chek't
>>108914 pb
SAM643 USAF G5 KAF AC of interdast on ground at Brussels Int'l from JBA depart
SAM727 USAF G5 crossing Ireland at 45k ft also from JBA
>>108980 pb
02-5001 USAFSOC C-32B on descent over eastern Maryland-not quite sure where it was going- Likely to Aberdeen Proving grounds
00-9001 USAFSOC C-32B back to McGuire from NAS Oceana ground stop
was just doin dat one
Saudi PIF nearly triples U.S. stock holdings; adds Walmart, Pinterest
The Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, nearly tripled its holdings of U.S.-listed stocks to $43.45 billion in the third quarter, adding shares of Alibaba Group , Walmart (WMT.N) and Pinterest (PINS.N). Its U.S.-listed stock holdings in the quarter ended Sept. 30 increased from nearly $16 billion in the prior quarter, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Other stocks it bought included Just Eat Takeaway.com (TKWY.AS) and Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO).
The PIF, which manages $430 billion in assets, is at the centre of Saudi Arabia's plans to transform the economy by creating new sectors and diversifying revenues away from oil. The PIF also owns a 62.72% stake in electric car company Lucid (LCDX.PK), which has a market value of about $71 billion, a significant boost in value from the end of September. Lucid’s listing in July was a huge dividend for the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which invested more than $1 billion in the company in 2018 for a substantial stake and invested more in February. The PIF also owns a 3.75% stake in ride-sharing company Uber Technologies (UBER.N).
The PIF is pursuing a two-pronged strategy, building an international portfolio of investments while also investing locally in projects that will help reduce Saudi Arabia’s reliance on oil. It has also invested $45 billion in Softbank's inaugural $100 billion technology fund. The PIF has boosted its firepower from several funding sources in recent years, including loans and a $40 billion transfer from central bank reserves last year.
https://www.reuters.com/business/saudi-pif-nearly-triples-us-stock-holdings-adds-alibaba-walmart-2021-11-15/
02-5001 USAFSOC C-32B sw from Aberdeen Proving Ground
SAM727 USAF G5 on descent for Brussels Int'l from JBA depart
EU agrees new sanctions on Belarus, airlines over border crisis
The European Union agreed on Monday to step up sanctions against Belarus, which denounced as "absurd" Western accusations that it was driving a migrant crisis that has left thousands of people stranded in freezing forests on its borders with the EU. The Western bloc is seeking to stop what it says is a policy by Belarus to push migrants towards it in revenge for earlier sanctions over a crackdown on protests last year against veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko's contested re-election. Migrants - mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan - began appearing on Belarus' land borders with the EU this year, trying to cross into member states Lithuania, Latvia and Poland via routes not used before. The top EU diplomat, Josep Borrell, said a fifth package of sanctions had been agreed by EU foreign ministers and would be finalised in the coming days. They would target airlines, travel agencies and individuals involved in "this illegal push of migrants", he said. Latvia said on Monday it had deployed 3,000 troops for a previously unannounced military exercise near the border. It, Lithuania and Poland make up the eastern flank of the EU and NATO, the paramount Western military alliance.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-step-up-sanctions-belarus-over-escalating-border-crisis-2021-11-15/
California's average gas price hits new high
The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the state is $4.682. Drivers in California are getting hit the hardest when it comes to paying for gas.
Currently, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the state is about $4.682, a new record high, according to estimates by AAA. The national average is $3.415 a gallon, according to AAA. However, prices in some counties have surpassed $5 per gallon. Prices in Humboldt County are sitting at $4.97 per gallon while prices in Mono County are hovering at $5.51 per gallon. Prices in California, according to AAA, have been on an uphill swing, increasing from the $4.625 per gallon mark a week ago. About a month ago, prices were $4.466 per gallon, according to AAA. However, prices were hovering at $3.176 per gallon a year earlier.
Last week, Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis, already noted that the average gas prices in California were at "all-time record highs, beating out both 2012 and 2008 records." De Haan also addressed the unprecedented year-over-year increase in gas prices across the nation. "We've never seen a YoY increase in #gasprices bigger than we have this year," De Haan tweeted. On Friday, prices increased 63% year over year.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/california-average-gas-price-new-high
It is now higher, per gallon, than it was in July 2008 when Oil hit almost $150/p bl (close to it @ $147)
That was purely a trader driven event prior to the market melt-down in September that year.
GORDO14 USAF E-4B Nightwatch departed Edwards AFB after an extended stay for upgrades and longer-term maintenance.
