POLITICO
"Psaki excoriates criticism of Biden administration work on vaccine misinformation"
Nick Niedzwiadek
July 16, 2021·4 min read
White House press secretary Jen Psaki forcefully defended the Biden administration’s growing offensive on vaccine-related misinformation spreading on Facebook and other social media platforms.
“Our biggest concern, and frankly I think it should be your biggest concern, is the number of people who are dying around the country because they are getting misinformation that is leading them to not take a vaccine,” Psaki said during Friday's daily press briefing.
“Young people, old people, kids, children … a lot of them are being impacted by misinformation.”
Psaki’s defense was in response to a question from Fox News’ Peter Doocy, who framed the Biden administration’s concern about bad actors online as “spying” on Americans’ social media usage.
“For how long has the administration been spying on people’s Facebook profiles looking for vaccine misinformation?” Doocy asked, referencing Psaki’s comments a day prior that roughly a dozen people on Facebook were responsible for the bulk of vaccine misinformation on the social network.
Psaki called the characterization “a loaded and inaccurate question.”
She said the White House flagging concerning posts to platforms like Facebook is similar to outreach to news outlets when they take issue with particular coverage.
“This is publicly open information, people sharing information online, just as you are all reporting information on your news stations,” she said during a testy exchange in which the pair talked over one another at times.
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Thursday declared falsehoods and conspiracy theories proliferating online as an “urgent threat to public health” because of their effect on people’s willingness to get a Covid vaccine.
Murthy’s advisory set off a firestorm in some conservative-leaning circles where such misinformation has circulated and contributed to stubbornly low vaccination rates in certain regions.
Top Republican lawmakers accused the Biden administration of being in cahoots with social media companies to censor speech.
Public health officials have sounded the alarm in recent weeks because the overwhelming number of people hospitalized and dying from Covid-19 now are unvaccinated.
The White House decided to more aggressively respond to those who are discouraging vaccinations and create more pro-vaccine content, including spots featuring Gen Z pop star Olivia Rodrigo.
President Joe Biden took a shot at platforms including Facebook while leaving the White House on Friday afternoon.
"They’re killing people," he told reporters in response to a question about Facebook.
"The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and they’re killing people.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), when asked if he agrees with the president's remarks, said social media companies must take more action to combat misinformation.
"I agree that the platforms are going to have to do a much better job pushing out good information and making sure they're not pushing misinformation that gets people killed," Schiff said on CNN.
"You know, I raised this issue with Facebook and other social media companies years ago with respect to flu vaccines, and they did take action and they're going to need to take stronger action here."
"This pandemic is killing people."
Facebook this week said it has taken down more than 18 million pieces of Covid-related misinformation, removed numerous accounts and promoted trustworthy information about vaccinations.
On Friday, the platform fired back against the president's claim that it's killing people.
"We will not be distracted by accusations which aren't supported by the facts," Dani Lever, a Facebook spokesperson, said in a statement.
The company also said more people have seen authoritative information about Covid-19 and vaccines on Facebook than any other place on the internet, and noted that over 3.3 million Americans used its vaccine finder tool.
"The facts show that Facebook is helping save lives."
"Period," the spokesperson added.
But social media companies have struggled with how much to crack down as information evolves.
For instance, Facebook in May walked back a ban on posts claiming that Covid-19 originated in a lab after there was renewed debate about the theory.
Psaki dismissed a follow-up question of Doocy’s about whether it was appropriate for government officials to monitor social media activity.
“The big concern though, I think, from a lot of people on Facebook is that now this is ‘Big Brother’ watching you,” he said.
“They’re more worried about this than people dying across the country because of a pandemic where misinformation is traveling on social media platforms?” Psaki asked.
“That feels unlikely to me."
"If you have the data to back that up, I’m happy to discuss it.”
Psaki said it’s up to the individual companies to police their platforms as they see fit, noting at another point during the briefing that efforts to date in combating misinformation were “clearly not” sufficient.
She also stated that the White House has not tried to contact users directly about their posts.
“That is not the federal government doing that," she said.
https://news.yahoo.com/psaki-excoriates ... 01635.html
THE DAILY NEWS
Re: THE DAILY NEWS
THE NEW YORK TIMES
"U.S. to Announce Troop Drawdown From Iraq"
Jane Arraf and Eric Schmitt
24 JULY 2021
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister is heading to Washington this weekend to demand that President Biden withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq, announcing to Iraqi media that the visit would “put an end to the presence of combat forces.”
American officials say the United States is likely to oblige the request from Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, setting a deadline to be announced on Monday for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces by the end of the year.
Pentagon and other administration officials say they will achieve this by removing a small but unspecified number of the 2,500 American forces currently stationed in Iraq, and by reclassifying on paper the roles of other forces.
Mr. al-Kadhimi will have a political trophy to take home to satisfy anti-American factions in Iraq and the U.S. military presence will remain.
“There will be no U.S. military forces in a combat role by the end of the year,” said a senior U.S. official familiar with ongoing discussions.
“We anticipate some force adjustments in line with that commitment.”
What appears to be a set piece of diplomatic theater is the latest effort by Mr. al-Kadhimi to tread between the needs and demands of Iraq’s two closest allies, the United States and Iran.
