the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and Voto Latino, the judge declined to enjoin Clean Elections USA’s activities, saying he had not seen any evidence that real harm had befallen any voters. That ruling is being appealed in the Ninth Circuit. -NYT

Liburdi also called out Jennings for incorrectly claiming that only spouses could return ballots on behalf of Arizona voters, when in fact housemates and caregivers may do so as well.

“This does not prohibit Miss Jennings from correctly stating what the law is,” said the judge, who said he would be drafting a preliminary injunction against Clean Elections USA over the next few days. “I just have a problem with her stating it incorrectly in a way that is intimidating or coercive to voting behavior.”

A lawyer for Clean Elections USA and Ms. Jennings, Alexander Kolodin, said he would most likely appeal the ruling – arguing that restrictions on photography or online posting and discussing AZ voting laws infringed on free speech.

“It seems like our clients are on trial for the entire state or anybody who wants to participate in ballot box monitoring or even share their views,” he said.

Authored by Kyle Anzalone & Will Porter via The Libertarian Institute,

Washington insists on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and will never accept Pyongyang as a nuclear weapons state, the State Department said. The US also repeated warnings that North Korea would soon test a nuclear weapon. 

Asked if the United States would “eventually recognize North Korea as a nuclear state” during a Monday presser, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters “That is not our policy. I do not foresee that ever becoming our policy.”

“The complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula has been our objective since the conclusion of our DPRK policy review last year,” Price continued. “That has not changed. I don’t foresee that changing going forward.”

Across several administrations, Washington has ordered Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons time and again since the country detonated its first warhead in 2006. After more than a decade of fruitless demands, then-President Donald Trump made diplomatic headway following multiple rounds of negotiations in 2018, with North Korea agreeing to a pause on missile and nuclear tests in exchange for a similar moratorium on US-South Korean war games. 

However, that deal was upended just one year later, after Trump resumed demands for complete denuclearization, driving North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un to abandon the talks.

In September, Kim signed a new decree codifying North Korea’s nuclear weapons doctrine, declaring it would not give up its arsenal unless the rest of the world did the same, while also urging the United States to end its aggressive policies.

Though Washington claims it desires a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, it has repeatedly vowed to defend South Korea and Japan with its own atomic arsenal, keeping large swaths of the region under the US ‘nuclear umbrella.’ Under those conditions, Pyongyang has been unwilling to entertain talks with the Joe Biden administration, which has also continued – and in some cases escalated – provocative joint military drills with Seoul.

The latest round of war games kicked off this week, seeing American and South Korean warplanes take part in their largest-ever aerial drills, following several major joint exercises in the weeks prior, some also involving Tokyo.

Amid the escalating military activity, Pyongyang has carried out a record number of weapons tests in 2022, including one drill involving preparations to deploy a tactical nuclear missile. While Price warned that North Korea’s next step could be to test a nuclear weapon, Western officials have repeated that claim for several months and no test has materialized.

A Houston businessman has placed a total of $10 million in bets on the Astros to win the World Series. He says his wagers carry an average payout of 7.5-to-1, which means a Houston championship would bring him $75 million — if the Astros can overcome their current deficit to the upstart Philadelphia Phillies. 

That would be the largest haul in sports betting history, according to the Houston Chronicle. 

Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, the 71-year-old owner of Gallery Furniture in Houston, is famed for making enormous sports bets that hedge his sports-linked furniture promotions. This year’s gimmick: 

“When you purchase a Tempur-Pedic, Stearns & Foster or Sealy mattress sleep set priced at $3,000 or more, and if the Houston Astros win it all in the 2022 final championship series, your purchase is FREE!”

While there’s only upside for his customers, McIngvale could see $10 million of his estimated $300 million net worth vanish. Then again, he reportedly won $15 million betting on the Kansas Jayhawks to win the NCAA men’s basketball tournament earlier this year, so he may well consider this Astros bet as using “house money.” 

“Winning the bet is very important, but more importantly, winning the bets allows us to give money back to all of our customers who bought about $75 million worth of furniture,” McIngvale tells CNBC.

In Tuesday night’s Game 3 in front of a Philadelphia crowd, the Astros were positively pummeled by the Phillies, 7-0. The win put the Phillies up 2 games to 1 in the best-of-seven series, with the next two games played in Philadelphia Wednesday and Thursday (8:03 pm ET on Fox.) 

McIngvale has been a huge backer of the Astros, even after the team’s reputation was reputation forever stained by a 2017-18 cheating scandal in which video cameras were used to steal opposing catchers’ signals, and the banging of trash cans — or silence — was used to tell Astros batters what pitch to expect.

