HSBC Warns Global Zinc Market Is Flashing Signs Of Tightness
HSBC’s Global Commodity Team warned Thursday that the zinc market is flashing warning signs of extreme tightness:
Global zinc mine supply remains tight: HSBC’s Global Commodity Team expects global mine supply to fall 2.1% y-o-y to 12.5mt in 2026, driven mainly by lower production in Latin America.
The zinc market is expected to be slightly tight in 2026e, driven by a modest recovery in demand in Europe and North America amid supply disruptions at smelters and mines.
Overall, concentrate supply remains tight, and there have been smelter disruptions as well. Zinc demand has held up.
Here’s where the physical tightness is emerging: Zinc for immediate delivery on the London Metal Exchange traded at a premium of as much as $132.37 a ton over three-month futures Thursday, the widest backwardation this year.
The spread signals intensifying competition for readily available metal in warehouses. Benchmark zinc rose 1.1% to $3,802 a ton earlier today, putting it on course for a fifth weekly gain and its highest close in four years.
Analysts from Chinese brokerage Jinrui Futures Co. wrote in a note, “There are still concerns about overseas supply disruptions in zinc,” adding, “So the driving forces for the relative strength of the LME price continue to exist, together with heightened volatility around macroeconomic sentiment.”
Beyond zinc, veteran commodities strategist Jeff Currie wrote in a series of X posts Thursday that the convergence of tight physical markets, currency debasement and policy intervention represents the hallmark of a structural commodity bull cycle.
Quantix Commodity Index
Currie told his followers to “Get long and buckle up: the next leg of the ride will see more vol with higher highs across more markets.”
Samsung Unleashes $80 Billion Shareholder Return After SK Hynix’s “Buyback Bazooka” To Revive Memory Trade
Days after SK Hynix unveiled a staggering 40 trillion won, or $28.6 billion, “buyback bazooka” aimed at putting a floor under its shares following a sharp six-week selloff, Samsung Electronics joined the capital-return push.
The world’s largest memory-chip maker said Friday that it plans to return as much as 110 trillion won, or $80 billion, to investors this year. The twin announcements suggest the world’s top memory companies are trying to support higher valuations and reward shareholders after memory stocks surrendered some of their blistering first-half gains.
Bloomberg reports that Samsung intends to distribute roughly half of its free cash flow, including 30 trillion won in third-quarter dividends and about 15 trillion won in share repurchases for employee compensation.
Macquarie analyst Daniel Kim summarized Samsung’s capital-return announcement:
What’s new
Samsung Electronics (SEC) updated its much-anticipated shareholder return program today after the market close. There was no change in the committed return of 50% of cumulative FCF from 2024-26.
Its BoD is meeting in October to confirm the earlier distribution of promised FCF. So, the 3Q26 quarterly cash dividend payment should amount to Won30tr, including the regular quarterly cash dividend of Won2.45tr.
In late January 2027, the company should determine the remaining capital return amount, which SEC estimates at Won60-80tr, and the method of distribution.
SEC remains on our Marquee buy list.
Why it matters
Still formulating capital return policy. Excluding the cash dividend of Won20.9tr already paid out and the executed share buyback/cancellation of Won8.4tr, the company estimates the remaining capital to be returned to shareholders at Won90-110tr, which includes the 3Q26 Won30tr payout. This is 20-35% lower than our forecast.
Announced only the common-share repurchase of Won15tr for employee bonuses. Separately, SEC plans to repurchase 53.3mn common shares, or 0.9% of outstanding shares, which would cost Won15tr based on today’s closing price, from 24 Aug. to 21 Nov. The repurchased shares won’t be cancelled and will be paid to employees as bonuses, so they won’t count as part of the shareholder return. Samsung preferred shareholders might be disappointed.
Ample free cash flow to support a more progressive capital return policy. Our projection shows that its net cash position should amount to Won718tr, or 40% of its market capitalization, by year-end 2027 and Won1,358tr by year-end 2028. We expect it to generate total FCF of Won1,434tr for 2026-28E, so its balance sheet should have ample cash unless the company returns far more cash to shareholders.