Arrived on October 1st at Edwards from Wright-Patterson AFB, OH for dat-cap #2
This is the second E-4B to be upgraded under this program (tail#75-0125)
Tail #74-0787 had an extended stay at Edwards earlier this year and is the current AC used for overseas trips supporting any POTUS and Secretary of Defense.
Except the last trip that Lloyd Austin took to Europe (Kiev, Buchasrest and Brussels) took he was NOT on the Nightwatch.
This is in the PF thread in the catalog.
from March 2021
E-4B Nightwatch upgrade
The US Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) has announced that upgrades are being delivered to the E-4B fleet. The center reported that the upgraded communication suite of the Dooms Day aircraft are such designed that they improve communication capabilities and effectiveness. The first of four US Air Force (USAF) E-4B Nightwatch aircraft recently concluded developmental testing with a new and upgraded communication suite. The aircraft received the Low Frequency Transmit System (LFTS) and Advanced Extremely High Frequency Presidential National Voice Conferencing Integration Program (APIP) modifications. Both systems result in more capabilities and effectiviness of the E-4B. The LFTS modification provides revolutionary single wire low frequency communication capability, while APIP transforms reliability and survivability of the E-4B satellite communication (SATCOM) and national leadership command and control systems. Work on the other three so-called Doomsday aircraft will be performed in the coming years. The upgrade is only done when the aircraft enters it standard programmed depot maintenance periode and is mainly executed by the Command, Control, Communication, Intelligence, and Networks (C3I&N) Directorate with support of Boeing and Collins Aerospace (LFTS) and Raytheon Technologies (APIP). The four E-4B-BNs 73-1676 (construction number 20682/202), 73-1677 (20683/204), 74-0787 (20684/232) and 75-0125 (20949/257)
https://www.scramble.nl/military-news/e-4b-nightwatch-upgrade
Cap #3 is an EMP test at Edwards
Chinese Developer Kaisa Has Yet to Pay Interest Due Last Week
At least some of Chinese developer Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd.’s creditors haven’t received bond interest that was due last week, according to people with knowledge of the matter, starting the clock on a 30-day grace period before a default.
As of 6 a.m. in New York on Nov. 15, investors in Kaisa’s dollar bonds had yet to receive their payments, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing a private matter. The developer had coupon payments totaling $88.4 million due on Nov. 11 and Nov. 12. A representative for Kaisa didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment after normal business hours. China’s property sector has been grappling with a clampdown on excessive leverage and liquidity woes at real estate giant China Evergrande Group and other companies. Property firms rebounded in the credit market in the past few days following articles in state media signaling support measures that could ease strains in the industry, but many still trade at distressed levels. Evergrande, for its part, skipped several interest payments on dollar bonds and later paid them within its grace period, Bloomberg previously reported.
Kaisa scrapped its interim dividend amid a historic funding squeeze for Chinese property developers. The company, which gained global notoriety after becoming the first Chinese real estate company to default on dollar bonds in 2015, has said it faces “unprecedented pressure on its liquidity.” Cash-strapped Kaisa’s notes plunged last month in the wake of ratings downgrades and canceled investor meetings. The company is trying to sell property assets with an estimated value of $12.8 billion. Its slow progress on divestitures has increased the likelihood it defaults on dollar-bond interest payments at some point, according to Fitch Ratings.
Kaisa next month has $184.5 million of dollar-bond coupons due, according to Bloomberg-compiled data, and a $400 million note that matures on Dec. 7. The company became one of China’s larger issuers of such debt despite its 2015 default and subsequent restructuring.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/chinese-developer-kaisa-has-yet-to-pay-interest-due-last-week-1.1682209
>"You lose the right to self-defense when you're the one who brought the gun … "
Wut a fuggen retard.
Potato Signs into Law his Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7L6AnJKK9I
KOALA28 USAF E-8C Joint STARS off Baja Norte wif some P-3s as company
Not a usual sight dis one on this 'side'
The E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, or Joint STARS, is an airborne battle management, command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform. Its primary mission is to provide theater ground and air commanders with ground surveillance to support attack operations and targeting that contributes to the delay, disruption and destruction of enemy forces.
moar
https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104507/e-8c-joint-stars/
DEVL10 DBEAR69 and VBH305 US Navy P-3 Orions off SoCAl and Baja Norte
RCH429 USAF C-17 Globemaster on descent to March AFB-most likely and departed NAS Norfolk earlier today
Tail # 05-5151= 17
PYLAR34 USAF RC-135 Rivet Joint done on the Columbia/Venezuela border and back to Lincoln Muni Airport
The Rivet Joint's modifications are primarily related to its on-board sensor suite, which allows the mission crew to detect, identify and geolocate signals throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. The mission crew can then forward gathered information in a variety of formats to a wide range of consumers via Rivet Joint's extensive communications suite. The interior seats more than 30 people, including the cockpit crew, electronic warfare officers, intelligence operators and in-flight maintenance technicians. The Rivet Joint fleet was re-engined with CFM-56 engines with an upgraded flight deck instrumentation and navigational systems to FAA/ICAO standards. These standards include conversion from analog readouts to a digital "glass cockpit" configuration. All Rivet Joint airframe and mission systems modifications are overseen by L-3 Communications (previously Raytheon), under the oversight of Air Force Materiel Command.
