tyb
Almost certain dis is Milley coming back from NATO defense chiefs meeting in Athens, Greece
Nancy was there yesterday from Stansted Airport, London....cap#2 and went back to London later.
She already arrived at JBA >>93942 pb
SAM249 USAF C-32A inbound to JBA from Shannon, Ireland ground stop and refuel from an Athens departure earlier today
It arrived at Athens on 0917
After Afghanistan pullout, US seeks NATO basing, intel pacts
Against the backdrop of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the top U.S. military officer is meeting in Greece with NATO counterparts this weekend, hoping to forge more basing, intelligence sharing and other agreements to prevent terrorist groups from regrouping and threatening America and the region. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the meeting of NATO defense chiefs will focus in part on the way ahead now that all alliance troops have pulled out of Afghanistan and the Taliban are in control. Milley, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and American intelligence officials have warned that al-Qaida or the Islamic State group could regenerate in Afghanistan and pose a threat to the United States in one year to two years.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/after-afghanistan-pullout-us-seeks-nato-basing-intel-pacts/
Russia to spend $34 billion from rainy-day fund despite inflation worries
Russia will spend around 2.5 trillion roubles ($34 billion) from its National Wealth Fund (NWF) in the next three years to help revive economic growth after the pandemic but must also take care not to drive up inflation, officials said on Tuesday.
The amount represents an increase from 1.6 trillion roubles agreed only this month by the government and central bank, with the extra cash earmarked for the Ust-Luga liquefied natural gas and gas-to-chemicals complex, a project involving Gazprom.
The spending plan is strongly supported by the ruling United Russia Party, which backs President Vladimir Putin and which won nearly 50% of votes in a Sept 17-19 parliamentary election that opponents say was marred by mass fraud. The government hopes the huge spending plans will translate robust growth in the leadup to a presidential election in 2024, the year the plan ends, without also fuelling inflation, which has been eating into Russians’ living standards. “The government is looking for sources of growth and the NWF which is pulling in private investments is not a bad tool. The key thing is for this not to impact inflation, for the central bank’s rates not to rise,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the economy ministry raised its year-end inflation forecast to 5.8% from 5%, which is still above the central bank’s target of 4%. Russia has seen five key rate hikes this year as the central bank tries to curb price growth. The central bank has warned of inflationary risks if the NWF, a cushion for Russia’s oil revenues and which totalled $190.5 billion as of Sept. 1, is spent too freely. The additional 900 billion roubles agreed for the spending plan will be used to buy foreign equipment and therefore should have no impact on monetary policy, Siluanov said. The central bank’s rate hikes have already knocked 0.2 percentage points off Russia’s forecast for 2022 economic growth, which is now seen at 3%, the economy ministry said separately on Tuesday. To make the budgetary spending more balanced, Russia will already distribute 900 billion roubles, initially set for 2023-24, this year, Siluanov said, including by providing the development corporation VEB with 190 billion roubles. The central bank has said it may continue further rate hikes at its next board meetings. While warning of the risks the rate hikes may pose, the economy ministry raised this year’s GDP growth forecast to 4.2% from a July estimate of 3.8%.
Russia is already running a budget surplus this year, set to continue in 2022-23 and supported by newly announced taxes on metals, coal and fertiliser producers. It is expected to return to a deficit in 2024, the presidential election year.
https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-budget-spending/wrapup-1-russia-to-spend-34-bln-from-rainy-day-fund-despite-inflation-worries-idUSL1N2QN229
La Palma
Virtu Fires Opening Shot in SEC Tussle Over Trading Rules
Virtu Financial Inc., a powerful trading firm whose business model is under scrutiny in Washington, says it can show U.S. investors how much money it saves them -- if regulators let it.
Virtu is petitioning the Securities and Exchange Commission to overhaul the public data that’s used to gauge whether retail customers get the best deal when buying and selling shares. The firm contends that when it and other market makers execute orders internally rather than sending them to stock exchanges it dramatically lowers costs for investors. The request follows months of unwanted attention from lawmakers and regulators, who fear that the wild trading of GameStop Corp. and other meme stocks this year revealed that something is broken with the U.S. equity market. Virtu and Citadel Securities have been a focal point of Washington’s review, with officials questioning whether they are too dominant and if their practice of paying Robinhood Markets Inc. and other brokerages for the right to execute orders triggers conflicts of interest that hurt consumers. Virtu and Citadel Securities have fought back by repeatedly arguing that small-time investors have never had it better, and that their firms are crucial to Robinhood and other trading platforms being able to offer free trades. That’s because brokerages now make revenue by selling orders to market makers, meaning they don’t have to charge customers commissions.