More cash dividends than share buybacks. While SK Hynix’s capital return is more skewed toward share buybacks/cancellations, we expect Samsung’s capital return to consist more of cash dividends than share buybacks. This is partly because Samsung Life (032830KS, not rated) and Samsung F&M (000810KS, not rated) are forced to trim their stakes in SEC under local regulations in the event of significant share retirements by SEC.
What now
Memory market outlook remains bright. Samsung’s significant cash position could hurt its ROE; accordingly, we see significant upside in its capital returns over the next two years. We believe that its capital return policy should improve steadily over time. The stock is trading at 2x ex-cash 2027E EPS. Outperform.
Shares fell as much as 2.6% in post-market trading after the announcement due to a lack of clarity on how much stock Samsung would repurchase and cancel. Some analysts had anticipated total returns of around 150 trillion won.
Kim Minji, a portfolio manager at Must Asset Management, explained that “some investors have recently expected up to 150 trillion won of shareholder returns, which explains the post-market share action.”
Kang DaeKwun, chief executive officer at Life Asset Management, held views similar to those of Must Asset Management’s Kim, saying the announcement underwhelmed expectations:
After a local media report that the size of the shareholder return would be up to 150 trillion won, the announcement of up to 110 trillion won is triggering a selloff.
The announcement met market expectations because Samsung kept its promise to return 50% of free cash flow to shareholders.
While the market’s attention is on the size of the shareholder return, what is more important is the supply of shares.
While US Big Tech companies are issuing new shares, South Korea is seeing a lower supply of shares thanks to large-scale shareholder return programs.
Announcements from SK Hynix and Samsung this week show that the management teams of the world’s top memory-chip companies are concerned that momentum in the space has completely evaporated.
“The smart money is moving on,” said Alec Young, chief investment strategist at MoneyFlows, a quant-research firm. “The fact that they have given up a lot of their recent bounce in just a couple days shows that there are a lot of weak hands.”
SanDisk and Western Digital have fallen more than 30% from their peaks, while Micron and Seagate are down roughly 20%, signaling that momentum investors are rotating into other trades, such as the materials and energy stocks we pointed out earlier in the week (read here).
The United States government minted its final penny in November of 2025. This came after fiat money inflation succeeded in depriving pennies of nearly all their value. Pennies are still circulating, but it is increasingly common for stores to round cost totals to avoid giving pennies in change.
Also, people seeing that the metal content of their pennies is worth more than the face value are deciding that it is better to store pennies in a jar than to spend them.
The same issues that caused the US government to give up on pennies may soon encourage it to make a major change in regard to nickels.
In an August of 2025 article, I noted that each nickel valued at five cents was costing almost 14 cents to produce. What would the government do in regard to nickels? I suggested two likely options:
The writing seems to be on the wall for nickels. As their metallic value and production costs further and further exceed their face value, there will be more pressure to make changes in nickels’ composition to significantly reduce their cost of production.
Alternatively, the government may, as is being done with the penny, just stop making new nickels.
With penny production ended, it looks like nickel production may soon have a shakeup as well, though one that could buy nickels some time.
Two different versions of the Common Cents Act passed this summer, one in the United States House of Representatives (HR 3074) and the other in the Senate (S 1525).
Both legislative bodies will need to agree on the same bill before it can be sent on to the president for consideration.
Something the two bills have in common is permitting changing the composition of nickels from 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel to portions to be determined of zinc inside and nickel outside.
The bills specify the composition change must reduce the cost of production of the coins and, “to the greatest extent practicable”have “a minimal adverse impact on machines designed to accept coins.“
Such a change for nickels would mirror what happened in the early 1980s with pennies, when newly minted pennies started being 97.5 percent zinc instead of the prior 95 percent copper. The resulting cost savings helped keep penny production going for over forty more years.
Will the US government keep minting nickels for another 40-plus years, or will inflation be so strong that the government much sooner sends the nickel off to the same fate the penny met last year?
In what can only be described as a stunning failure of state and local policy and leadership, Los Angeles County recorded its highest tally of flea-borne typhus cases in 2025,confirming 220 diagnoses, up from 187 the year before, according to the county’s Department of Public Health. Almost nine in ten of those patients ended up hospitalized. Fleas that feed on infected rats, opossums, and other small mammals carry the bacteria behind the disease to humans, and Los Angeles has watched the case count climb for years. The 2025 total marks the sharpest jump yet.
