Rothschild Dynasty’s Heir Is Selling His Luxury Superyacht for Almost $100 Million

Sometimes, billionaires’ toys can become just as famous as their owners, even it happens due to reasons that might be considered negative. The majestic Planet Nine, although a spectacular yacht in its own right, made headlines years ago when it was at the center of a legal scandal. Now, it’s back on the market, ready to write a different story.

Rothschild is one of those names that needs no introduction. As the heir of the Baron Rothschild title, along with the famous European banking business, Nathaniel (Nat) Rothschild is also known for owning several high-class toys, including private jets and yachts. It was many years ago that he commissioned what was then known as “Project Nato,” a gorgeous explorer meant to travel the world.

A lot of billionaires like to keep their luxury purchases private, but Nat’s future superyacht became famous when a high court case broke out, back in 2012. The banking tycoon and the initial Monaco-based builder of the vessel had a conflict over the payments and the progress of the construction. A few years later, the project was moved to Admiral Yachts and became this shipyard’s second largest model, known as Planet Nine.

So, we could say that the Rothschild heir literally fought for this luxury vessel, a 270-foot (73 meters) explorer. With an exterior design by Tim Heywood Design and an interior by Fitz Interior, Planet Nine was meant to be as comfortable and intimate as a villa, according to the builder, while also being equipped for thrilling adventures. The Owner’s private area unfolds over 300 square meters (3,200 square feet), with the main cabin on the aft and a second cabin, plus a lounge area, on the bow.

Guests onboard can enjoy a panoramic observatory lounge, a theater room with a 119” screen, and a spa room with a large terrace. Another distinctive feature of Planet Nine is its dedicated helicopter area, which includes not just a helipad for an Airbus H 130 model, and a hangar with refueling capabilities, but even a dedicated cabin and office for the helicopter pilot, which is very rare for a yacht of this size.

The legal dispute over “Project Nato” is now in the past, and Rothschild is parting with his luxury toy, listed for a whopping $96 million (€85 million). Another billionaire will write a new chapter on board Planet Nine.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/rothschild-dynastys-heir-is-selling-his-luxury-superyacht-for-almost-100-million-175337.html

Canada #25 >>>/qresearch/15147329

Ivermectin is helping control the virus outbreak in Japan:

The Pandemic in Japan was going out of control, yet the Japanese government was smart enough to look beyond vaccines in its COVID-19 containment efforts.

In September, Japan deployed Ivermectin and legalising the use of the anti-parasitic drug has helped people recover from COVID-19 with more durable and long-lasting immunity. Caseloads have come down rapidly without the need for booster vaccination doses. In Tokyo, there were around 6,000 cases in the middle of August, but the number has now dropped down to below one hundred.

Japan is now overcoming the Coronavirus, with the number of COVID tests dropping from 25% in the fag end of August to just 1% mid-October.

Ivermectin use is thus helping Japan permanently beat the COVID-19 Pandemic. If and when vaccine efficacy wanes, Japan will have a choice- using an anti-parasitic medicine as a permanent cure to ensure speedy recovery of infected patients with durable immunity. Japan has thus crushed Big Pharma with a small move- deploying the use of Ivermectin.

https://tfiglobalnews.com/2021/11/08/japan-crushes-big-pharma-with-a-small-yet-effective-move/

General Research #19161 >>>/qresearch/15146267

World Bank Admits Pfizer Will Only Give Vaccines to Countries in Which Citizens Can’t Sue Them for Injuries

Imagine the audacity it takes for a company who is ostensibly helping to stop a pandemic to tell people they can’t have their “life-saving” medicine unless said company can harm them with impunity. There is no need to imagine, as this is the situation in which we currently find ourselves.

It is no secret that removing someone’s liability also removes their incentive to create safer products and actually encourages careless behavior. Vaccine manufacturers are no stranger to this process and since 1988, the U.S. taxpayers have shelled out over $4 billion to pay for the damages caused by vaccines — not the manufacturers.

In 1988, largely due to vaccine makers lobbying the government to alleviate their liability, The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) was established.

After an uptick in lawsuits in the late 80’s, the vaccine manufacturers essentially held the government hostage and threatened to stop making vaccines unless the government took on responsibility for vaccine injury lawsuits — and NVICP did just that.

