SAM800 USAF G5 KAF AC of Interdast departed Centennial Airport Devner, CO after an overnight
RCH739T USAF C-17 Globemaster departed Denver Int'l after an overnight and equipment drop-off en
Binance Probed by CFTC Over Whether U.S. Residents Made Trades
Binance Holdings Ltd., the largest cryptocurrency exchange, is being investigated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over concerns that it allowed Americans to place wagers that violated U.S. rules, according to people familiar with the matter.
The CFTC is seeking to determine whether Binance, which isn’t registered with the agency, permitted U.S. residents to buy and sell derivatives that the regulator polices, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the probe is confidential. Binance, which has an office in Singapore but says it lacks a single corporate headquarters, hasn’t been accused of misconduct and the investigation may not lead to an enforcement action.
The scrutiny is the latest sign that market watchdogs may thwart the crypto industry’s ambitions of becoming more mainstream for U.S. investors. The CFTC considers virtual currencies like Bitcoin and Ether to be commodities and claims jurisdiction over their futures and other derivatives. That means crypto platforms face strict customer protection and oversight demands if Americans are trading on them – regardless of where exchanges are based.
Binance said that it never comments on its communications with regulators, while adding that the company is committed to complying with rules. For instance, Binance blocks U.S. residents from its website and uses advanced technology to analyze deposits and withdrawals for signs of illicit transactions, the company said in a statement.
The investigation adds to the U.S.’s growing crackdown on crypto. The CFTC has already sued BitMEX for failing to register as a broker, with the exchange’s market share declining since it became a target of regulatory scrutiny. Coinbase Global Inc., the U.S.’s biggest crypto exchange, also disclosed last month that it’s responding to a wide-ranging CFTC probe.
Separately, the U.S. Treasury Department is considering new rules that would force banks to record the identities of those who invest in virtual assets. While advocates say the move would crack down on money laundering and other illegal activities, Bitcoin holders argue it would undermine a key draw of cryptocurrencies: the ability to send funds without government oversight. An enforcement action against Binance, which has become emblematic of crypto’s meteoric rise, would be the highest-profile CFTC case tied to digital tokens. Company co-founder Changpeng Zhao regularly promotes the asset class on television and social media, saying it has helped make him a billionaire.
Zhao, who goes by CZ, has previously said Binance complies with U.S. rules. In 2019, Binance established San Francisco-based Binance.US, which Zhao has said is an independent entity for American customers. Still, he has acknowledged that improper trades may be slipping through the cracks.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/binance-probed-by-cftc-over-whether-u-s-residents-made-trades-1.1576124
02-4452 USAFSOC C-32B heading to JBA from McGuire AFB, NJ
Myanmar coup latest: courts extend detention of AP reporter, 5 others
Friday, March 12
8:50 p.m. A Polish journalist has been detained in Myanmar, Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs says in a statement. The ministry says it is making efforts to contact the detained man and gather information about his condition. The announcement follows a Myanmar court's decision to extend the pre-trial detention period for an Associated Press journalist arrested while reporting on demonstrations against the military coup. The Polish journalist's name was not given. Under European Union law, the German consul in Myanmar provides consular services to Polish citizens in the Southeast Asian nation, according to the statement.
5:00 p.m. A court in Myanmar extended custody on Friday for five journalists, including one from U.S. news agency the Associated Press, who were arrested while covering anti-junta protests in the biggest city of Yangon last month, a lawyer said. The six journalists, all arrested on Feb. 27, were not brought to court but attended the hearing via teleconference from prison. They have not been allowed to see their families or lawyers in person since their arrests.
4:00 p.m. Britain urged its citizens on Friday to leave Myanmar, or, if they are unable to exit the country, to stay at home, due to the rising levels of violence. "The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office advises British Nationals to leave the country by commercial means, unless there is an urgent need to stay," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "Political tension and unrest are widespread since the military takeover and levels of violence are rising."
12:00 p.m. South Korea says it will suspend defense and security exchanges, ban exports of arms and other strategic items, and reconsider development aid.
10:00 a.m. "This accusation is the most hilarious joke," Suu Kyi's lawyer Khin Maung Zaw says on social media, responding to junta accusations that Suu Kyi received bribes. "She might have other weaknesses but she doesn't have weakness in moral principle," her lawyer stated.
9:00 a.m. Activists hold more rallies, a day after a rights group said security forces killed 12 protesters.
0:30 a.m. The United Nations human rights investigator on Myanmar said on Thursday the military junta had "murdered" at least 70 people since the coup. More than half of those killed were under the age of 25, Thomas Andrews told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. More than 2,000 people have been unlawfully detained.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Myanmar-Coup/Myanmar-coup-latest-courts-extend-detention-of-AP-reporter-5-others
thank you for watching da gulag
SAM884 USAF G5 departed Rochester Int'l Airport, New York after a ground stop-inbound from JBA
Did several fly bys prior to touchdown
U.S. Treasury Yields Climb Sharply
Selling in U.S. government bonds picked up steam again Friday, pushing yields back toward recent highs and putting an end to several sessions of relative stability.