Dr. Dean Winslow has practiced infectious disease medicine for fifty years. He taught at Stanford, ran COVID-19 testing programs for the federal government, and served as President Trump’s 2017 nominee for assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. Asked whether a typhus outbreak in one of the wealthiest counties in America points to a broader failure in public health and sanitation, Winslow gave a one-word answer. “Absolutely,” he told the Daily Signal.
“It’s largely an issue of … people living in just horrible conditions in close proximity to rats,” Winslow said, naming rodents as the primary vector for the infection’s spread.
The conditions track with the county’s homelessness numbers. Homelessness in LA County rose 3.3% over the past year, and in the city of Los Angeles itself the figure climbed 7.9%, according to data from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Winslow said encampments put residents at heightened risk given their proximity to rats, though he cautioned the problem extends beyond encampments alone.
Asked what he would tell city officials, Winslow said the priority should be to “get a handle again on rat control issues.”
That task has gotten harder since 2020, when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1788 into law, restricting the use of four rodenticides over concerns about their effects on mountain lions and other wildlife. Winslow pointed to the restrictions as one likely culprit behind the county’s swelling rat population, since pest-control operators have shifted toward traps and less potent methods in response. “Those may be two reasons why … the rat population is out of control [in LA],” he said.
The county’s own public health guidance seems to put the burden of prevention on residents, telling them to keep pets on flea-control products, avoid stray animals, clear yard debris, secure trash in tightly lidded containers, and report rodents or opossums to animal control. Mayor Karen Bass’s office did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.
Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, examined the county’s internal records for City Journal. His team filed public records requests and received a thousand pages of documents from the county health department. What those documents showed is a public health system bracing for outbreaks it had fallen behind on.
“This is about plague rats that have returned,” Rufo told Hugh Hewitt on the Salem News Channel. “So we did a story, we did FOIA, we got 1,000 pages of documents from the County Health Department in Los Angeles. And the picture that these documents painted was quite grim. You have a return of typhus, you have outbreaks of hantavirus, you have really a plethora of medieval diseases that are on the rise in LA.”
Rufo laid out two forces behind the outbreak. “And there are a couple of causes for this. The first is that the homeless encampments that are scattered, not just in Skid Row, but throughout the city, are the perfect breeding ground for rats. And so now there are millions of rats breeding under the streets of Los Angeles. And the County Health Department admits in these internal documents that they’re not ready for these outbreaks,” he continued. “And at the same time, you have California Governor Gavin Newsom in two separate pieces of legislation in recent years banning all of the most effective rodenticides, so rat poisons that can keep that population at bay. And when you put those ingredients together, you get something that experts predicted in LA seems powerless to stop, which is typhus, including three deaths from typhus in recent years.”
.@christopherrufo: “You have a return of typhus. You have outbreaks of hantavirus. You have a plethora of medieval diseases that are on the rise in L.A.
There are a couple of causes for this. The first is that the homeless encampments that are scattered, not just in Skid Row,… pic.twitter.com/bam0xbUkPb
Three deaths and 220 hospitalization cases in a single year mark a policy failure in a county that absolutely has the resources to prevent it. Encampments stayed in place. Rodenticides came off the shelf. The health department knew what was coming and clearly could not (or would not) stop it. State and local officials built, permitted, and, in some cases, legislated the conditions that allowed the rat population to multiply beneath the streets of one of the wealthiest cities in America.
The United States will send a military hospital ship to Peru’s Pacific coast next year to help the country cope with the impact of the El Niño weather phenomenon.
Plans to send the hospital ship USNS Comfort to the northern Pacific coast of Peru in February 2027 were confirmed by U.S. Ambassador to Peru Bernie Navarro on Aug. 19 during a press conference at Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) in Miami, Florida.
Appearing alongside Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Espá, Navarro told reporters that “one of the biggest things the United States is doing is bringing the military vessel Comfort, which we are going to bring in February.”
The ambassador said that February is when they believe the problem with El Niño will peak.
Espá told reporters that officials were already starting to develop a road map.
“We are concerned, but we’re not just concerned; we’re taking action,” Espá said.