You can actually prove that you or your child were harmed from a vaccine yet the vaccine maker is completely shielded from liability. Even if you are awarded monetary compensation through the NVICP, the taxpayers are put on the line, not the vaccine makers. This removal of liability has created the incentive to turn out new vaccines with very little testing, as the companies don’t have to worry about financial hardships for injuring people, which in turn has shaped the situation that we find ourselves in today. In the last 2 decades, we’ve witnessed a near 300% increase in the number of CDC recommended vaccines.

Now, we have companies like Pfizer turning out a vaccine that was developed and approved in only eight months and they had absolutely zero incentive to devote resources to the in depth study of its safety. In fact, as we reported, the British Medical Journal published an incendiary report exposing faked data, blind trial failures, poorly trained vaccinators, and a slow follow-up on adverse reactions in the phase-three trial of Pfizer’s Covid jab.

Seems like a company who has no worry of liability, doesn’t it?

The NVICP doesn’t go far enough for Pfizer, however, and with the Emergency Use Authorization of its product last year, an entirely new form of immunity was rolled out. If you are injured by one of the COVID-19 jabs, you don’t get to use the NVICP because no COVID-19 vaccine is on their list of “covered vaccines.”

Instead, last year under Donald Trump, then Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar invoked the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP). The 2005 law empowers the HHS secretary to provide legal protection to companies making or distributing critical medical supplies, such as vaccines and treatments, unless there’s “willful misconduct” by the company. The protection lasts until 2024.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/pfizer-liability-world-bank-countries/

https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/index.html

General Research #19161 >>>/qresearch/15146645

Massachusetts Hospital Fires 200 Employees For Not Getting Covid Vaccine

UMass Memorial fired 200 employees because they didn’t get the Covid vaccine by the hospital system’s deadline.

The company said its priority is “protecting their patients” and they did that by firing healthcare workers.

CBS Boston reported:

About 200 UMass Memorial Health employees are out of a job because they missed the health care system’s COVID vaccination deadline.

UMass Memorial announced the mandate over the summer with a deadline to get vaccinated or receive an exemption by November 1.

Employees were let go on December 1 if they did not get the vaccine.

The hospital said it hoped everyone would get their shots, but the priority is protecting patients and other caregivers.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/massachusetts-hospital-fires-200-employees-not-getting-covid-vaccine/

General Research #19161 >>>/qresearch/15146198

INSANE: Biden Waives Sanctions Against Terrorist Nation Iran

The Biden/Obama gang has lifted sanctions against terrorist nation Iran.

The Washington Examiner reported:

The Biden administration quietly waived sanctions on Iran to allow the hardline regime to sell electricity to Iraq, according to a non-public notification obtained by the Washington Free Beacon that was provided to Congress just as nuclear talks between the United States and Tehran resumed this week.

The timing of the waiver notification—which was signed Nov. 19 but not transmitted to Congress until Nov. 29, the day nuclear negotiations resumed—has prompted accusations the Biden administration is offering concessions to Tehran to generate goodwill as talks aimed at securing a revamped version of the 2015 nuclear deal restart following a months-long standoff.

Jihad Watch offers more on the topic:

It never fails.

The more concessions you make to terrorists, the harder they push. That’s been the defining dynamic of the Iran negotiations, the PLO negotiations, and all the negotiations with Islamic terrorists.

The Biden administration is living up to that dynamic…

…Iran is repaying the concessions in exactly the way you would expect a terror regime to do.

A US official said Saturday that Iran had backed away from all its previous compromises on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal and that the US would not allow Iran to “slow walk” the international negotiations while at the same time ramping up its atomic activities.

The warning came a day after Washington hit out at Iran, saying talks with world powers on a return to the 2015 nuclear accord had stalled because Tehran “does not seem to be serious.”

“We can’t accept a situation in which Iran accelerates its nuclear program and slow walks its nuclear diplomacy,” said a senior US administration official — echoing a recent warning by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Speaking to reporters after returning from the Austrian capital, the official said Washington was not yet planning to walk away from the indirect talks that it resumed with Tehran last week in Vienna, but hoped Iran would return “with a serious attitude.”

