SAM956 USAF C-40B nw from JBA departure
State Dept AC
RCH736T USAF C-130 Hercules east from Little Rock, AR
Swiss AF SUI005 Falcon 900EX and SUI574 Pilatus PC24 departed Bern/Belp Int'l Airport
005 heading into Algeria with 574 sw over Spain
Leon Black Steps Down as Apollo Chairman in Unexpected Move
Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of Apollo Global Management Inc., is stepping down as chairman of the investment giant in an unexpected move that is the latest in a governance overhaul kicked off by revelations of his ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Apollo said Monday that co-founder Marc Rowan had formally assumed the title of chief executive officer from Mr. Black, a transition the New York firm announced in January and said would take place before July 31, Mr. Black’s 70th birthday. Mr. Black, who the firm had previously said would be staying on as chairman, is ceding that role to former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton, who was named lead independent director last month. Mr. Black cited health issues of himself and his wife in announcing the move.
The move is the latest in a series of changes at the firm since the conclusion of an independent review into ties between Mr. Black and Epstein. The review by law firm Dechert LLP revealed that Mr. Black paid Epstein a total of $158 million for tax- and estate-planning services, far more than was previously known. The review found no evidence that Mr. Black was involved in the criminal activities of Epstein, who was indicted in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges involving underage girls and later killed himself in jail. In a statement Monday, Mr. Black said the firm’s first-quarter earnings would exceed analyst expectations and that fundraising was set to come in at the high end of Apollo’s $15 billion to $20 billion annual forecast. “I thus view this as the ideal moment to step back and focus on my family, my wife Debra’s and my health issues, and my many other interests,” he said.
Debra Black was diagnosed with stage two melanoma more than a decade ago, and the couple has given hundreds of millions of dollars to fund research into the disease through a foundation they established in 2007. She has continued to struggle with the disease in recent months, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Black, meanwhile, has been battling his own health issues for the past several weeks, the person said.
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/leon-black-steps-down-as-apollo-chairman-in-unexpected-move-11616415292
09-0017 USAF C-32A departed JBA sw behind SAM040
SAM040 USAF G5 west from JBA depart
VENUS62 USAF G5 (this is our KAF AC of interdast-99th Airlift Squad-in a pedestrian role today with a non-VIP flight) headed south from JBA
RCH736T USAF C-130 Hercules on descent from Little Rock, AR departure earlier-looks like it is headed to MCB Quantico….
Busy outta JBA this morn'
RCH757T USAF C-17 Globemaster departed JBA west after a ground stop-inbound from McGuire AFB, NJ-see where this ne goes to.
Had a "T" Globey in at Coumbus yesterday and then took a short trip over to Wright-Patterson AFB after
SAM978 USAF G5 sw from JBA
09-0017 USAF C-32A over Charlottesville, VA and likely on a cert. flight
SAM040 USAF G5 continues nw
China in $1.5 Billion Swap Deal as Sri Lanka Seeks to Shun IMF
China signed a currency swap agreement with Sri Lanka as the South Asian nation looks to reduce reliance on the International Monetary Fund before $3.7 billion of foreign debt matures this year.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka is entitled to a 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) swap facility from the People’s Bank of China, Sri Lanka’s monetary authority said in a statement Monday. The agreement is valid for three years.
Faced with low foreign-exchange reserves and looming debt repayments, Sri Lanka is getting closer to China, it’s biggest import partner. More than 22% of the island nation’s foreign purchases were from China last year.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/china-in-1-5-billion-swap-deal-as-sri-lanka-seeks-to-shun-imf-1.1580590
as previously mentioned these currency swaps are going to get bigger and moar frequent
ECB ups money-printing by half to convince bond market sceptics
The European Central Bank increase bond purchases by nearly half last week, ramping up its stimulus efforts to keep a lid on borrowing costs and convince sceptical investors it would do what it took to restrain bond yields. The ECB was finally putting its money where its mouth is after announcing on March 11 that it would step up its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme over the coming quarter to ensure credit stayed cheap in the virus-stricken euro zone.
The euro zone’s central bank bought 28 billion euros worth of bonds last week across its stimulus programmes, a 48% increase over the previous week and the biggest weekly amount since Dec. 4. PEPP accounted for the bulk of the purchases at 21.05 billion euros, a 50% increase on the week. Investors have been doubting the ECB’s resolve to tackle a recent increase in bond yields in the euro zone, which largely reflected higher growth and inflation expectations in the United States rather than a brighter outlook for the bloc. Dutch central bank governor Klaas Knot, a long-standing critic of the benefit of bond purchases, said on Monday the larger purchases were temporary and only meant to reduce borrowing costs until growth and inflation pick up.