In its Monday petition to the SEC, New York-based Virtu said the agency’s disclosure rules “no longer encompass all of the factors that may be important to market participants in evaluating the execution quality offered by a particular market center.” Virtu estimates wholesale brokerages saved retail investors about $11 billion last year, which would be apparent if the SEC revised its metrics requirements. The company’s request, which was reviewed by Bloomberg News, is an opening salvo in what’s expected to be a drawn out battle with the SEC. Chair Gary Gensler, who is examining the maze of rules underpinning U.S. stock trading, rattled Wall Street last month when he said banning payment for order flow is “on the table.” Gensler has said he’s worried that the practice leads to excessive trading by retail investors and hidden costs. Virtu paid $29 million to retail brokers for routing equity orders in June, while Citadel Securities paid $38 million, data compiled by Bloomberg shows. Citadel Securities’ payments were $70 million in February, a period of greater market volatility.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/virtu-fires-opening-shot-in-sec-tussle-over-trading-rules-1.1655446
Academy Sports and Outdoors sold by Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co.: $811.45m-Sept 17
Secondary
Academy Sports + Outdoors Announces Pricing of Secondary Offering of Common Stock and Concurrent Share Repurchase
Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. (“Academy” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: ASO) today announced the pricing of the previously announced underwritten secondary offering by certain of its stockholders that are affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (the “Selling Stockholders”), of 18,645,602 shares of common stock of Academy at the public offering price of $44.75 per share, pursuant to a registration statement filed by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). No shares are being sold by Academy. The Selling Stockholders will receive all of the proceeds from this offering. Academy announced that, subject to the completion of the offering, it intends to repurchase 4,500,000 shares out of the 18,645,602 shares of common stock from the Selling Stockholders at a price per share of approximately $43.52, which is equal to the price at which the underwriters will purchase the shares from the Selling Stockholders, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $200 million. Any shares repurchased by Academy will be pursuant to its recently announced $500 million share repurchase program and will be retired. The closing of the share repurchase is conditioned on, and expected to occur simultaneously with, the closing of the offering, subject to the satisfaction of other customary conditions. The offering is expected to close on September 17, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. The offering is not conditioned upon the completion of the share repurchase. Credit Suisse, KKR Capital Markets LLC, J.P. Morgan and BofA Securities are acting as joint bookrunning managers for the proposed offering.
https://investors.academy.com/news-releases/news-release-details/academy-sports-outdoors-announces-pricing-secondary-offering-1
Academy Sports and Outdoors Inc. is a full-line sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailers. The Company operates over 259 stores across 16 contiguous states, primarily in the southern United States. Its offered broad assortment appeals to all ages, incomes and aspirations, including beginning and advanced athletes. The Company sell a range of sporting and outdoor recreation products, such as fitness equipment and apparel, work and casual wear, folding chairs, wagons and tents, training and running shoes and coolers. The Company also carry a deep selection of seasonal items, such as sports equipment and apparel, seasonal wear and accessories, hunting and fishing equipment and apparel, patio furniture, trampolines, play sets, bicycles and severe weather supplies. The Company provide locally relevant offerings, such as crawfish boilers in Louisiana, licensed apparel for area sports fans, baits and lures for area fishing spots and beach towels in coastal markets. Number of employees : 22 000 people.
https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/ACADEMY-SPORTS-AND-OUTDOO-113213001/company/
How Henry Kravis Built Private Equity Giant KKR
Henry Kravis is a pioneer of the private equity industry. Following a successful career in corporate finance, Kravis, along with two other business partners, founded a leveraged buyout company called Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR) in the late 1970s. He was 32 at the time. The objective of the company was to create and manage private equity funds that borrowed money in order to acquire businesses that were underperforming. These businesses would later be improved and sold at a profit. As of March 31, 2020, the company had $207 billion in assets under management.
moar
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/102715/how-henry-kravis-built-private-equity-giant-kkr.asp
https://finviz.com/insidertrading.ashx?oc=1472698&tc=7&b=2
President Moon Jae-In left New York
Korean AF KAF001 747 departed JFK Int'l wn
Samsung Could Soon Produce Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccines
While Samsung appears to have its hands full with smartphones and other device launches right now, a new report suggests that the company may also develop and produce COVID-19 vaccines in the future. The revelation comes from The Korea Herald (via) which adds that South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is currently in the U.S., has a meeting with Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer.