Remember, Obama believes Iran is and should be a world power.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/insane-biden-waves-sanctions-terrorist-nation-iran/

General Research #19161 >>>/qresearch/15146214

Revealed: Feds Are Investigating Trump’s Media Company While They Ignore Hunter Biden’s Laptop and Shady Deals with China, Russia, Ukraine

President Trump stood up for the people and against the regime.

Now he must be punished.

The Security and Exchange Commission is now investigating President Trump’s upcoming media venture. According to Business Insider the SEC has requested documents about “meetings of the partner company’s board of directors, “policies and procedures relating to trading,” identification of certain investors, and copies of communication between the partner company and Trump’s new organization.”

The AP has more.

Donald Trump’s new social media company forecasts it may have 81 million users by 2026, or nearly 7 million more people than voted for him in the last U.S. presidential election.

The projection was filed on Monday with securities regulators by the company trying to bring Trump Media & Technology Group to the stock market. The company, Digital World Acquisition Corp., said over the weekend that it has lined up $1 billion in promised investments for the former president’s new venture from a group of unnamed institutional investors, and it filed a copy of the presentation used to pitch investors and analysts.

The filing also said that the deal has attracted some scrutiny from regulators. Digital World Acquisition, which is often referred to by its trading symbol of “DWAC,” said it is cooperating with “the preliminary, fact-finding inquiries” by the Financial Industry Regulation Authority and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Financial Industry Regulation Authority, or FINRA, asked in late October and early November for a review of trading in its stock before the Oct. 20 merger deal was announced. That announcement sent shares of DWAC surging from $9.96 to $94.20 in just two days as Trump supporters and investors looking to make a quick buck piled in. The shares have since pulled back to roughly $43.

At the same time the federal government is ignoring Hunter Biden’s laptop, his illegal drug use and orgies, and his several shady deals with China, Russia and the Ukraine.

Democrat privilege.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/revealed-feds-investigating-trumps-media-company-ignore-hunter-bidens-laptop-shady-deals-china-russia-ukraine/

General Research #19162 >>>/qresearch/15147831

New Study: ZERO Deaths From COVID Among Healthy Children — Why Are They Forced To Take Dangerous Vaccine?

Not a single healthy child from ages 5 to 18 died of COVID-19 throughout the first 15 months of the pandemic in Germany– the largest country in Europe, according to a newly published major study.

A German registry established in March 2020, shows 1.5 million German children or adolescents were infected with Sars-Cov-2 between March 2020 and May 2021.

Not a single healthy child died from the virus.

The probability of a healthy child requiring intensive care for COVID were about 1 in 50,000, researchers at Cold Sring Harbor Laboratory concluded in a study published to the medRxiv prepping server on Monday.

The odds of children 12 and older requiring intensive care for Covid were 1 in 8,o00.

“Overall, the SARS-CoV-2-associated burden of a severe disease course or death in children and adolescents is low. This seems particularly the case for 5-11-year-old children without comorbidities,” the study notes.

While no healthy children died from the coronavirus in Germany, 14 Germans under the age of 18 with serious preexisting conditions died of Covid during the 15 month time period.

Former New York Times journalist Alex Berenson called attention to the study, warning, “If you let your healthy child or teenager receive the mRNA Covid vaccine, you are insane.”

“Given the known risks of vaccine-induced myocarditis in young men, the fact that Pfizer tested its mRNA vaccines on barely 3,000 children 5-11 and followed most of them for only weeks after the second dose, the German data again raises the question of how health authorities can possibly justify encouraging children or teenagers to be vaccinated,” he wrote. “But they have.”

More people have died or suffered from Covid 19 vaccines than any other vaccine in recorded history, according to the CDC’s own data.

As of Nov. 26, 19,943 people have died from receiving the experimental mRNA vaccine in 2021, while 605 people died of vaccines prior to the administration of the gene-modifying Covid inoculation.

According to VAERS, 1,782,451 are suffering from adverse side effects after receiving the vaccine.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/new-study-zero-deaths-covid-among-healthy-children-forced-take-dangerous-vaccine/

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.30.21267048v1.full.pdf

General Research #19162 >>>/qresearch/15147840

Antifa Marxists Attack and Interrupt Massive Nationalist Rally in France – Are Beaten and Chased from Building by Crowd Chanting, “Everyone Hates Antifa!”

Antifa goons interrupted a nationalist conference in France on Sunday.

The Antifa Marxists stopped the conference standing in a line in T-shirts that spelled out “No to Racism.”

