'CFPB says buy now, pay later firms must comply with U.S. credit card laws'

 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau declared on Wednesday that customers of the burgeoning buy now, pay later industry have the same federal protections as users of credit cards.

The agency unveiled what it called an “interpretive rule” that deemed BNPL lenders essentially the same as traditional credit card providers under the decades-old Truth in Lending Act.

That means the industry — currently dominated by fintech firms like Affirm, Klarna and PayPal — must make refunds for returned products or canceled services, must investigate merchant disputes and pause payments during those probes, and must provide bills with fee disclosures.

“Regardless of whether a shopper swipes a credit card or uses Buy Now, Pay Later, they are entitled to important consumer protections under long-standing laws and regulations already on the books,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a release.

The CFPB, which last week was handed a crucial victory by the Supreme Court, has pushed hard against the U.S. financial industry, issuing rules that slashed credit card late fees and overdraft penalties. The agency, formed in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, began investigating the BNPL industry in late 2021.

Surging debt

The use of digital installment loan-type services has ballooned in recent years, with volumes surging tenfold from 2019 to 2021, Chopra said during a media briefing. Among CFPB concerns are that some users are given more debt than they can handle, he said.

“Buy now, pay later is now a major part of our consumer credit market as these loans provide a meaningful alternative to other options for consumers,” Chopra told reporters. “The CFPB wants to make sure that these new competitive offerings are not gaining an advantage by sidestepping longstanding rights and responsibilities enshrined under the law.”

It’s unclear how many BNPL providers don’t comply with refund and dispute requirements; on the website for Affirm, for instance, there are pages for both activities.

While the CFPB acknowledged that many BNPL players offer those services, the new rule will ensure that they are applied consistently across the industry, a senior agency official told reporters.

The new rule will go into effect in 60 days, and the agency is now accepting public commentary on it, the official said.

Litigation ahead?

For some time, BNPL providers have anticipated greater regulation, including efforts to apply existing card rules onto the industry. In March, Klarna published a post arguing that its no-interest product was less risky for customers than credit cards — which can often come with steep interest rates — thus requiring less oversight.

“Instead of trying to jam BNPL into an outdated credit card framework that does little to actually protect consumers, leaders in Washington should draft and implement a framework for BNPL that is proportionate to the risk it poses,” Klarna said at the time.

In a statement provided Wednesday, Klarna called the CFPB move a “significant step forward” in BNPL regulation, adding that it already adhered to standards for refunds, disputes and billing information.

“But it is baffling that the CFPB has overlooked the fundamental differences between interest-free BNPL and credit cards, whose whole business model is based on trapping customers into a cycle of paying sky-high interest rates month after month,” said a Klarna spokesperson.

The industry’s stance raises the possibility that, like other financial players including payday lenders, BNPL companies could push back against the CFPB rule by suing the agency.

The CFPB rule capping credit card late fees at $8 per incident, which was set to go into effect this month, was challenged and paused by a federal judge recently.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/22/cfpb-buy-now-pay-later-credit-card-laws.html

Lethal equipment flown from China to Russia for use in Ukraine: UK Defense Sec Shapps

 China is providing Russia with lethal aid for use in its war against Ukraine, the UK Defence Secretary has said.

Grant Shapps suggested that British and US intelligence contradicts Beijing’s previous attempts to present itself as a moderating influence on Moscow.

Mr Shapps used a speech at the London Defence Conference on Wednesday to reveal China’s collaboration as he argued Nato needs to “wake up” and bolster defence spending alliance-wide.

He said: “Today I can reveal that we have evidence that Russia and China are collaborating on combat equipment for use in Ukraine.”

Mr Shapps added: “US and British defence intelligence can reveal that lethal aid is now flying from China to Russia and into Ukraine.

“That recent visit we saw, the I think 64% increase in trade that we’ve seen between the two countries, reveals that there is actually a much deeper relationship there.

“And this is new intelligence which leads me to be able to declassify and reveal this fact today. I think it’s quite significant.”

The Defence Secretary said democratic states must make a “full-throated case” for freedoms that are dependent on the international order, meaning “we need more allies and partners” worldwide.

“It’s time for the world to wake up. And that means translating this moment to concrete plans and capabilities. And that starts with laying the foundations for an alliance-wide increase in spending on our collective deterrent,” he said.

It comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin put on a strong show of unity during a meeting in Beijing earlier this month which was closely watched by Western capitals.

The Chinese president said there should be a “political solution” to the conflict in Ukraine but did not give any details, despite calls including from Downing Street for him to urge Russia to “cease its illegal war”.

Beijing is a key supporter of Mr Putin, who is widely regarded as a pariah after he ordered the invasion in 2022.