The report mentions that Samsung Biologics, a biotechnology company under the Samsung Group will take the lead in the company’s vaccine R&D program. This comes after the U.S. and South Korea reached an agreement for joint vaccine development in May 2021. The formal signing of this agreement will take place later this week with the South Korean President in attendance. On a wider scale, this partnership will complement South Korea’s $1.92 billion investment over the next five years to position itself as Asia’s top vaccine producer. Korean tech giant SK Bioscience will also be a part of this new vaccine development program. The Korean government has set a target to bring out its first locally developed COVID-19 vaccine by the first half of 2022. Moreover, South Korea also wants to become one of the top five vaccine producers in the world by 2025.
https://www.androidheadlines.com/2021/09/samsung-could-produce-pfizer-covid-19-vaccines.html
U.S. lifts post-Fukushima import restrictions on Japan farm products
The United States has lifted all of its restrictions on imports of food products from Japan established in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan's farm ministry said Wednesday.
Under the restrictions, U.S. imports of a total of 100 agricultural products produced in 14 Japanese prefectures including Fukushima had been suspended. The other 13 prefectures were Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Niigata, Yamanashi, Nagano and Shizuoka.
Japanese farm products now cleared for shipping to the United States include rice harvested in Fukushima, bamboo shoots from Iwate and shiitake mushrooms. "The abolition of U.S. import restrictions will have a great impact on other countries and regions," a ministry official said. The European Union also plans to ease import restrictions on Japanese farm and food products on Oct. 10, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Fisheries said Tuesday. According to the ministry, the United States is the third-largest importer of Japanese farm and food products after Hong Kong and China. Japanese exports of farm products and food to the United States totaled 118.8 billion yen ($1.09 billion) in 2020. With the United States' lifting of import restrictions, effective on Tuesday local time, the number of countries and regions imposing such measures on Japanese farm and food products decreased to 14.
In the wake of the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following a massive tsunami caused by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake on March 11, 2011, 55 countries and regions placed restrictions on imports of Japanese farm and food products amid fear of potential contamination with radioactive materials. Japanese farmers, particularly those in the region close to the Fukushima nuclear plant, have gone to great lengths to regain consumer trust in their products at home and abroad, including compliance with strict safety inspections. Nonetheless, some rumors questioning the quality of such products still linger. The farm ministry plans to urge the 14 countries and regions including Hong Kong and China to abolish the remaining import restrictions on Japanese products.
Meanwhile, despite the latest U.S. measure, some food products subject to Japan's own export restrictions cannot be shipped overseas.
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/09/87c32583a6e4-us-lifts-import-restrictions-on-japan-farm-products.html
>depth of 10km
Mark Zuckerberg Facebook share sales since Nov. 2020: $4.27B
Have not updated this for a few months.
Sells amounts in the high $20m range almost every single trading day (avg) since then.
from today
Facebook Overpaid FTC Fine By Billions To Protect Zuckerberg, Lawsuits Say
To shield Mark Zuckerberg from personal liability in a 2019 settlement over the company’s role in a massive privacy breach, Facebook paid $4.9 billion more than an initial fine sought by the Federal Trade Commission, according to shareholder lawsuits first reported by Politico. The FTC investigated Facebook for allegedly failing to protect users’ data from being collected by the company Cambridge Analytica, which used the data to target voters for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The company paid the agency $5 billion to settle the complaint—about 50 times more than the roughly $107 million that Facebook’s lawyers estimate the FTC could have fined them, according to two lawsuits led by pension funds that were filed in August.
The company paid the agency $5 billion to settle the complaint—about 50 times more than the roughly $107 million that Facebook’s lawyers estimate the FTC could have fined them, according to two lawsuits led by pension funds that were filed in August.