The angry crowd immediately began beating and hurling chairs at the Antifa Marxists. They were then chased from the building.

The antifa riot took place at a massive rally for populist candidate Eric Zemmour who is running for president.

The antifa goons had to shut down the event. But the people attending the conference did not appreciate the stunt and drove them from the building.

Police are investigating the brawl at the conference.

The Antifa Marxists were chased from the building. Several people were chanting, “Everyone hates Antifa!”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/video-antifa-marxists-attack-interrupt-massive-nationalist-rally-france-beaten-chased-building/

General Research #19162 >>>/qresearch/15148227

https://mobile.twitter.com/catturd2/status/1467883152551161858

Catturd ™

@catturd2

Best Governor in the USA.

Quote Tweet

Ron DeSantis

@GovRonDeSantis

· 8h

Jeff, a Florida doctor I met in Brandon at the Special Session bill signing, was suspended from his job due to Biden's mandate. He has now been reinstated due to our efforts to stop this heavy-handed federal mandate.

Freedom has a home here in Florida.

Image

10:46 AM · Dec 6, 2021

>>109860

Roger That

General Research #19162 >>>/qresearch/15148378

https://gab.com/a/posts/107401537753462021

General Research #19163 >>>/qresearch/15148372

Jussie Smollett testifies to having correspondence with CNN's Don Lemon during CPD investigation

https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/jussie-smollett-trial-day-5

Amazon Emerging as Top ‘Ocean Vendor’ as it Skirts Supply Chain Using Private Vessels

by Penny Starr 6 Dec 2021

The online behemoth Amazon is trying to bypass the supply chain crisis by hiring private shipping vessels to transport products to customers from around the world, a move that reflects the retailer’s increasing global influence.

Ocean freight analyst Steve Ferreira said in a CNBC report:

They are doing over 10,000 containers per month of the small- and medium-sized Chinese exporters. Amazon’s volume as an ocean vendor — that’s right, you heard me correct, they’re considered an ocean vendor — would rank them in the top five transportation companies in the Trans Pacific.

This isn’t the first time the retailer has hired private ships to transport goods, according to CNBC. But Amazon has expanded its plan, which has cut waiting times in ports from more than a month to just days.

“Los Angeles, there’s 79 vessels sitting out there up to 45 days waiting to come into the harbor,” Ferreira said. “Amazon’s latest venture that I’ve been tracking in the last two days, it waited two days in the harbor.” Ferreira said:

Who else would think of putting something going into an obscure port in Washington, and then trucking it down to L.A.? Most people are thinking, well, just bring the ship into L.A. But then you’re experiencing those two-week and three-weeks delay. So Amazon’s really taken advantage of some of the niche strategies I believe that the market needs to employ.

Amazon has produced probably 5,000 to 10,000 of these containers over the last two years I’ve been tracking it. Ferreira said. When they bring these containers onto U.S. soil, once they unload them, guess what? They get to be used in the domestic system and the rail system. They don’t have to return them to Asia like everyone else does.

Even so, Amazon is still feeling the pinch like other retailers because of the supply chain crisis, including a 14 percent rise in out-of-stock items and an average price increase of 25 percent since January 2021, according to the e-commerce management platform CommerceIQ.

CNBC reported on Amazon’s move:

Amazon has been on a spending spree to control as much of the shipping process as possible. It spent more than $61 billion on shipping in 2020, up from just under $38 billion in 2019. Now, Amazon is shipping 72% of its own packages, up from less than 47% in 2019 according to SJ Consulting Group.

It’s even taking control at the first step of the shipping journey by making its own 53-foot cargo containers in China. Containers are in short supply, with long wait times and prices surging from less than $2,000 before the pandemic to $20,000 today. A cargo vessel called the Star Lygra called at the Port of Houston on October 5, 2021, filled with Amazon containers.

Then in 2017, Amazon started quietly operating as a global freight forwarder through a Chinese subsidiary, helping move goods across the ocean for its Chinese sellers who pay to be part of the Fulfilled by Amazon program. Internally, Amazon dubbed this project “Dragon Boat.”

Amazon is also using long-haul aircraft to transport its “highest-margin goods,” which can get smaller amounts of cargo from China to the U.S. much faster.