Yields started rising sharply a month ago after the same series of auctions, increasing concerns that a flood of new debt could exacerbate pressure on the market caused by expectations for a strong economic rebound and the prospect for higher short-term interest rates set by the Federal Reserve. Some traders say the market might also be more vulnerable on Fridays, with investors nervous about buying Treasurys ahead of the weekend.
As yields rose Friday, traders were watching to see if the 10-year yield would rise above 1.626%, its recent intraday high set a week ago. It breached that level in the midmorning, leading to a brief spurt of more selling. Investors pay close attention to long-term U.S. Treasury yields because they play a large role in determining borrowing costs across the economy. Many investors also use the 10-year Treasury yield as a discount rate in formulas to value stocks—making rising yields a particular threat to technology companies that are expected to make a greater proportion of their profits further in the future.
Investors also are gauging whether weakness in Treasurys spills over into the corporate bond market. While yields on investment-grade corporate bonds typically rise along with those on Treasurys, many consider it a bigger problem if they climb quickly, causing a larger jump in borrowing costs. As it stands, borrowing costs remain very low for most businesses, though there has been a modest uptick in the gap between corporate and Treasury yields in recent weeks.
The attractive borrowing market was highlighted on Thursday when Verizon Communications Inc. sold $25 billion of bonds, tied for the sixth-largest corporate bond sale on record, to help fund its recent spectrum purchases.
Overall, non-financial companies have issued $81 billion of investment-grade bonds since March 1, up from $38 billion in the previous two-week period, according to Dealogic.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-treasury-yields-climb-sharply-11615567698
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/bond/tmubmusd10y
do sumthang with doze later
SAM884 USAF G5 west from JBA depart
RCH739T USAF C-17 Globemaster on descent for Dover AFB- from Denver Int'l depart
and BTW
discord nao?
kek!
Branson's Virgin Orbit hires bankers to go public through a SPAC
Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit has hired bankers to help it go public this year through a special-purpose acquisition company, aiming for a valuation for the satellite launching startup of up to $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
The move represents the latest effort by Mr. Branson to take advantage of a recent boom in similar, blank-check listings. His Virgin Group has played on both sides of the SPAC craze: In 2019, he listed his space-tourism company, Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc., SPCE +1.35% by merging it with a SPAC, essentially a pool of money with a stock-market listing.
Chairman of Board sold $212.77m Mar 2-3
https://www.finviz.com/insidertrading.ashx?oc=1715450&tc=7
Cap #3
Then in February, a Virgin-backed blank check company said it would merge with 23andMe Inc. in a deal that valued the genetic-testing company at $3.5 billion, including debt.
Mr. Branson’s two U.S. space companies—Virgin Orbit and Virgin Galactic—have been bright spots in an empire otherwise hobbled by the pandemic. The spread of the new coronavirus and resulting lockdowns around the world have hit the airline, tourism and gym businesses that are at the core of Virgin Group.
Virgin Orbit has hired Credit Suisse Group AG and LionTree LLC, and is shopping for a SPAC merger partner that could take it public with a value ranging from $2.5 billion to over $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Branson’s company owns 80% of Virgin Orbit, with Mubadala Investment Co., the United Arab Emirates sovereign-wealth fund, owning the rest.
The targeted valuation would mark a significant jump from the $1 billion the rocket startup had been aiming for last year, from a previously planned private fundraising. The company still hasn’t ruled out a private fundraising but is now focused on a SPAC, these people said.
Reaching the target valuation is far from guaranteed. Virgin Orbit still has to reach an agreement with a specific SPAC to do a deal and then secure the additional outside investment that usually comes alongside a SPAC merger.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/richard-branson-plans-next-spac-deal-this-time-for-virgin-orbit-11615569059
'member a time and it was not long ago that any deal involving SPAC(s) were shite and totally a scarlet letter
Texas utility sues power grid ERCOT over 'excessive' cold snap charges
The largest city-owned utility in Texas on Friday sued the state’s grid operator alleging it levied “excessive” power prices during a February deep freeze, and seeking to bar the grid from issuing a default that could affect its credit rating.
High prices for emergency fuel and power during a severe cold spell left Texas utilities facing about $47 billion in one-time costs. Those costs have led to two bankruptcies and knocked two other electric providers off the state’s power grid because of payment defaults. San Antonio’s municipal utility, CPS Energy, faces about $1 billion in extraordinary charges for natural gas and electricity during a five day deep freeze last month. CPS Energy has about 820,000 electricity customers.
The lawsuit, filed in a Bexar County court, alleges grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) mismanaged the cold weather crisis, and overcharged for power. It asked the court to prevent ERCOT from declaring it in default and to prevent ERCOT from charging CPS Energy for other grid defaults.
An ERCOT spokeswoman did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Nearly $3.1 billion in power charges to grid users have not been paid so far, ERCOT said on Thursday.