But ECB President Christine Lagarde warned the euro zone’s economic outlook was marred by uncertainty about the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and the speed of the vaccination campaign.
https://www.reuters.com/article/ecb-qe-money-printing/update-1-ecb-ups-money-printing-by-half-to-convince-bond-market-sceptics-idUSL8N2LK4RF
>>72199 pb
linky is the load of equipment taken in yesterday
AF2 USAF G5 departed JBA for Jacksonville Int'l
VP Kamala Harris to visit vaccination site, Feeding Northeast Florida during Jacksonville stop
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/nation-world/2021/03/22/vp-kamala-harris-visit-feeding-northeast-florida-jacksonville/4796087001/
Yet to see Kneepads in the AC known as primary AF2 (tail# 98-0001)
SAM040 USAF G5 on descent for Des Moines, IA from a JBA depart earlier
ty cons
Lyft, Inc. sold by capitalG (formerly Google Capital): $289.90m-Mar. 5-19
LYFT Inc. is an on-demand transportation-as-a-service (TaaS) provider. The Company provides peer-to-peer transportation and on-demand ridesharing platform, which offers ride-hailing services. Lyft matches drivers with passengers who request rides through its smartphone application, and passengers pay automatically through the application. The Company offers ridesharing marketplace, which connects drivers with riders to provide car sharing and transportation services. The Company also has a network of shared bikes and scooters in various cities to address the needs of riders who are looking for short trips. Its nearby transit offering integrates third-party public transit data into the Lyft app to offer riders a robust view of transportation options. It offers various enterprise programs, including monthly ride credits for daily commutes, supplementing public transit by providing rides for the first and last leg of commute trips, late-night rides home and shuttle replacement rides. Number of employees : 4 675 people.
https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/LYFT-INC-56481539/company/
David Lawee is a 13-year Google veteran who founded and leads CapitalG (formerly known as Google Capital), Google's investment arm for late-stage startups. Lawee sits on the boards of Lyft, Credit Karma and Convoy. Prior to leading CapitalG, Lawee ran Google's mergers and acquisitions (M&A) department, a position he held for five years. During Lawee's time running M&A at Google, the company acquired approximately 100 companies. Before that, Lawee was the Chief Marketing Officer at Google, leading consumer, B2B and channel marketing worldwide. Before joining Google, Lawee was a founder of Xfire, a leading online gaming community, which was acquired by Viacom for $108M. He also previously co-founded three other start-ups including Mosaic Venture Partners, a leading Toronto-based venture capital firm. He began his career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. Lawee's experience as a serial entrepreneur, VC and leader of Google's M&A organization, gives him a unique lens on technology growth equity investing. He is extremely well respected in Silicon Valley. It has been noted that Facebook has tried to acquire him.
https://capitalg.com/
https://finviz.com/insidertrading.ashx?oc=1760864&tc=7&b=2
from 2013
Little-known Hollywood investor poised to score with Twitter IPO
When Twitter goes public in coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture from the Internet.
Over the past two years, Suhail Rizvi, founder of New York private equity firm Rizvi Traverse Management, has quietly amassed a stake of more than 15 percent in the microblogging phenomenon for himself and his investors at a cost of more than $1 billion, according to three people with knowledge of his investments. While Rizvi was known to be an investor in Twitter, the extent of his involvement had not previously been reported. Twitter made its IPO registration documents public late Thursday, setting the stage for the most closely watched initial public offering since Facebook’s in 2012. Rizvi Traverse is listed as one of the institutional shareholders with at least a 5 percent ownership stake, but no further details were disclosed.
The shares Rizvi purchased were distributed among investors via multiple vehicles, sources said, and the size of his personal stake is not known. People with direct knowledge of his investment activities say that Rizvi, backed by Chris Sacca, a former Google executive and Twitter investor, was instrumental in attracting large private investors to the microblogging site, serving as matchmaker between the company’s founders and global financiers from Wall Street to Riyadh. Rizvi declined to comment for this article. Sacca, a longtime friend, gave him an entree into tech investing in 2011 - when Twitter was still struggling to make money. From there, Rizvi scored stakes in some of the most sought-after Internet startups, from Facebook Inc before it went public to Square and Flipboard.
Rizvi’s string of tech deals came amid intense competition among hedge funds and private equity investors to secure shares in startups, highlighted by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s 2009 investment in Facebook. With tech companies waiting later than ever to go public, some investors believed they may miss out on the biggest gains if they wait to buy shares in public markets, when a company’s value may no longer rise exponentially. The son of an Iowa psychology professor, Rizvi has networked with rich and powerful people including Queen Noor of Jordan and Google Inc’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, devising financing schemes that leveraged his access to deep-pocketed investors, according to people who know Rizvi.