A handful of other major retailers are also chartering vessels, including Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, Ikea, and Target, according to CNBC.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/12/06/amazon-emerging-as-top-ocean-vendor-as-it-skirts-supply-chain-using-private-vessels/

General Research #19164 >>>/qresearch/15148630

Report: Chris Cuomo Getting Ready to Sue CNN

CNN is bracing for a legal battle with fired host Chris Cuomo over his contract, sources said Monday — after a bitter back-and-forth about what the network knew of his secret efforts to aid his embattled brother, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. […]

The deal is reportedly worth $6 million annually. But CNN has “no intention of paying [Chris] Cuomo a penny,” an insider said. “If he gets a settlement, there would be uproar,” the source added. Another source said, “CNN has a standard morality clause in their contract that says if the employee does anything of disrepute, they can be immediately fired.”

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2021/12/06/report-chris-cuomo-getting-ready-to-sue-cnn/

[ok, CNN and a "morality clause" ... whut?]

>>109902

No hurries and no worries

General Research #19165 >>>/qresearch/15149438

1st Amendment Praetorian, [12/6/2021 11:23 AM]

Isn't it creepy how the same FBI & DOJ can say that a skateboard used in an attempt to brain a 17 year old in Kenosha wasn't a deadly weapon, yet one carried near the Capitol on Jan 6th but never used in violence is.

Tell me more about our single system of justice.

https://t.me/FirstAmendmentPraetorian/9607

General Research #19165 >>>/qresearch/15149460

Japan PM Puts "Strike Option" On Table In 1st Since WW2 Amid China, Russia Provocations

Japan's prime minister Fumio Kishida has laid out bold new plans to drastically ramp up the country's defense posture, including for the first time since its defeat in WWII acquiring strike capabilities against foreign enemy bases.

He unveiled in a wide-ranging speech before the National Diet (or national legislature) that a fundamental shift in defense strategy will be implemented within the next 12 months, following in November a record high national defense budget of a total more than 6 trillion yen being formally approved (the equivalent of $53 billion).

"In order to safeguard the people’s lives and livelihoods, we will examine all the options, including the capability to attack enemy bases… and fundamentally strengthen our defense posture with a sense of speed," PM Kishida said.

Ironically Japan's leaders have long carefully avoided even references to the word "military" to describe its national defense forces. That looks to change given growing concerns over China (including ongoing island and territorial water disputes), as well as Russia's assertiveness over the Northern Territories/Kuril islands (and recent missile deployments there) - not to mention recent missile testing by North Korea.

International reports commonly estimate that Japan has built an arsenal of almost 1,000 warplanes, and even dozens of submarines and destroyers. Additionally, often its coast guard acts as a forward deployed force in fishing or island disputes with China.

This week Japan is showcasing its forces and ability to "stand up to China" in the region by launching a nine day long military exercise, described as follows:

Dozens of tanks and soldiers fired explosives and machine guns in drills Monday on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, a main stronghold for a nation that is perhaps the world's least-known military powerhouse.

Just across the sea from rival Russia, Japan opened up its humbly named Self Defense Force's firing exercises to the media in a display of public firepower that coincides with a recent escalation of Chinese and Russian military moves around Japanese territory.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/japan-pm-puts-strike-option-table-1st-ww2-amid-china-russia-provocations

New Babylon Bee

General Research #109165 >>>/qresearch/15149513

DeSantis Leads Florida Military Into Germany To Liberate Unvaccinated Concentration Camps

GERMANY—Thousands of Florida State Guard Soldiers were seen landing on German beaches this week, following orders by Governor DeSantis to liberate the concentration camps filled with unvaccinated German citizens.

"Och nein! Ze Florida Men are here!" cried the German army, as they abandoned the beach and ran for the hills. Within minutes, the Florida State Guard had taken the beach and begun moving inland.

From the mobile command center on the beaches of Normandy, Ron DeSantis was coordinating the liberation of unvaccinated Germans when two perfectly-tanned Florida soldiers threw a scared-looking private at the governor's feet.

“We caught this pansy vaccinating himself in his barracks, sir,” said one soldier.

“Get this weak filth out of my site and throw him in the brig,” snapped DeSantis, turning back to the giant map table littered with tiny crocodiles holding paper umbrellas, which represented his soldiers. “We have true heroes to save.”