https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104608/rc-135vw-rivet-joint/
Dollar at 16-month peak as focus turns to retail sales data
The safe-haven dollar hit a 16-month high against its major peers on Monday, fueled by global growth and inflation concerns, as well as monetary policy expectations, as investors awaited data this week on the strength of U.S. consumers.
The dollar surged on Wednesday after data showed U.S. consumer prices rose last month at the fastest annual pace since 1990, casting doubt on the Federal Reserve's view that price pressures will be transitory and fueling speculation that interest rates will be lifted sooner than previously thought.
The dollar index, which measures the currency against six peers, hit 95.462 on Monday, its highest since July 2020, and was last up 0.274% at 95.394.
Demand for the greenback had softened on Friday, when a report showed consumer sentiment dropped to its lowest in a decade, due in part to the surge in inflation. But it firmed again on Monday after policy makers in Europe and the United Kingdom voiced growth and pricing concerns.
Investors will look to U.S. retail sales data on Tuesday for clues as to where the dollar may be headed next. The data is expected to show retail sales rose 1.1% last month, according to a Reuters poll.
Gains in the heavily euro-weighted dollar index have also been helped by a decline in the single currency, with European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde continuing to push back on market bets for tighter policy. The euro hit a 16-month low against the greenback and was last down 0.49% at $1.13865.
Versus the Swiss franc, the euro slid to its weakest in 18 months and was last down 0.17% at 1.0524. In Britain, the pound rose 0.16% to $1.3429 to start off a data-heavy week with employment, inflation and retail sales numbers expected to provide clues on whether the Bank of England will raise rates in December, as expected by markets. On Friday, sterling touched its lowest level this year versus the dollar.
https://www.reuters.com/business/dollar-eases-16-mth-high-traders-seek-clues-fed-rate-plans-2021-11-15/
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/dxy
Myanmar frees American journalist given 11-year jail sentence
An American journalist sentenced to 11 years in prison by a court in Myanmar last week was freed on Monday and flown out of the military-run country, according to military authorities.
In a press statement, they said Danny Fenster was deported after being granted amnesty at the request of U.S. and Japanese intermediaries "in view of the existing friendly relations between Myanmar and those countries and on humanitarian grounds." Fenster, the managing editor of online news magazine Frontier Myanmar, was arrested on May 24 at Yangon International Airport shortly before he was due to board a flight to Malaysia. He was accused of working for banned media outlet Myanmar Now in the aftermath of the Feb. 1 military coup, even though he had resigned in July 2020 and joined Frontier the following month. Last Friday, a Yangon court convicted him on three charges, including dissemination of false information and immigration violations, and meted out prison sentences totaling 11 years. His release from Insein Prison in Yangon was also announced by the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson, who said on Twitter that the journalist had been handed over to him in Myanmar and would return to the United States via Qatar. The Richardson Center, based in New Mexico where Richardson served as governor, said, "Danny's release was secured following a private humanitarian visit by Governor Richardson to Myanmar and face-to-face negotiations with General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar's Commander in Chief." The veteran negotiator, who has a history of traveling to countries like North Korea to secure the freedom of detained Americans, was quoted as saying, "This is the day that you hope will come when you do this work."
The military said Yohei Sasakawa, chairman of the philanthropic Nippon Foundation and Japan's special envoy for national reconciliation in Myanmar, and Hideo Watanabe, a former posts and telecommunications minister who chairs the Japan Myanmar Association, also played a role in Fenster's release. Sasakawa, who like Watanabe is known for his close ties with Myanmar's military, arrived in Yangon last Friday for a "personal visit" to the country, sources close to the Japanese government said over the weekend. When Japanese freelance journalist Yuki Kitazumi was arrested in Myanmar in April, Sasakawa reportedly lobbied the military to release him. He was freed in May and returned to Japan.
Later Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the release of Fenster, who he said was "wrongly detained for almost six months," and commended those who helped facilitate it.
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/11/b6ae543d5e65-breaking-news-american-journalist-given-11-yr-jail-sentence-in-myanmar-released.html