Congress Passes New Iran Oil Sanctions But Biden Unlikely To Enforce Them

 Over the weekend, as part of the $95 billion package providing funding for aiding Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan which passed by a vote of 360-58 on Saturday, the US House also passed new sanctions on Iran’s oil sector set to become part of a foreign-aid package, putting the measure on track to pass the Senate within days.

The legislation, as Bloomberg reports, would broaden sanctions against Iran to include foreign ports, vessels, and refineries that knowingly process or ship Iranian crude in violation of existing US sanctions. It would also would expand so-called secondary sanctions to cover all transactions between Chinese financial institutions and sanctioned Iranian banks used to purchase petroleum and oil-derived products.

About 80% of Iran’s roughly 1.5 million barrels of daily oil exports are shipped to independent refineries in China known as “teapots,” according to a summary of similar legislation.

Yet while the sanctions could impact Iranian petroleum exports - and add as much as $8.40 to the price of a barrel of crude - they also include presidential waiver authorities, according to ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington-based consulting firm.

"President Joe Biden might opt to invoke these authorities, vitiating the sanctions’ price impact; a second Trump Administration might not," ClearView wrote in a note to clients.

Amrita Sen, founder and research director of Energy Aspects, agreed and told Bloomberg Television in an interview that Biden's Administration is unlikely to “strongly enforce” the restrictions in an election year.

“I think all sanctions are sanctions on paper, with anything that remotely causes oil prices to go up, I don't believe they will enforce it strongly,” the research analyst told Bloomberg.   

“What I really want to highlight is this is a US election year, so let’s not kid ourselves,” the analyst noted.

By not kidding ourselves, he meant that when it comes to democratic, liberal ideals, it's all bullshit when they conflict with self-serving interests of the demented deep state puppet roaming the halls of the White House.

Moreover, China is buying most of Iran's crude oil exports, and the majority of buyers in the world’s top crude oil importer are the independent refiners, the so-called ‘teapots’ in the Shandong province, which are not connected with the U.S. financial system in any way.

Therefore, the U.S. doesn’t have any means to enforce sanctions on China’s independent refiners for buying Iranian crude oil, Sen told Bloomberg. The teapots will continue to import Iran’s crude, while any new restrictions could take up to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian oil off the market, she added.

Crude oil exports from Iran hit the highest level in six years during the first quarter of the year, data from Goldman recently showed.

The daily average over the period stood at 1.56 million barrels, almost all of which was sent to China, earning the Islamic Republic some $35 billion.

"The Iranians have mastered the art of sanctions circumvention,” Fernando Ferreira, head of geopolitical risk service at Rapidan Energy Group, told the FT. “If the Biden administration is really going to have an impact, it has to shift the focus to China."

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/congress-passes-new-iran-oil-sanctions-biden-unlikely-enforce-them

Profit momentum of Big Six tech companies to 'collapse' over 2024, UBS says

 Profit growth momentum of the so-called Big Six technology stocks could "collapse" over the next few quarters, UBS Global Research strategists said on Monday, downgrading its rating on the mega-cap companies.

Growth in earnings per share (EPS) of the "Big 6 TECH+" stocks - Apple, Amazon.com, Alphabet , Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia - was projected to decline to 15.5% by the first quarter of 2025, from 42.2% estimated for the same period this year, strategists led by Jonathan Golub said.

"Our downgrade of the Big Six - from 'Overweight' to 'Neutral' - is not predicated on extended valuations, or doubts about artificial intelligence. Rather, it is an acknowledgement of the difficult comps and cyclical forces weighing on these stocks," Golub said.

In contrast, other tech stocks are set to perform better, UBS said, forecasting EPS gains of nearly 26% by the first quarter of 2025, from 11.1% projected for the same period in 2024. These companies did not participate in the COVID-driven boom to the same extent as the mega-cap stocks.

The Big Six companies, seen as bellwethers for the tech sector and for the performance of the S&P 500, are set to report quarterly results over the next two weeks.

Rising bond yields, hotter-than-expected recent U.S. economic data and uncertainty around the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut outlook have also weighed on these high-valuation stocks.

The earnings momentum of the Big Six has experienced four distinct cyclical waves, UBS said, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic driving consumer demand for personal computers (PCs), online shopping and social media.

Once the pandemic subsided and the economy reopened, profits suffered because of waning demand for tech products, driving EPS growth contraction in 2022. The profit upsurge in 2023 was a result of easier comparables and a reduction in expenses for companies.