At publishing time, DeSantis had liberated all unvaccinated Germans and was distributing life-saving monoclonal antibody treatment.

https://babylonbee.com/news/desantis-sends-florida-military-to-liberate-unvaccinated-german-concentration-camps

General Research #109165 >>>/qresearch/15149726

We can question, no one cares to answer, because they know its not true

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1468015570436165635?s=20

General Research #109165 >>>/qresearch/15149934

J6 Attorney Undercover Law Enforcement Officer Passed Out Weapons to J6 Protesters Who Were Later Arrested – Clear Entrapment

J6 Attorney Joseph McBride joined Tucker Carlson on Monday night to discuss the ongoing persecution of the Jan. 6 protesters by the Biden regime.

McBride is representing several January 6th prisoners. He went on to discuss the video footage he saw from inside the US Capitol “tunnel” on the afternoon of January 6th. McBride also is looking for several federal operatives who were observed that day.

McBride accused agent “Red-faced 45” with entrapping Trump supporters that day.

Joseph McBride: Let me just call one of these people out. Someone who was tagged on the internet by “Sedition Hunters” as Red-Faced 45. This is someone who is dressed in Trump gear, in MAGA gear. He’s covered in gear from head to toe. His face is painted MAGA red. He has a Trump hat on a Make America Great Again hat. Yet, he is clearly a law enforcement officer. He interacts with uniformed personnel. He interacts with agents in the crowd. He passes out weapons, sledgehammers, poles, mace. Some of those things come in contact with some of the other protesters who have subsequently been charged with possessing dangerous weapons and are using dangerous weapons at the Capitol. That is clearly entrapment. That is clearly the government creating conditions of dangerousness and entrapping members of the crowd to possess weapons and possibly use them for reasons that we cannot comprehend.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/breaking-j6-attorney-undercover-law-enforcement-officer-passed-weapons-j6-protesters-get-arrested-clear-entrapment-video/

Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports Continue to Postpone New Container Dwell Fee

Mike Schuler

December 6, 2021

The port of Los Angeles and Long Beach will once again postpone the new container dwell fees on imports as they continue to monitor the flow of cargo through the critical San Pedro Bay Port complex.

The twin ports are reporting “progress” at terminals with a combined decline of 37% in aging cargo on the docks since the new container dwell fee was announced on October 25th, according to numbers released by the ports on Monday.

As of today, however, the Port of Los Angeles was still showing 19,695 import containers dwelling past the 9+ day limit, while the Port of Long Beach shows 20,275 dwelling past the limit. Another 497 bound for rail have dwelled 6 or more days.

Under the temporary policy approved by the Harbor Commissions of both ports on Oct. 29, each one of those containers would have been hit with a daily fine starting at $100 per container and increasing in $100 increments each day a container remains on dock past the limit (8 days for truck-bound cargo and 5 days for rail-bound).

Proceeds from the policy are expected to be reinvested into port programs aimed at improving efficiency, cargo velocity and addressing congestion. Although the fine is assessed to the ocean carriers, they will ultimately be passed directly to shippers and cargo owners.

If the policy went into effect today as planned, the ports would have been set to dish out about $4 million fines on U.S. import containers on the first day alone. Within days, the fines could easily reach into the tens of millions and could even accumulate to $100 million or more within weeks.

But for now the ports are keeping the hold on the fines as they continue to monitor and report “progress” at terminals while crediting the fines, or threat of fines, for much of the success. This latest postponement is now the fourth week in a row they have been delayed.

This “progress” comes even as the backlog of ships waiting off San Pedro Bay hit a new record of 96 containerships as of last Friday, as the Marine Exchange of Southern California issued its first new numbers reflecting a change to the queuing process that began in mid-November aimed at improving safety and air quality near shore. The new system essentially closes the ports’ anchorages and holding/loitering areas by establishing an exclusion zone that stretches 150 miles from the coast. Officials say the new system increases safety and air quality near the port complex while also encouraging the practice of slow-steaming since the new system places ships in the queue based on departure date.

https://gcaptain.com/los-angeles-and-long-beach-ports-continue-to-postpone-new-container-dwell-fee/

Amazon Emerging as Top ‘Ocean Vendor’ as it Skirts Supply Chain Using Private Vessels

by Penny Starr 6 Dec 2021

The online behemoth Amazon is trying to bypass the supply chain crisis by hiring private shipping vessels to transport products to customers from around the world, a move that reflects the retailer’s increasing global influence.