It continues to supply Moscow with key components that the Kremlin needs for its war machine, and its purchase of Russian oil and gas has helped boost the Russian economy.

Mr Shapps’ intervention comes after Julianne Smith, the US ambassador to Nato, said China is continuing to sell supplies such as drone technology and gunpowder ingredients to Russia.

It is the latest show of heightened tensions between Beijing and the US and UK, which earlier this month accused Beijing of a series of cyber attacks targeting millions of people in Western countries.

In an interview with digital newspaper Politico, Ms Smith said: “The PRC (People’s Republic of China) cannot claim to be entirely neutral in this case, (and) they are in fact picking a side.

“If they were not providing some of these components, or this materiel support, Russia would be in a very different situation and would have trouble pursuing some of these acts of aggression.”

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/lethal-equipment-flown-china-russia-095918429.html

Billions Paid to CVS, Walgreen Not to Fill Ivermectin Scripts

 Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who pushed the government’s deadly COVID-19 narrative and shamed the unvaccinated,1 admitted he is taking Ivermectin for Long COVID – a condition affecting 17 million Americans2 which many believe could be caused by COVID-19 vaccines. Defending his use of Ivermectin, Cuomo – showing no remorse – stated, “Ivermectin was a boogeyman during COVID. That was wrong. We were given bad information about Ivermectin. The real question is, why?”3

Cuomo’s admission comes too late for the millions of Americans who could have benefited from Ivermectin as part of a treatment protocol for COVID-19.4 While Cuomo now admits the government got it dead wrong, he seems less willing to admit the part he played in perpetuating the government’s lies in what has become the biggest story of our lifetimes: In cartel-like fashion, the U.S. government bribed private entities to push experimental genetic injections knowing the shots caused serious injuries and even death, while blocking promising but unprofitable repurposed medications with high safety profiles that could have saved lives.

Americans Were Purposely Given “Bad” Information 

Ivermectin was baselessly maligned at the height of the pandemic by the U.S. government, its captured medical establishment, and a bought-off mainstream media.5 According to Dr. Pierre Kory – a pulmonary and critical care specialist who has testified and written extensively about the intentional censure of Ivermectin in the U.S. – Ivermectin had the potential to save countless U.S. lives and could have ended the entire pandemic.6

Yet, bought-off hospitals and pharmacies, which were allocated a staggering $178 billion in federal COVID-19 relief money during the pandemic,7 would turn on the Nobel prize-winning drug. According to Dr. Kory in his book The War on Ivermectin.

“In the wake of the global horse-dewormer propaganda campaign, hospitals started pulling ivermectin from their pharmacies. Health systems began harassing and threatening employees with loss of employment if they prescribed ivermectin. Pharmacies became even more brazen in their refusals to fill ivermectin prescriptions.”8

Hospitals and pharmacies refused to administer or fill Ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19.9 Clinical doctors who spoke out about successes they had treating patients with Ivermectin were shamed or – as in the high-profile case of Dr. Mary Talley Bowden – had privileges suspended.10

As Cuomo now readily admits, Americans were given bad (and even deadly) information about Ivermectin. Disturbingly, this bad information appears to have been intentional. But why? The most obvious reason is profits. If the public became aware that Ivermectin – a Nobel prize-winning medicine with a high safety profile – had shown potential efficacy against COVID-19, the global market for the government’s novel mRNA “vaccines” would have collapsed.11

As we wrote about in 2022, a safe, effective drug for early treatment of COVID-19 would have threatened the public’s acceptance of the government’s experimental gene therapy rebranded as vaccines, placing in question trillions of dollars in prospective profits for the medical-industrial complex.12

Pharmacies Were Incentivized to Follow the Government’s Lethal COVID-19 Narrative

As it always does, the truth eventually wins out. Americans are waking up to the sobering truth that the COVID-19 “vaccines” have inflicted widespread disability and death, even if they are hesitant to admit the actual numbers of those injured and killed.13 Americans are also waking up to another distasteful truth (which we have written about many times before)14 – the U.S. government targeted and paid off “trusted” sources to purposefully spoon-feed bad and even dangerous information to everyday Americans.15 These “trusted” sources chose profits over people.