“That’s why we’re so grateful to the ambassador, because thanks to him, the day before yesterday we met at Southern Command with all the U.S. agencies that will be assisting us, along with civil society and the business sector, to develop our roadmap.”
Following the press conference, Navarro said in a post on X:
“The United States will stand with Peru in facing El Niño. With a strategy focused on prevention rather than reaction, we will set an example for regional cooperation.”
El Niño is a warming of the Pacific Ocean near the equator that affects global weather patterns. According to meteorologists, it could soon equal or surpass the 1997 phenomenon, which caused damage from heat waves, heavy rains, floods, and forest fires.
Peru, which lies on the western coast of South America, has been subject to flooding this year as a result of the weather phenomenon.
Aid to South America
The planned deployment of USNS Comfort, which was already in Peru in 2018 and 2019, was announced in an earlier statement from the U.S. Embassy in Peru on Aug. 17 following the summit at SOUTHCOM.
The summit on disaster preparedness for El Niño was attended by the U.S. ambassador, Espá, SOUTHCOM, representatives from the U.S. and Peruvian governments, and individuals from academia and civil society.
The U.S. Embassy in Peru said in a statement that during the summit, Navarro highlighted that the United States has demonstrated its support for the South American country through its aid and assistance.
This includes the construction of 18 Regional Emergency Operations Centers; the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration training provided to its officials in emergency response and risk management; and scientific and medical cooperation, such as the upcoming arrival of the hospital ship.
The United States has also been sending increased humanitarian aid for earthquakes in Colombia and Venezuela.
SOUTHCOM said in an Aug. 17 post on X that U.S. assistance to Colombia for earthquake relief is ongoing.
“Today, a [U.S. Air Force] C-17 Globemaster III delivered more life-saving assistance and supplies from the [State Department’s] disaster response warehouse in Miami to Medellín for distribution to hard-hit communities in Colombia,” the command said.
“SOUTHCOM is actively supporting the [State Department-led] humanitarian response following the Aug. 10 earthquake in western Colombia. The United States stands in solidarity with the Colombian people during this crisis.”
Heavy Rain in Peru
Heavy rains attributed to El Niño caused flooding in Peru on Aug. 19, resulting in flooded homes, collapsed sewage services, and school closures in the capital, Lima.
Authorities also closed the main route to Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca citadel, due to the overflow of waterways.
There were also road closures from landslides in the southern regions of Arequipa and Moquegua.
Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, who took office on July 28, said that tackling the impact of the weather phenomenon is a priority.
Popular Ukrainian Official Raises Stakes Against Zelensky With Election Call: Democracy Held ‘Hostage’
Ukrainian President Zelensky is once again under immense internal pressure, amid new corruption investigations which run straight through the presidential office as well as growing calls to finally hold elections despite the ongoing war with Russia.
Mykhailo Fedorov, the country’s popular young former defense minister and a longtime political ally of Zelensky – who was dismissed just last month largely as a result of tensions between him and army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi – stunned Kiev’s political establishment this week by issuing a video address urgently calling for a path to elections.
“We have to answer a fundamental question – how should a state function, if the war has lasted for years?” Fedorov said in the nine-minute-long YouTube video.
“Can Russia actually be entitled to define when Ukrainians can elect their authorities next time? I’m sure it’s not. Democracy can’t be Russia’s hostage,” he said.
Zelensky has long argued that martial law must stay in place, leaving no room for new elections based on the current constitution.
The 35-year-old Fedorov’s message was unexpected, and is being widely seen as a stab in the back to Zelensky. Al Jazeera has noted, for example:
Since he was fired, Fedorov has repeatedly emphasized his loyalty to Zelenskyy and refused to accept other jobs such as a presidential aide in charge of reforms.
He also claimed to have turned down a project with Palantir Technologies, a controversial, US-based software company that began collaborating with Ukraine’s military during Fedorov’s tenure.
But Federov is now calling for “a legal, safe and realistic mechanism” to restart a full democratic process “even in the conditions of a long war” – which flies directly in the face of the Zelensky government’s stance.
This marks the first time a high-level political ally of Zelensky has publicly pushed national elections since the war’s start.
It is also significant given Federov remains well-liked among the Ukrainian public. There was a lot of anger and confusion, including rare wartime protests, upon his mid-July dismissal.