This week, he’s on the road to support his team. Ahead of Tuesday’s game, he enjoyed a warm welcome from Phillies fans who spotted the iconic fan and sports bettor:

Now I know why they call it the City of Brotherly Love. These @Phillies fans couldn’t be nicer. Our @astros are still going to win tonight!#levelup #AstrosVsPhillies pic.twitter.com/1DSpV8su2X

— @MattressMack (@MattressMack) October 31, 2022

After the lopsided Astros loss, things weren’t so pretty: 

Houston businessman Jim McIngvale, known as Mattress Mack, appears to be seen in a verbal altercation with Phillies fans following the Astros loss on Tuesday eveningpic.twitter.com/8vf0D6T8gu

— YouWager.lv (@YouWager_FF) November 2, 2022

It will live in the annals of market infamy as the day the Fed rugpulled the market, when first a very dovish statement sparked a frenzied buying spree, only to be followed by a blistering, hawkish assault on the bulls during Powell’s press conference, leading to risk freefall, and the worst final 90 minutes of a Fed day in history, according to Bespoke.

In his EOD wrap, Goldman tradaer John Flood agrees that today was a Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde kinda day, when the Fed statement, ostensibly written by the dovish Lael Brainard, sparked a risk-on buying frenzy, only to crater when Powell said it was not only premature to think about pausing rates, but said that “incoming data since our last meeting suggests that the ultimate level of interest rates will be higher than previously expected” suggesting that the dots will be revised materially up in December.

75bps it is (for the 4th consecutive meeting). Table now set for a potential pull back to 50bps in Dec (market was already pricing this in coming into today). Official 2pm statement was indeed dovish: The Fed said it will consider existing tightening steps, the lagged effect of policy, and “economic and financial developments” (all dovish phrases).

However, during the presser Powell was quite hawkish: “VERY PREMATURE TO THINK ABOUT PAUSING RATE HIKES” was the line that really stood out to me. After this comment we saw Macro HFs press shorts and L/Os outright cxl bids in singles that they had layered lower in the mkt. We had steady L/O supply in supercap tech all session (again). Our U.S. equities franchise ended with -449bps sell skew vs 30d avg of -135bp sell skew. Growth factor -$838mm notional sell skew which is most dramatic since 8/22/22 and in 79th percentile vs previous 52 weeks.

As the selling accelerated, all support levels were taken out:

S&P 50dma of 3822 didn’t provide any support. CTAs and Corporates can’t prop this tape up on their own. Lower for longer now when it comes to US stocks post today’s developments.

For Flood’s downbeat conclusion to today’s market action, he uses Jpow’s own summation of today’s message:

“Okay. So I would also say it’s premature to discuss pausing. It’s not something that we’re thinking about. That’s really not a conversation to be had now. We have a ways to go. The last thing I’ll say is that I would want people to understand our commitment to getting this done and to not making the mistake of not doing enough or the mistake of withdrawing our strong policy and doing that too soon. I control those messages. That’s my job.”

The pivotal moment in #Fed press conference:

When (incorrectly) told the market had reacted positively, Jerome Powell seems frustrated and lists ONLY reasons why this is the wrong interpretation.

Very telling for #stocks.$QQQ $SPY #macro #inflation pic.twitter.com/Vb9nhuskV7

— Andy West, PhD (@andycwest) November 2, 2022

JPMorgan’s Andrew Tyler agreed with Goldman, saying that – to use the parlance of the apes – the squeeze has been squoze.

Ron Adler sums up the Equity view, “There hasn’t been a real shift in the cadence or complexion of our flows. We’ve seen some faster $ players look to sell, but I wouldn’t say there’s a heightened sense of urgency. As noted earlier, buyers were buying this am on the hope that we would rally, knowing they had more stock lower to buy; they were set up to buy on weakness (which they are doing ~3800), not to chase. I’ll leave the parsing through Powell’s comments to others, but my simple view -> those looking for immediate gratification should continue to buckle up (this is going to take a while), and while the rate of increase will slow, Terminal Rate isn’t ready to go lower yet, and probably trends higher. The most recent squeeze has probably been appropriately squeezed at this point.

In retrospect, everything Powell said was with the benefit of solid payrolls numbers backing him. Let’s see how fast his enthusiasm to crush inflation taper, so to speak, once we get a -100,000 NFP print, which judging by what is happening in Silicon Valley, may be as soon as next month, especially since the BLS “seasonal adjustments” team will no longer have Biden propaganda henchmen breathing down their neck after next week’s midterms avalanche.