A host of influential private voices in every sector of American life were on the government take. As we expose for the first time in this piece, we now know these “trusted” voices included two leading pharmacy companies around the country. Some of these very pharmacies claim, even today, that they are prohibited from filling Ivermectin for COVID-1916 and refuse to fill doctors’ prescriptions for Ivermectin.17

Some of these pharmacies brazenly pushed the government’s COVID-19 shots while balking at filling prescriptions for Ivermectin – even though during mass Ivermectin treatment in another country, excess deaths fell by a mean of 74% over a 30-day period, as reported in one 2021 study.18 In July of 2022, Walgreens ran a public-relations propaganda piece, highlighting a trusted “Walgreens healthcare supervisor” sharing the relief he felt over the fact that his 3-year-old daughter had finally received the COVID-19 shot.19 Walgreens would run another shameless propaganda piece in October of 2022, featuring then-NIAID Director Anthony Fauci getting his COVID-19 booster at a Walgreens pharmacy.20 Coincidentally, just before the Walgreens booster infomercial featuring Fauci ran, CVS had run its very own similar COVID-19 booster infomercial – this one picked up by mainstream media21 – showcasing then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky getting her bi-valent COVID-19 vaccine at a CVS in Massachusetts.22

Coincidence? Hardly. Our research reveals that both Walgreens and CVS were recipients of large monetary contract awards from the federal government for their work related to COVID-19. Had these pharmacies readily filled or promoted Ivermectin – an inexpensive drug frowned upon by the medical establishment which potentially threatened the government’s COVID-19 narrative – this would likely have interfered with COVID-19-related contract money these pharmacies stood to receive from the federal government.

The contracted work appears to have included providing COVID-19 testing and administering vaccines, but also could have included filling prescriptions for government-sponsored medications like Paxlovid.23 In short, the pharmacies would have likely missed out on some of their share of the $5 trillion of government money handed out like chump change during the pandemic.24

How Much Did These Pharmacies Stand to Earn? Two Government Websites Show Billions 

Two separate government websites reveal billions in COVID-19-related government contracts were awarded to the nation’s two largest pharmacy companies: CVS and Walgreens.25 Some of these government contracts appear to be ongoing today.

According to one U.S. government website, in June of 2022, CVS was the recipient of a government contract award with a potential worth of over $2.1 billion.26 Transaction descriptions on the website show some of the money paid to CVS was for ICATT 27 – a CDC program providing COVID-19 testing and vaccine services.28 As the CDC’s website notes, “ICATT pharmacy sites provide vaccine services, while a subset of ICATT pharmacy sites provide both testing and vaccine services.”29

 

 

The $2.1 billion contract award CVS received in June of 2022 might help to explain why CVS ran a propaganda piece just a few months later, featuring then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky visiting a CVS to receive her COVID-19 bivalent booster.30

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If $2.1 billion in potential government contract money is not shocking enough, a different government website shows a similar federal contract with CVS, this one having a potential worth of $3.4 billion through 2025.31

 

 

 

Walgreens has also been on the government take. Two separate government spending websites show over $800 million in federal contract award money was awarded to Walgreen Co. in 2021:

Site 1: USASpending.gov32

 

Site 2: Federal Procurement Data System (fpds.gov)33

 

One of these government websites also shows federal government awards to Walgreen Co. topped $1 billion in 2022.34 This might help explain why Walgreens ran propaganda pieces pushing COVID-19 shots in kids at its pharmacies,35 and shamelessly showcased then-NIAID director Anthony Fauci receiving his COVID-19 booster at a Walgreens in October of that same year.36 Both of these Walgreens propaganda pieces were attributed to Walgreens’ affiliate, Walgreens Boots Alliance,37 which claims a presence in eight countries through its various consumer brands and disturbingly also “has a portfolio of healthcare-focused investments located in several countries, including China and the U.S.”38

 

 

     

 

Drug dealing, it seems, has always been a lucrative business, especially when the drug lord of your cartel is the federal government. Why in the world would any supplier want to promote or prescribe a cheap and readily available drug – like Ivermectin – if doing so would throw a wrench into potential billion-dollar cash-cow contracts with the federal government? The simple answer: If the supplier values its profits over patients, it wouldn’t.

Could this explain why doctors like Dr. Mary Tally Bowden –  despite prevailing in a lawsuit which required the FDA to remove its now infamous tweet maligning Ivermectin – still can’t get certain Walgreens stores to fill her prescriptions for Ivermectin?39

As it turns out, the answer to former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s question, “Why were Americans given bad information about Ivermectin?” is likely to be far darker and run far deeper than most Americans want to imagine. In light of mounting calls for accountability, the backup plan for those who pushed the government’s lethal narrative may now be – like Cuomo – to admit mistakes were made and play dumb while trying to frame the human carnage as limited (as the New York Times recently attempted to do).

https://www.americaoutloud.news/the-government-cartel-paid-billions-to-walgreens-and-cvs-not-to-fill-ivermectin-the-question-is-why/

'White House highlights fentanyl trafficking in pressing Republicans on border bill'

 The White House focused on fentanyl trafficking at the U.S. southern border Wednesday when urging Republicans to pass the bipartisan border security bill when it comes up in the Senate later this week.