Former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba reportedly backed Fedorov’s idea, saying on Tuesday that elections “after war will not be more civilized, than during it.”
“We don’t know when [the war] ends. What if it lasts for another three years? We will be living under the political model that was formed in 2019, which has already been emotionally exhausted,” Kuleba, who helmed the Foreign Ministry in 2020-2024, was quoted by the Interfax Ukraine news agency as saying.
Back in December of last year, at a moment it was clear that the Ukrainians were backing away from Washington pressure to get to the negotiating table with Russia, President Trump had unleashed rare criticism on the Zelensky government.
Ukraine’s ousted defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for wartime elections in a video address, arguing the nation faced a crisis of governance, in the biggest internal challenge to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy since Russia’s invasion https://t.co/DJRxjcWH6tpic.twitter.com/b72CVNvj4Q
“They haven’t had an election in a long time,” Trump said at the time to Politico. “You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”
But the reality is that American taxpayer funds, as well as US-made weaponry, continue to flow largely uninterrupted to Kiev. Trump had vowed to quickly wind down the war and achieve peace, but that has remained elusive.
Volunteer caregivers in the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta report that cat colonies are vanishing, dead animals are turning up cut apart, and birds such as pigeons and seagulls are being found half-devoured in the weeks since tens of thousands of migrants poured across the border from Morocco.
Nearly three weeks after the mass invasion, local reports describe cats displaced or missing, and carcasses discovered in disturbing conditions. Caregivers who have continued feeding the animals daily say the damage is already severe.
One volunteer administrator, identified as Merelo, told La Gaceta she has found “many dead cats, cut,” some missing half their body or pierced with a punch, along with mistreated animals.
? ÚLTIMA HORA | Aparecen gatos masacrados y palomas y gaviotas devoradas en Ceuta tras la invasión migratoria: «Están acabando con las colonias»
She has also located pigeons and seagulls that were half-eaten, though she said she did not personally witness anyone consuming them.
“When the people entered, the cats left their habitat, as happens in any natural space,” she explained. Merelo noted that Muslims traditionally show respect for cats, but among the new arrivals are people of sub-Saharan origin from various backgrounds.
The same pattern of disappearance is detailed in an account published by El Faro de Ceuta. Author Ángel Ruiz, writing in support of the volunteer caregivers, stated that the harm caused to the cat colonies “is great and, in many cases, irreparable.”
Cats have left areas now occupied by migrants. “It can be said clearly that cats are missing. Where are they? As of today, no one knows,” the caregivers summarize.
Affected sites include the area near the desalination plant, which caregivers describe as a disaster after occupation made it uninhabitable for the territorial animals. The same has happened in Huerta Téllez, Carmelitas, Calle Goya, and the neighborhoods of Príncipe, Sidi Embarek, and Punta Blanca, now turned into improvised settlements.
The volunteers are calling for the city government and central authorities to provide provisional housing outside the urban core so migrants stop occupying spaces that belong to the city’s community animals, and for immediate eviction of unauthorized camps.
Desaparecen gatos de las colonias felinas de Ceuta como consecuencia de la invasión https://t.co/sFldDUnaUY
The animal reports fit a pattern repeatedly documented in other places hit by rapid, large-scale irregular migration.
In British cities, migrants have been filmed hunting pigeons with fishing rods and bare hands in public streets.
Similar clips have shown people catching and butchering swans and ducks in the UK and Ireland.
In one case a Nigerian migrant was caught cooking a cat in a public park next to a children’s playground.
In Springfield, Ohio, the city manager acknowledged hearing reports that Haitian migrants were eating pets.
These incidents are not isolated curiosities; they surface with depressing regularity where cultural norms around animal welfare, public space, and food sources collide with sudden demographic change that authorities refuse to control.
This is the latest chapter in the chaos that has gripped Ceuta since the late-July avalanche. Estimates of the initial crossing ranged into the tens of thousands – figures comparable to a large share of the enclave’s roughly 84,000 residents – many of them young men who swam or climbed around the border.
Thousands have remained. Reception capacity collapsed. Beaches and open spaces are now filled with shacks, garbage, and human waste. Children’s parks were left smeared in feces.