Ocean freight analyst Steve Ferreira said in a CNBC report:

They are doing over 10,000 containers per month of the small- and medium-sized Chinese exporters. Amazon’s volume as an ocean vendor — that’s right, you heard me correct, they’re considered an ocean vendor — would rank them in the top five transportation companies in the Trans Pacific.

This isn’t the first time the retailer has hired private ships to transport goods, according to CNBC. But Amazon has expanded its plan, which has cut waiting times in ports from more than a month to just days.

“Los Angeles, there’s 79 vessels sitting out there up to 45 days waiting to come into the harbor,” Ferreira said. “Amazon’s latest venture that I’ve been tracking in the last two days, it waited two days in the harbor.” Ferreira said:

Who else would think of putting something going into an obscure port in Washington, and then trucking it down to L.A.? Most people are thinking, well, just bring the ship into L.A. But then you’re experiencing those two-week and three-weeks delay. So Amazon’s really taken advantage of some of the niche strategies I believe that the market needs to employ.

Amazon has produced probably 5,000 to 10,000 of these containers over the last two years I’ve been tracking it. Ferreira said. When they bring these containers onto U.S. soil, once they unload them, guess what? They get to be used in the domestic system and the rail system. They don’t have to return them to Asia like everyone else does.

Even so, Amazon is still feeling the pinch like other retailers because of the supply chain crisis, including a 14 percent rise in out-of-stock items and an average price increase of 25 percent since January 2021, according to the e-commerce management platform CommerceIQ.

CNBC reported on Amazon’s move:

Amazon has been on a spending spree to control as much of the shipping process as possible. It spent more than $61 billion on shipping in 2020, up from just under $38 billion in 2019. Now, Amazon is shipping 72% of its own packages, up from less than 47% in 2019 according to SJ Consulting Group.

It’s even taking control at the first step of the shipping journey by making its own 53-foot cargo containers in China. Containers are in short supply, with long wait times and prices surging from less than $2,000 before the pandemic to $20,000 today. A cargo vessel called the Star Lygra called at the Port of Houston on October 5, 2021, filled with Amazon containers.

Then in 2017, Amazon started quietly operating as a global freight forwarder through a Chinese subsidiary, helping move goods across the ocean for its Chinese sellers who pay to be part of the Fulfilled by Amazon program. Internally, Amazon dubbed this project “Dragon Boat.”

Amazon is also using long-haul aircraft to transport its “highest-margin goods,” which can get smaller amounts of cargo from China to the U.S. much faster.

A handful of other major retailers are also chartering vessels, including Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, Ikea, and Target, according to CNBC.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/12/06/amazon-emerging-as-top-ocean-vendor-as-it-skirts-supply-chain-using-private-vessels/

Maersk Family Buys COVID-19 Test Maker Unilabs

Bloomberg

December 3, 2021

By Christian Wienberg (Bloomberg) —

AP Moller Holding A/S, which invests the wealth of the billionaire Maersk family, has agreed to buy Covid-19 test maker and diagnostics company Unilabs to expand into health care.

APM Holding, whose main asset is a controlling stake in shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, will pay an undisclosed sum to private equity firm Apax Partners, according to a statement on Friday.

Bloomberg News reported last month that a sale of Unilabs could fetch about $5 billion.

Unilabs, which employs 12,600 people and has annual revenue of about 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion), is currently investing in technology to fight Covid-19 and provides virus tests in more than 15 countries, APM Holding said.

The purchase marks a new focus for the Copenhagen-based holding company and its billionaire owners, the Maersk family, which have built their fortune on shipping and oil. It fits with APM Holding’s new mission statement to invest in firms that have a positive impact on society, Chief Executive Officer Robert Maersk Uggla said in the statement.

“We see the opportunity to grow the company’s operations to new markets,” Maersk Uggla said. Unilabs offers “important and immediate solutions to countries having limited access to critical health care solutions.”

APM Holding is set to receive a windfall in dividends at the start of next year as its shipping company is heading for a record $17 billion in 2021 net income.

https://gcaptain.com/maersk-family-buys-covid-19-test-maker-unilabs/

[Apax Partners, that name seems familiar]