In a memo entitled, “While President Biden sides with U.S. Border Patrol, congressional Republicans side with fentanyl traffickers,” senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates called on GOP lawmakers to choose saving lives over politics.

The memo comes ahead of a vote on the bipartisan border security bill in the upper chamber, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is planning for Thursday, three months after Republicans initially blocked the legislation.

“So Congressional Republicans have to choose: will they again decide that politics is more important than stopping fentanyl traffickers and saving the lives of innocent constituents?” Bates said Wednesday. “Joe Biden knows where he stands.”

Senate Republicans are vowing to block the bill, and no Republican senator has said they would vote for it. The bill was endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Bates, in the memo, hit Republicans for not passing the bipartisan border bill after former President Trump urged them to oppose it, so the border would stay a major issue for Election Day.

He outlined that the legislation would fund machines to detect fentanyl in vehicles crossing the border and would provide funding to hire new law enforcement personnel at the border.

“Rather than working across the aisle to stop fentanyl trafficking, most congressional Republicans stopped legislation to save American lives from fentanyl,” Bates said in the memo. “What’s worse, those Republican members admitted that the bipartisan deal would work; and they admitted that they opposed it sheerly out of politics, saying that Donald Trump pressured them to vote ‘no’ for his own sake.”

Biden spoke Monday with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to push for passage of the bill.

The legislation is likely to fail, but it will give Democrats the ability to flip the messaging on the campaign trail and blame the GOP for issues at the border. Meanwhile, Republicans will continue to blame Biden and Democrats for the influx of migrants ahead of November.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4679111-white-house-fentanyl-trafficking-border-deal-senate-republicans/

RNC headquarters locked down after receiving vials of blood

 The Republican National Committee’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., was placed under lockdown Wednesday, after it received a package containing vials of blood, according to U.S. Capitol Police.

Capitol Police responded around 7:45 a.m. to the RNC headquarters for a report of a suspicious package with two vials of blood inside, authorities confirmed to The Hill.

The building — located at the 300 block of First Street SE in D.C. — and the surrounding area were blocked from pedestrian traffic while authorities investigated, Capitol Police said.

The hazardous incident response division was called in to clear the package and the contents will be further investigated, Capitol Police added.

D.C. Metro Police and D.C. Fire and Emergency Management Services confirmed their departments both assisted Capitol Police.

The Hill reached out the RNC for further comment.

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), who serves as the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told reporters Wednesday he was informed the building has since been cleared.

“A suspicious package was delivered, out of an abundance of caution and following protocol, we called in a hazmat team. I say we…they [RNC officials] called in a hazmat team,” Hudson told The Hill.

It was not immediately clear authorities have identified a suspect or taken anyone in custody.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4679299-rnc-headquarters-locked-down-received-vials-blood/

Rhythm Pharma Positive NICE Opinion for Treatment of Obesity and Hyperphagia

 IMCIVREE expected to be funded and available for use in England and Wales within three months through the National Health Service in specialist centres

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RYTM), a global commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on transforming the lives of patients and their families living with rare neuroendocrine diseases, today announced the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued guidance that recommends IMCIVREE^® (setmelanotide) as an option for treating obesity and the control of hunger (hyperphagia) in genetically confirmed Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) in people 6 years of age and over, if they are between 6 and 17 years of age when treatment starts. Patients may remain on reimbursed setmelanotide as adults whilst they continue to benefit from therapy.

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/rhythm-pharmaceuticals-receives-positive-recommendation-from-nice-for-imcivree-setmelanotide-for-treatment-of-obesity-and-hyperphagia-in-patients-with-bardet-biedl-syndrome/

Evotec Reports Q1 2024 Results and Provides Corporate Update

 

• CHALLENGING Q1 WITH SOFTNESS MAINLY IN TRANSACTIONAL/DEVELOPMENT SHARED R&D BUSINESS AGAINST A STRONG COMPARABLE QUARTER
• STRONG START WITH JUST - EVOTEC BIOLOGICS IN Q1 2024
• POSITIVE MOMENTUM IN SHARED R&D DISCOVERY CLOSED SALES POINT TO RECOVERY OF REVENUES TOWARDS END OF THE YEAR
• RESET FOR PROFITABLE GROWTH INITIATED, NEW REPORTING SEGMENTS INTRODUCED: SHARED R&D AND JUST - EVOTEC BIOLOGICS

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/evotec-reports-q1-2024-results-and-provides-corporate-update/