Reports of sexual assaults have mounted, including cases involving minors. Spanish mothers have been filmed weeping in the streets, packing children off to the mainland, and describing daily fear of leaving home without protection.
We also now have reports from local police of migrants dragging women off the streets, taking them into the surrounding mountainous territory and gang raping them.
Spanish authorities have deployed extra police and troops at points, yet the underlying policy of managed openness continues.
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Houthis Claim Fourth Attack On Saudi Aramco Refineries This Month
Yemen’s Houthis, or the Ansar Allah movement, released a statement Thursday announcing new military operations against Saudi Arabia which targeted an Aramco facility and an airport in Najran province, saying that forces “carried out two military operations using two drones.”
“The first targeted a sensitive target belonging to the Saudi enemy at Najran Airport, while the second targeted Aramco in Najran. Both operations successfully achieved their objectives, by God’s grace,” the Houthi statement declared.
Najran is a mid-sized city of around 400,000 and is located in southwest Saudi Arabia, bordering Saada province in northwest Yemen. The Saudis didn’t immediately acknowledge the attack, or whether there’s been damage or casualties from the launches has not been quickly forthcoming.
The Houthis are still complaining of Saudi airspace violations, while in the midst of a “siege for siege” operation.
The day prior the Houthis laid out three objectives imposed on the Saudis:
The first was described as “siege for siege,” referring to Ansarallah’s declared naval restrictions against Saudi shipping.
The second involved “striking Saudi troop buildups wherever they are,” while the third centered on “protecting Yemen’s sovereignty and confronting any enemy incursions.”
Ansarallah stated that its naval measures had imposed a tight blockade on Saudi interests, asserting that “not a single ship can pass through.”
Aramco facilities have been targeted several times over the past weeks, since the Saudi-Houthi conflict erupted again.
Iran has of late been much more open in boasting that its Yemeni ally is doing damage on US allies in the region.
For example, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesman Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebbi told the semiofficial Mehr News Agency this week that the kingdom cannot defeat the group.
“How can Saudi Arabia, whose military capability is less than that of the Zionist regime, be able to cope with Ansar Allah and the Yemeni fighters? This is not possible,” he said.
The Thursday attack marks the fourth offensive on Aramco facilities this month…
🎯 🇸🇦Aramco has now been targeted by claimed Houthi drone strikes 3 times in 11 days.
Jizan refinery caught fire on August 9 (Saudi confirmed the fire, not the cause).
Najran was hit August 14. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree is now claiming a third strike on Aramco… pic.twitter.com/aaiDLuLU8X
Like the Iranians, the Houthis have some natural leverage given the geography of oil transit chokepoints. Al Monitor observes this week: “Traffic in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, may be on the rebound despite the Houthi blockade. The shipping data firm Kpler said 46 vessels crossed the strait on Tuesday, up 53% from the day prior. Around 50 ships typically crossed before the recent escalation.
It notes further, “Saudi Arabia has been rerouting oil exports through the Red Sea in response to the disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Ukrainian anti-corruption services launched searches under codename “Operation Forrest Gump,” targeting, among others, the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. The move expands the ongoing anti-corruption investigation which has seen a number of top officials in Zelensky’s cabinet flee to Israel shortly before police could raid their homes.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced they were conducting a special operation involving a criminal organization led by a current and former member of parliament, with the participation of high-ranking officials from the Office of the President of Ukraine.
“NABU and SAPO are conducting a special operation aimed at exposing a criminal organization that operated under the leadership of a current and former member of the Ukrainian Parliament, with the participation of high-ranking officials of the Office of the President of Ukraine and other individuals. Details – coming soon,” announced the anti-corruption services on Telegram.
The operation is codenamed “Forrest Gump,” also referred to as Forest Gump. Ukrayinska Pravda sources and other media reported that NABU and SAPO are conducting searches as part of this special operation at premises belonging to MP Vadym Stolar, who was elected to parliament on behalf of the currently banned Opposition Platform – For Life party.
In addition, Iryna Mudra, deputy head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, is also targeted in the raids.
Stolar has confirmed the investigative actions at his home and stated he is fully cooperating without obstruction.