ERCOT officials hiked power prices by about 400 times the usual rate to $9,000 per megawatt for five days last month in a vain effort to bring in more power. State officials this week called on ERCOT and the utility regulator to cut those charges for high-price power for the 32-hour period after the grid emergency passed. CPS Energy’s lawsuit called ERCOT’s handling of the crisis “one of the largest illegal wealth transfers in the history of Texas.” It brought the complaint “to protect its customers from excessive and illegitimate power and natural gas costs,” according to the lawsuit.
Credit rating firms have warned CPS and other Texas municipal and rural cooperative power provider could have their ratings lowered. The state’s largest and old cooperative, Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc, filed for bankruptcy earlier this month owing $1.8 billion to ERCOT.
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-texas-grid/update-1-texas-utility-sues-power-grid-ercot-over-excessive-cold-snap-charges-idUSL1N2LA1TA
VOLGA71 heading across the pond at 545kts/gs
>>69505 pb
So nao we can add LA to the Kamel Toe "tour"
RCH737T USAF C-17 Globemaster departing Los Angeles Int'l after a ground stop-inbound from it's overnight at McCarran Int'l
Another drop-off
Is Goldman Sachs Preparing To Bailout Texas Grid Operator, ERCOT?
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) that manages Texas's electrical grid, the Texas Interconnection, which supplies power to more than 25 million Texas customers and represents 90% of the state's electric load, held talks with Goldman Sach and other financial institutions about financing options bailouts to address the $3.1 billion shortfalls in electricity payments as some energy retailers haven't paid, defaulted, or have filed for bankruptcy, according to WSJ sources.
Sources said ERCOT is in talks with investment bankers from Goldman Sachs about opening a potential credit facility that would cover the $3.1 billion in shortfalls energy retailers still owe when they bought power last month at exorbitantly high prices due to an Arctic blast and severe winter storms that nearly collapsed the state's power grid.
On Feb. 24, Kenan Ogelman, ERCOT's vice-president of commercial operations, warned about a credit crisis developing among market participants who buy power from state's power grid. ERCOT's acts as a payment clearinghouse for electricity buyers and sellers, and some of the bills it issued last month have yet to be paid. With a credit crisis spreading, and already, Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, the largest generation and transmission co-op in the Lone Star State, filed for bankruptcy on Mar. 1 after it could not pay a $1.8 billion bill from ERCOT. Besides Brazos, Just Energy Group Inc. has also filed for bankruptcy. A shortlist of who owes what was published last week - still billions of dollars in unpaid bills are outstanding. In the last week, the shortfall has increased from $2.217 billion to $3.1 billion as of Thursday. Some participants, like San Antonio's public power utility CPS Energy, are objecting to paying ERCOT, filed a lawsuit Friday attempting to block payments to the grid operator.
CPS incurred $1.1 billion in charges after it bought electricity and natural gas last month. CPS said ERCOT's "extreme confiscatory prices have caused many providers on the Texas power grid to become insolvent. At the moment, there are 22 market participants at risk of going under. "We are fighting to protect our customers from the financial impacts of the systemic failure of the Ercot market and the outrageous and unlawful costs associated with that failure," CPS Energy President and CEO Paula Gold-Williams said. The sources said Goldman and other large institutions have spoken about arranging a credit facility to address the shortfalls and prevent further destabilization among participants, but nothing has been set in stone. It's only a matter of time before Goldman, the great vampire squid that it is, wraps its tentacles deep within Texas' power grid.
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/goldman-sachs-preparing-bailout-texas-grid-operator-ercot
TERRA99 USAFSOC C-32B departed McGuire AFB sw
SAM884 USAF G5 on ground at McCarran Int'l, Las Vegas from Rochester Int'l, NY ground stop
So the tanker 0000 USAF DC-10 extender has been over New Jersey (mobile filling station) for about 2 hours and no sign of Fauxtus leaving from JBA.
Schedule said departure at from WH at 3:40pm EST for a 4:30 EST arrival at New Castle Cty Airport-dat was 40 minutes ago
https://factba.se/biden/calendar
They did not turn it on.
0000 USAF DC-10 Extender over New Jersey as the mobile filling station-from McGuire AFB
SHADO30 US Navy E-6B mercury out from Pax River and ne over central New jersey at 5k/ft
Updated arrival information
The President arrives at New Castle Airport in Delaware (4:28 PM Actual)
The President and The First Lady arrive in Wilmington, Delaware (4:52 PM Actual)
The President departs New Castle Airport in Delaware for his residence (4:37 PM Actual)
https://factba.se/biden/calendar
TERRA99 USAFSOC C-32B on final approach at Majors Airport Greenville, TX (L-3 located here)
SAM981 USAF G5 had a fly by at Lake Tahoe Airport at about 7k/ft then continued ws and touch and go at Sonoma Cty Airport then flew over Golden Gate Bridge at 2300 ft.
Circled Bay and then a fly over at Marin Cty Airport (red dot on cap 2) at about 2300 ft and back to Sonoma Cty Airport and on ground.
WTF dat all about?