"Earnings are projected to quickly renormalize in mega-cap tech, following a sharp decline in profit growth from 4Q23-3Q24," Golub said.

The Big Six firms are currently trading in the range of 21.6-39 times their forward 12-month price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, whereas the benchmark S&P 500 index trades about 25 times.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/APPLE-INC-4849/news/Profit-momentum-of-Big-Six-tech-companies-to-collapse-over-2024-UBS-says-46491809/

'No Evidence FBI Used Counterterrorism Tactics on Catholics: Government Watchdog Report'

 by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

An independent governmental watchdog investigation concluded that there was no evidence to support that the FBI was targeting Catholics based on a leaked memo.

The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a congressional report on Thursday outlining its findings in a 120-day investigation into a 2023 FBI memo that implied a link between Catholicism and violent extremism.

The Richmond, Virginia’s FBI field office disseminated the memo the OIG called the Richmond Domain Perspective (DP) which purportedly connected “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists” (RMVEs) to “Radical Traditionalists Catholic” (RTC) ideology, the report stated.

“FBI Richmond assesses the increasingly observed interest of RMVEs in RTC ideology almost certainly presents new opportunities for threat mitigation through the exploration of new avenues for tripwire and source development,” the memo stated.

The Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government published a 2023 report stating that any information about the memo—which was later retracted—was deleted.

The Subcommittee’s report argued that the memo shows a political bias toward Catholics through its use of “counterterrorism tools” to target them as “potential domestic terrorists.”

“The Committee and Select Subcommittee discovered that the FBI relied on at least one undercover agent to develop its assessment and the FBI even proposed developing sources among the Catholic clergy and church leadership,” the Subcommittee’s report stated. “Not only did the FBI propose to develop sources, but it already interviewed a priest and choir director affiliated with a Catholic church in Richmond, Virginia for the memorandum.”

The Subcommittee’s report said the ordeal is a “cause for concern.”

According to the OIG, during its investigation, it “considered concerns expressed by Members of Congress that FBI Richmond more broadly targeted Catholics who attend traditional Latin mass or hold pro-life or other conservative views in an effort to identify domestic terrorists, including by placing undercover agents or confidential human sources (CHS) in churches or interviewing clergy and other church employees.”

‘Domain Analysis’

The formation of the DP was driven by an investigation into who the OIG named “Defendant A,” a suspect indicted on federal charges and who later entered a guilty plea.

“As a part of its intelligence program, the FBI conducts ‘domain analysis’ to assess how changes in environmental variables—such as demographics, infrastructure, or technology—may result in new threats or impact the FBI’s ability to mitigate existing threats,” the OIG said.

The FBI agents involved in the investigation and drafting of the DM told the OIG that they “acknowledged that all religious beliefs are protected by the First Amendment” and that the allegation that they were targeting Catholics is “patently false,” the OIG reported.

The agents told the OIG that they chose the RTC term because the suspect in the investigation referred to himself as a “rad-trad Catholic clerical fascist” on his social media profile and that the term appeared frequently online.

The OIG referenced a previous FBI Inspection Division (INSD) report which found that “although there was no evidence of malicious intent or improper purpose,” the agents “failed to adhere to analytic tradecraft standards and evinced errors in professional judgment, including that it lacked sufficient evidence or articulable support for a relationship between RMVEs and so-called RT ideology.”

The OIG said the initial INSD report—which “examined a broader range of issues than our limited review”—also concluded that the agents’ DM created “the appearance that the FBI had inappropriately considered religious beliefs and affiliation” as a basis for its investigation.

However, OIG’s investigation found no evidence of “discriminatory or inappropriate comments” about the Catholic religion or any of the churches that were connected with the investigation, it concluded.

FBI’s Response

In response to The Epoch Times’ request for comment, the FBI sent this statement:

“We thank the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General for its review. The FBI has said numerous times that the intelligence product did not meet our exacting standards and was quickly removed from FBI systems. We also have said there was no intent or actions taken to investigate Catholics or anyone based on religion; this was confirmed by the findings of the OIG.  The FBI’s mission is to protect our communities from potential threats while simultaneously upholding the constitutional rights of all Americans. We do not conduct investigations based solely on First Amendment protected activity, including religious practices.”

Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/no-evidence-fbi-used-counterterrorism-tactics-catholics-government-watchdog-report

Moderna to Supply Brazil 12.5 million COVID-19 Vaccines

  Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) today announced a contract with the Ministry of Health in Brazil (Ministério da Saúde) to supply its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine as an integral part of Brazil's 2024 national vaccination campaign against COVID-19. This contract follows the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency's (ANVISA) approval of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in March 2024, which encodes the spike protein of the XBB.1.5 sublineage of SARS-CoV-2 for active immunization for the prevention of COVID-19 in children from six months of age and adults.

https://www.accesswire.com/855291/moderna-announces-contract-with-brazil-to-supply-125-million-covid-19-vaccines-as-part-of-national-vaccination-campaign

FDA declines to approve Abeona's skin disorder treatment

 Abeona Therapeutics said on Monday the U.S. health regulator had declined to approve its treatment for a rare skin blistering condition.

In its so-called "Complete Response Letter", the Food and Drug Administration requested certain additional information to satisfy a critical part of any pharmaceutical product application.

The drug developer is seeking approval for the treatment in patients with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, where the skin becomes fragile and blisters can appear through rubbing or exposure to heat.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-us-fda-declines-approve-202742883.html

While Congress Abandons Border, $3.5 Billion Slipped Into Israel Bill For 'Migrants And Refugees'

 While Congress failed to pass a border security bill over the weekend amid a flurry of billions in international aid to Ukraine and Israel, they did set aside $3.5 billion for "Migration and Refugee Assistance" for the State Department to "address humanitarian needs of vulnerable populations and communities."

While written in an absurdly broad brushstroke that's going to be open to interpretation, X user 'Oilfield Rando' suggests that the funds will be used "to pay the NGOs coordinating the illegal invasion at our southern border, and providing all the freebies once they're in."

According to the legislation, the funds can be used if Congress designates it as an "emergency requirement pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985."

And according to that, if Congress designates the funds as necessary for "Overseas Contingency Operations/Global War on Terrorism," and the President "subsequently so designates," the funds are activated for use. 

Of course, nowhere in the bill does it say which migrants, from where, or how the funds can be used to 'assist' them. Given that it's part of the Israel package, one might assume it's referring to refugees from Gaza - however that isn't articulated in the text, so we can only assume the funds can apply to whatever the State Departments wants, assuming Congress and the President activate them.

So, while there's a nebulous set of words governing the $3.5 billion, and which has the appearance of 'checks and balances,' Congress has provided a virtual slush fund for yet another category of people who aren't Americans, and has failed to pass legislation that would protect the country from the economic & national security risks posed by unchecked illegal migration.

Of course!

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/while-congress-abandons-border-35-billion-slipped-israel-bill-migrants-and-refugees

Yet another hacker group demands ransom from Change Healthcare

 Change Healthcare’s ransomware fiasco is constantly going from bad to worse, as now a new threat actor has emerged with ransom demands in exchange for the stolen data.

Roughly a month and a half after initially detecting an attack, a different threat actor going by RansomHub is claiming to own the stolen data, and is asking Change Healthcare for more money. If the company doesn’t follow through, it will sell it to the highest bidder.

According to Wired, which saw screenshots of the database, confirming the authenticity of the database is difficult, but it all points to the data being authentic. The RansomHub threat actor is apparently associated with an individual going by “Notchy”, who was the one to originally get duped by ALPHV.

RansomHub emerges

In late February 2024, the firm, arguably one of the biggest health tech companies in the United States, suffered a ransomware attack that sent ripples throughout the industry, as pharmacies and medical practitioners across the country were left unable to process claims.

In the days and weeks to follow, an affiliate of the infamous BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware-as-a-service operation claimed responsibility for the attack, and demanded $22 million in cryptocurrency, in exchange for the decryption key and for not publishing sensitive data on the dark web.

Change Healthcare seemingly succumbed to the demands, as blockchain analysts soon found a $22 million transaction.

Things quickly turned sour as reports came in that the hackers that broke into Change Healthcare never got the money.

Ransomware-as-a-service works like this: One hacking group develops and maintains an encryptor, and then shares it with other groups, known as affiliates. Those that successfully breach a company and extort money are required to split the funds with the developers. In the case of Change Healthcare, all of the money went to the developers, who took it - and ran. They left a message - “GG” - and shut down the servers. The affiliates were left holding their data - allegedly, 4TB of sensitive customer information - prompting the new change of direction.

https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/yet-another-hacker-group-demands-ransom-from-change-healthcare