Additional figures linked by media and law-enforcement sources include former MP Maksym Mykytas, officials from the Ministry of Justice, and senior management of the state-owned Sense Bank including the chair of the board and supervisory board. Searches were also reported at the bank premises.
NABU has released excerpts of intercepted conversations.
Fragments reference “bags of money,” discussions of registering assets or proceeds in the names of children, including high tuition costs, the “Forrest Gump” name itself in a context of concealing theft, and mentions of the Office of the President.
As EuroMaidan writes, “The operation carries a mocking name, Forest Gump, drawn from the suspects’ own words. In a 47-second recording of intercepted conversations, one man ties the label to how the group allegedly hid money.”
The suspect mocks that one of the co-conspirators used his children’s own name to register the stolen money.
“We’ve got Saving Private Ryan, right? But only an idiot would register the theft of money – and their tuition on top of it – on their own children. That’s why, Forest Gump,” he said.
Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators reportedly chose the name “Forrest Gump” to mock these statements from their own criminal targets.
Other parts of the conversation reference cash and the presidential administration directly. “Well, there are four bags of money there,” one voice says on the tape.
Another chimed in, saying: “If we do this, you can drive to the Office of the President yourselves. Believe me. I can see it.”
Investigators allege the group gained effective control over Sense Bank around early June 2026.According to NABU/SAPO details released as part of the operation, the group organized money laundering of $3.5 million in cash (UAH 150 million).
The funds were introduced into legal circulation through accounts of shell companies and Sense Bank to post bail for one of the defendants in the earlier “Midas” case, which was linked to former Energy and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko.
Cash was reportedly delivered in tranches, processed via controlled entities, and partially directed toward the High Anti-Corruption Court bail account. Allegations include that Mudra was expected to help arrange the raising of these funds and that unidentified individuals from the President’s Office tasked her with efforts related to bringing Sense Bank under greater control.
Investigators also seized a document described as an anti-crisis communications playbook outlining steps and messaging to shape public opinion around a Verkhovna Rada temporary investigative commission, framing it as an “audit, not attack” while shielding President Zelensky and his cabinet.
The probe has also documented alleged attempts to place controlled individuals in NABU and other law-enforcement bodies.
Incredibly, NABU has already posted these documents directly to Telegram.
Who is involved in the broader corruption scandal in Ukraine?
One of the main suspects in the related investigation is businessman Tymur Mindich. He is the co-owner of the Kwartal 95 production studio, which was founded and headed in the past by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Fearing arrest in the Energoatom affair (Operation Midas), Mindich fled to Israel. The Midas case centers on alleged large-scale kickbacks, approximately 10-15 percent of contract values, at the state nuclear company Energoatom, involving roughly $100 million in illicit funds, with the group using code names and cash deliveries.
During searches of Mindich’s premises in November 2025, investigators found large quantities of cash and a golden toilet, along with a golden bidet, in one of the bathrooms of his opulent Kyiv apartment – details that became a public symbol of excess and were widely referred to as the “golden toilet scandal,” which Remix News reported extensively on.
Mindich was not the only key figure to flee to Israel. His close associate, Oleksandr Tsukerman, also fled. The country does not extradite its citizens but Ukraine later imposed sanctions and issued international arrest warrants.
Among the suspects in the Midas scandal was the former head of Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, Andriy Yermak. The former head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office has been charged under the Criminal Code of Ukraine with laundering property obtained as a result of a crime. The alleged laundering of UAH 460 million, about $10.5 million, allegedly occurred during the construction of the Dynastia luxury housing complex in Kozyn near Kyiv.
According to investigators, some of the funds used for the construction may have come from corruption activities at Energoatom. The court then issued an arrest warrant for Yermak.
It stipulated that he would be able to be released if he paid bail of 140 million hryvnias. In mid-May, Andriy Yermak was released from custody after posting bail.
The Forrest Gump operation is now being presented as connected to the wider Midas network of allegations involving high-level influence over strategic state enterprises, money laundering, and related luxury projects. Developments remain ongoing, with NABU indicating further details would be released.
Polish state media outlet TVP reported: “The latest operation could further intensify scrutiny of the political establishment as President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government faces pressure to demonstrate progress in tackling corruption while Ukraine continues its war with Russia. It also poses a fresh headache for Zelenskyy after ousted defense chief Mykhailo Fedorov called for wartime elections in a bombshell statement late on Tuesday.”