Those who invest with Rizvi include British billionaire Richard Branson and Jeffrey Skoll, the former eBay executive and film producer, according to people with knowledge of the matter. It is not clear whether they are among the investors he brought into Twitter. Before turning his attention to the Internet, Rizvi’s deal-making focused on Hollywood. He helped Hugh Hefner take Playboy Enterprises private; bought and then sold the Hollywood film studio behind the “Twilight” series; and led the buyout of a leading talent agency, International Creative Management (ICM). Rizvi is not alone among entertainment investors who have turned their focus to Silicon Valley. Former News Corp executive Peter Chernin’s Chernin Group has invested in Tumblr, Pandora and Flipboard, while Michael Ovitz, the talent agent and former Disney CEO, has invested in Ron Conway’s SV Angel funds, the tech incubator Y Combinator and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
In late 2010, Sacca approached Rizvi with an offer: Sacca’s friend Evan Williams had stepped down as CEO of Twitter and was seeking to sell 10 percent of the company. Rizvi soon snapped up the shares for $340 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
Following that first transaction, the two men formed a highly efficient tag team, the sources said. Sacca would seek shareholders who wanted to cash out, while Rizvi helped raise money to purchase the stock. The friends successfully pitched JPMorgan Chase & Co on a deal to buy more than $400 million worth of Twitter shares in 2011. Months later, Rizvi recruited Kingdom Holding Co, Saudi Prince Alwaleed’s investment company, to buy an additional $300 million in stock in a separate vehicle.
JPMorgan Chase and representatives for Alwaleed did not respond to requests for comment on the deal.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-ipo-rizvi-insight-idUSBRE9920VW20131003
VELCRO4 USAF E-11A BACN GLEX out of Edwards AFB on a test flight-purty….
This has been here since 0314 and is being upgraded as it is first generation.
The younger AC's in the fleet do not have the extra appendages on the airframe
Basically Aerial Wi-Fi and processing for the various legacy and current platforms-cap#2
Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN)
BACN is a communications relay and gateway system that provides military commanders with a versatile means of exchanging information from multiple air, ground, and maritime sources, to include host nation, joint, and coalition forces. It facilitates the transport of both voice and data across the battlespace enabling network connectivity among weapon systems, sensors, warfighters, decision makers, platforms, and command centers at all echelons of command and control (C2). BACN reduces line-of-sight issues, provides greater range for communication links, and provides commanders with versatile and flexible communications support across the range of military operations as well as a reliable means of communications between edge users across different waveforms and data formats.
https://www.acc.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/2241383/battlefield-airborne-communications-node-bacn/
B-2 bomber, Norwegian F-35s integrate in Arctic Circle exercise
and by sheer luck there is a Norwegian AF F-35 Lightning II departing Nellis AFB to the se at 566kts
Norwegian AF F35LTNG2 out of Nellis AFB at 566 kts
A U.S. B-2 bomber and F-35 fighter planes of Norway's air force executed a night exercise near the Arctic Circle, the U.S. Air Force announced on Monday. The bomber, assigned to Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., flew from Lajes Field, Azores, and integrated with four F-35 of the Royal Norwegian Air Force. The Norwegian planes are involved in the Icelandic Policing Mission, a NATO operation begun in 2006 and conducted to patrol airspace over Iceland, a NATO member without an air force or standing military force. The United States and Norway have conducted mutual integration and interoperability training in what the U.S. Air Force calls the "High North" since September 2020. U.S. Bomber Task Force missions have recently increased, notably in the Arctic Ocean and on Russia's northern perimeter.
A B-1B Lancer conducted a joint terminal attack exercise, involving fighter planes of Norway and Sweden, earlier in March. It included a "warm-pit refuel" at Bodø Air Force Station in Norway and integration with four Swedish JAS-39 Gripen fighter aircraft.
Two B-2s also integrated with two B-1Bs deployed from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, to Orland Air Force Station, Norway, in March for Bomber Task Force Europe 21-1, an exercise off the coast of Iceland.
https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2021/03/22/B2-B1-B-Norway-exercises-Arctic/4261616431831/
AF2 USAF C-32A began descent to JBA from Jax Int'l
AWRY28 US Navy E-6B peeled off to Pax River
anyone else find it odd that there is a FF going on in Colorado and the second AF2 Gulfstream landed at Peterson AFB earlier….yes/no??
Kneepads and crew in Denver last week etc…..