In exchange, shareholders allege, the agency agreed to keep Zuckerberg—who they say had been personally named in a draft complaint the FTC sent to Facebook—out of the final settlement, protecting him from being personal liability for “failing to oversee privacy at Facebook.” The lawsuits were made public Tuesday, Politico reported, and also protected Zuckerberg or COO Sheryl Sandberg from being deposed.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/graisondangor/2021/09/21/facebook-overpaid-ftc-fine-by-billions-to-protect-zuckerberg-lawsuits-say/
https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1548760.htm
evening w
Two Tu-160s have flown over the Baltic region. NATO, Finnish and Swedish fighters shadowed the Russian Blackjacks which were escorted by Su-35s
Two Russian Aerospace Forces Tu-160 Blackjacks carried out an 8-hour mission that brought the bombers off the Baltic States on Sept. 21, 2021. According to the Russian MOD, the two strategic missile carriers performed a planned flight in airspace over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea.
The missile-carrier bombers were escorted by two Su-35S aircraft of the Aerospace Force and two Su-27 fighters of the Baltic Fleet’s naval aviation during their mission. As happened last time the Tu-160s from Engels-2 Air Base in Saratov, Oblast, southwestern Russia, the Russian Long Range Aviation (LRA) trip in the Baltic region caused several NATO, Finnish and Swedish aircraft in QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) to support Baltic Air Policing (BAP) to scramble. The video released by the Russian MOD shows some of the fighters that were dispatched to identify and shadow the Russian “package” as it operated in international airspace: you can clearly see an Italian Air Force Typhoon currently deployed to Amari for Baltic Eagle II where they replaced the F-35As (the Russian MOD press release did mention the Italian fighters but misidentified them as F-16s) and Royal Danish Air Force F-16s. Finnish Air Force F-18s and Swedish Air Force JAS 39 Gripens were also launched and intercepted the Tu-160s. Interestingly, at least one Su-35S made an appearance on Flightradar24.com, marking (to our knowledge), the very first time a Russian Flanker could be tracked online.
The Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack, is the largest and heaviest combat aircraft, the fastest bomber in use and the largest and heaviest variable-sweep wing airplane ever flown. Its first flight dates back to 1981 and its induction into active service took place in 1987.
https://theaviationist.com/2021/09/21/tu-160-baltic-mission/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93lWyMrHEjQ
Bolsanaro leaving JFK
Brazilian AF BRS01 A319 departed JFK after a ground stop to pick up President Bolsanaro
Korean AF KAF001 747 heading to Hawaii
Following a two-night stay in New York, Moon will fly to Honolulu for the transfer of the remains of South Korean and American troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War. He will also award medals to independence activists under Japan's colonial rule of Korea from 1910-45, who reside currently in Hawaii. Moon is to return to Seoul on Thursday
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20210918000123
2 E-6B's over CA
TILE24 over the CA central Valley heading east and prolly heading to Travis
LAITY28 out of March AFB heading nw over the Channel Islands off shore
>>93902 pb
SAM208 went to Hickam AFB, Oahu
Top diplomats from U.S., Japan and South Korea to meet on North Korea
The foreign ministers of the United States, Japan and South Korea will meet Wednesday in New York to highlight their commitment to promote regional peace in the wake of a series of North Korean missile tests, a senior U.S. State Department official said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui Yong last met in person in May on the sidelines of the Group of Seven foreign ministerial meeting in London, when Seoul was invited as a guest. The upcoming meeting is “well-timed” to concert views among the three countries, given North Korea’s missile tests last week, the official told a teleconference, apparently referring to the two ballistic missiles that fell within Japan’s exclusive economic zone on Sept. 15. The official also welcomed that “the cadence of these trilateral meetings is increasing” and noted that it has proved to be “a very effective mechanism for sharing views concerning positions” not only in dealing with North Korea but also with regard to challenges in the Indo-Pacific region where China is becoming more assertive.
The U.S. administration of President Joe Biden has been emphasizing the importance of the three-way cooperation, at a time when the relationship between Japan and South Korea has remained soured over wartime history and other disputes.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/09/22/national/politics-diplomacy/trilateral-meeting-north-korea/
Navy Brass leaving the 'show' after about 5 hours on the ground
VV100 US Navy G5 departed Teterboro Airport, NJ back to JBA
Gate space for the UN shitshow is premium.
Brazilian AF went to Long Island -2 AC's and Aussies had one support AC at Westchester Cty Airport-White Plains, NY that I seen't
stuffed wif $12/pint ice cream
UNFIX03 US Navy E-6B Mercury from Barksdale AFB over IL se
VV700 US NAVY G5 east from Peterson AFB
VV100 on ground at JBA from Teterboro
nite all