The question now remains: Is the noose tightening around Zelensky himself, or will he emerge from this massive corruption scandal of close associates squeaky clean?
Pennsylvania will give data center projects preferential permitting treatment if they commit to a set of power supply, environmental and cost-responsibility requirements under an executive order issued Tuesday by Gov. Josh Shapiro, D.
The state Department of Environmental Protection will develop the new review process. To receive a faster state permitting review, data center projects in Pennsylvania must source their electricity from new power supplies, including from growing amounts of firm clean power, according to the order, whichaffects proposals for projects with a peak demand of more than 25 MW.
The order “should further close the door” to the idea that independent power producers like Talen Energy, Vistra and PSEG Power will be able to sell power from their existing generating assets under long-term contracts to data centers in Pennsylvania, Jefferies equity analysts said in a note on Wednesday. However, Talen’s legacy deal to sell power from its majority-owned Susquehanna nuclear power plant to an Amazon data center appears safe, according to the note.
Shapiro’s executive order comes amid a wave of action by state and local governments aimed at setting limits on data center development. At least 81 cities and counties have moratoria on data center development, according to a National League of Cities database unveiled Wednesday.
Under the permitting framework set by the executive order, data center developers that sign a consent order and agreement requiring them to abide by the state’s infrastructure development standards unveiled in February will receive preferential treatment compared to those that don’t.
For example, applicants that execute a consent order and agreement will have their projects reviewed by DEP on a rolling basis, whereas for developers that don’t sign, the state won’t consider their applications until they have all local permits in hand as well as any needed water withdrawal or wastewater discharge authorizations.
“We have so much speculation in Pennsylvania — like, gold rush speculation on these data centers,” Katie Blume, political and legislative director for Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, told Utility Dive in an interview. “A lot of this [order] is going to be weeding out those bad actors because they’re not going to want to spend five years in the permitting process.”
But Dan Diorio, executive vice president for state policy and government affairs for the Data Center Coalition, sounded a note of caution in an emailed statement.
“It’s important that rules are not changed midstream impacting ongoing investment in verified and responsible data center projects,” Diorio said. “Data centers take compliance and accountability seriously, building only where they are authorized to do so under local, state, and federal rules and regulations.”
The infrastructure development standards include requiring data centers to pay for “all costs caused in whole or in part by the interconnection, service, or load of a [data center] project, including any costs associated with energy and ancillary services, transmission, distribution, network upgrades.”
Besides requiring data centers to be supplied by new generating resources from the same local PJM Interconnection zone where the facilities are built, they must be supplied from growing amounts of firm clean energy such as solar, advanced nuclear and battery storage, Shapiro said when he signed the executive order.
The firm clean energy requirements ramp up from 10% on Jan. 1 to 14.5% three years later and 32% by Jan. 1, 2035.
The executive order directs the Pennsylvania DEP to expedite permitting for clean energy and storage facilities on brownfield sites. The DEP must also facilitate the use of advanced reconductoring and other advanced transmission technologies on existing transmission rights-of-way.
In prepared remarks, Shapiro pointed to the speed of data center development in the state, which he said has “seen an unacceptable number of speculative proposals … many of them led by developers who have no regard for local communities.”
PPL Electric has about 20.7 GW of potential data center load with electric service agreements in Pennsylvania, according to an Aug. 7 investor presentation. FirstEnergy utilities in Pennsylvania have data center contracts totaling nearly 1 GW, the company said in a July 28 presentation.
It is unclear how those data center projects will be affected by the executive order, but slowing data center development could affect utility transmission spending in the state, the Jefferies analysts noted.
Exelon, FirstEnergy and PPL are “materially increasing their transmission investment with data center demand a key driver,” the analysts said. “If the pace of data center growth slows, we see downside pressure to the pace of transmission investments.”
Currently, data center-driven transmission costs are being shared with residential and other utility customers, they noted.
Shapiro’s executive order directed the state Office of Transformation and Opportunity to remove any existing data center project from the PA Permit Fast Track Program, established in 2024, and rescinded their eligibility for the program. It also barred state agencies from entering into confidential agreements with data center developers.
