Arutz Sheva: The Palestinian Authority (PA) sent an official letter to the White House claiming that all factions, including the ruling Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, were committed to establishing a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital, Palestinian news site Amad reported on Saturday.
(Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas holds a placard showing maps of (L to R) historical Palestine, the 1947 United Nations partition plan on Palestine, the 1948-1967 borders between the Palestinian territories and Israel, and a current map of the Palestinian territories without Israeli-annexed areas and settlement)
The Arabic-language outlet also published details of the message and indicated that Hady Amr, the US State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs, received the letter.
Breitbart: Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) declared Sunday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that we should not want “low-wage businesses” when pressed on small businesses who would struggle under a federal mandate to pay employees $15 an hour.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 would cost 1.4 million Americans their jobs over the next four years. Read More
(PM Benjamin Netanyahu embracing then VP Joe Biden in Jerusalem, March 9, 2016)
Jewish Press: Acting US Ambassador Richard Mills on Thursday informed the UN Security Council that the US “hereby withdraws” the three letters sent by the Trump administration—the most recent one on September 19—which reimposed UN sanctions against Iran.
According to Reuters, although President Joe Biden in his phone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday mentioned Iran, he said nothing to the Israeli leader about his plan to bring back the nuclear deal as is. This should serve as a major red alert to Netanyahu, who is best remembered by Biden et al as the PM who defied President Obama by advocating in an open speech to both houses of Congress against the nuclear deal.
In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the ambassador announced that the sanctions which had been terminated by the 2015 council resolution following the signing of a nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers (JCPOA) “remain terminated.”
State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Thursday that “the United States would accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UNSC and Germany – DI) and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran’s nuclear program.”
Iran for its part has breached the JCPOA deal in 2019 by enriching uranium up to 20%, significantly above the curbs of the original deal. Read More
Zero Hedge: With the worst of the Texas power crisis now behind us, the blame and fingerpointing begins, and while the jury is still out whose actions (or lack thereof) may have led to the deadly and widespread blackouts that shocked Texas this week, Cascend Strategy writes that “in case there was any doubt why the Texas grid collapsed, the data is clear”
Ice covered Texas wind turbines)
Wind failed as “Ice storms knocked out nearly half the wind-power generating capacity of Texas on Sunday as a massive deep freeze across the state locked up wind turbine generators, creating an electricity generation crisis.”
Arutz Sheva: The White House said on Friday that the US has accepted Europe’s offer to mediate conversations with Iran regarding the 2015 nuclear deal.
At the same time, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that the United States has no plan to withdraw sanctions against Iran ahead of such talks.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as US President Joe Biden flew to Michigan, Psaki said, according to Reuters, that “there is no plan to take additional steps” on Iran in advance of having a “diplomatic conversation.” Read More
Zero Hedge” Just a week after Goldman unleashed a wave of worry about tighter financial conditions with its revised forecast boosting 2021 and 2022 GDP up by 0.2% each year, to 6.8% and 4.5%respectively, as a result of a far bigger stimulus than its had originally expected ($1.5 trillion vs $1.1 trillion originally), which set the US economy directly on collision course with overheating (and prompted Goldman to pull forward its first rate hike estimate to H1 2022), other banks have started jumping on the overheating bandwagon, and today JPMorgan became the latest bank to nearly double its Covid stimulus forecast, which led the bank to aggressively boost its 2021 and 2022 GDP estimates as well.
In a note to clients, JPM’s chief economist Michael Feroli made the following forecast revisions:
We now look for a $1.7 trillion fiscal stimulus package (up from $900 billion) to be passed in March
Even before that kicks in, growth appears to be on firmer footing at the start of the year
All told we now expect 6.4% (4Q/4Q) GDP growth this year and 2.8% next year
We see the labor market getting back to full employment, or around 4% unemployment, by 2Q22…
…and expect core PCE inflation to reach 2.0% by 4Q22, with balanced risks around the outlook
While the outlooks for growth and inflation are moving up, Fed rhetoric appears to be getting more dovish Read More
PJ Media: Facebook has gone nuclear in its long-running battle with the Australian government over news content. Australia is considering legislation that would require Facebook to pay to link to Australian news stories. In response, Facebook has announced a wide-ranging ban on users linking Australian news content.
The ban means that Facebook users in Australia can no longer make posts that link to news articles—either in the Australian media or internationally. Meanwhile, users outside of Australia can’t post links to Australian news sources. The ban has already gone into effect, as I discovered when I tried to post a link to The Sydney Morning Herald on Facebook:…
In a blog post, Facebook argued that this proposal “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content.” Facebook argues news sites benefit from the traffic Facebook sends them far more than Facebook benefits by linking to news sites. Facebook says that last year it sent 5.1 billion free referrals to Australian publishers—traffic the company estimates is worth AU$407 million ($315 million).
Electric bills in the Lone Star State skyrocketed to as high as $17,000 per month after a historic storm and power outage sparked a high demand for heat, according to reports Friday.
Dallas-area resident Ty Williams was hit with sticker shock when his monthly bill soared from $600 last month to nearly $17,000 so far this month, according to the local station WFAA.
“How in the world can anyone pay that? I mean you go from a couple hundred dollars a month…there’s absolutely no way‚ it makes no sense,” Williams, who said he received the bill from the energy firm Griddy.
The price of power in Texas spiked from $50 to $9,000 per Megawatt in some cases due to the supply and demand disaster, according to the station. Read More
CNBC: Bitcoin’s market value surpassed $1 trillion on Friday, according to Coindesk.
The digital currency was trading at just under $54,000 per coin Friday as it hit the new level, and rose above $55,000 later in the session for a daily gain of more than 6%, according to Coin Metrics.The price of bitcoin has now gained about 360% over the past six months. Before the recent surge, the digital asset has never traded above $20,000.
The move has been fueled in part by increased adoption of bitcoin by major investors and companies. The oldest bank in the United States, the Bank of New York Mellon, announced earlier this month that it was moving into the space. Elon Musk’s Tesla converted some of its balance sheet cash into bitcoin earlier this year and said it would start accepting the digital tokens as payment.