Pro-Iranian factions have been clamoring for a U.S. departure, while Iraqi officials acknowledge they still need the help of American forces.
The Biden administration in turn is grappling with how to operate in a country that since the U.S. invasion 18 years ago has fallen increasingly under the grip of Iranian-backed militias and a corrupt political system that has brought Iraq’s government institutions to the brink of collapse.
Mr. al-Kadhimi’s government, along with many senior Iraqi military officials, quietly favor the roughly 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq staying in their current form.
But the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s top security and intelligence commander, along with a senior Iraqi security official and eight others in an American drone strike in 2020, has made the United States’ current presence politically impossible, and politically undesirable in the United States.
After the U.S. drone strike, Iraq’s Parliament demanded the government expel U.S. forces — a motion that was nonbinding but sent a strong message to any politician who wanted to stay in power, including the prime minister.
Grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, a budget crisis and powerful Iranian-backed militias largely beyond his control, Mr. al-Kadhimi has accomplished little since taking office two years ago.
His advisers argue that if only he were given more time, he could rein in the militias, cut corruption and arrest more killers of hundreds of unarmed protesters and activists.
Most of Iraq’s paramilitary units were formed in 2014 in response to a call by the country’s most revered Shiite cleric for Iraqis to mobilize against the Islamic State.
Those militias were later absorbed into Iraq’s official security forces but the most powerful are tied to Iran and only nominally under control of the Iraqi state.
The United States has repeatedly blamed Iranian-backed militias for the persistent attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq.
The U.S. and many Iraqi officials believe the militias are also responsible for most of the assassinations of activists and for a wide range of illegal moneymaking schemes.
Monday’s announcement comes as the Pentagon nears the end of its withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, ending a 20-year presence there, even as the Taliban have captured dozens of districts around the country in a military offensive.
After President Barack Obama withdrew troops from Iraq in 2011, some remained, under the authority of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Three years later, with Islamic State fighters capturing territory across much of Iraq and Syria, the Iraqi government requested U.S. military support to help fight the terrorist group.
Since ISIS was driven from its last Iraqi stronghold in 2017, U.S. officials have consistently maintained that since there are currently no combat operations authorized in Iraq, there are no combat troops in the country.
But they acknowledge a small number of U.S. Special Operations Forces serving as advisers and trainers occasionally accompany Iraqi counterterrorism forces on combat missions against Islamic State fighters.
In Washington on Friday, Pentagon officials said they expected the troop levels in Iraq to remain at their current level of about 2,500, and that the role of some U.S. forces would be redefined.
But while giving Mr. al-Kadhimi temporary political cover, a reclassification of U.S. forces rather than a drawdown likely won’t satisfy the militias and political parties calling for a withdrawal of all troops, Iraqi officials say.
“Changing their name from combat forces to trainers and advisers — we consider it as an attempt at deception,” said Mohammad al-Rubai’e, political spokesman for Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the biggest Iranian-backed militias, which maintains 16 seats in the Iraqi parliament.
Those militias and many Iraqi politicians linked to them contend that the real purpose of U.S. forces in Iraq is to counter Iran, not threats from the Islamic State.
Iran this year has carried out increasingly sophisticated attacks, including drone strikes, on U.S. targets in Iraq, and the United States has launched calibrated retaliatory strikes.
“The dialogue with the United States is how can we think about maintaining a presence that is useful without incurring a high political cost,” Thanassis Cambanis, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, an American think tank, said during a visit to Iraq this week.
“The interests of the two sides don’t really align because the United States isn’t going to see it in its interests to continue to be attacked by these militias that the government of Iraq can’t curtail.”
Iran denies responsibility for the attacks, according to Iraqi officials, but its leaders have also made clear that they intend to retaliate against the United States for killing General Suleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi deputy commander overseeing militias.
The United States over the past year has increasingly focused on force protection, withdrawing from vulnerable bases in Iraq to consolidate its presence on three Iraqi military installations.
While the Islamic State is no longer able to capture territory, the group continues to launch destabilizing attacks such as bombings in markets that point out weaknesses in Iraqi security forces.
“Within Iraq, ISIS is defeated as a significant military threat but its radical ideology lives on,” said Mark Kimmitt, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general and former State Department official who now consults for American firms doing business in Iraq.
“Deradicalization, however, is not part of the U.S. mission.”
The American occupation of Iraq convulsed the country, not only toppling its dictator in 2003, but disbanding the army, hollowing out its government institutions and helping returned Iraqi exiles create a political system along sectarian and ethnic lines that haunts the nation to this day.
For years that system has awarded government ministries to political parties that siphon off money meant for public services has contributed to barely functioning hospitals, ongoing electricity cuts, millions of jobless Iraqis and a government that cannot pay its bills.
Infrastructure such as electricity that barely functioned after more than a decade of U.S.-led sanctions before the war has never been fully repaired.
Battles against Al Qaeda, Iraq’s civil war and the fight against the Islamic State further damaged infrastructure.
With falling oil prices last year, Iraq found itself having trouble meeting its huge government payroll, which has tripled since 2004 as political parties in charge of ministries create jobs for loyalists.
“We are now talking about repairing damage from the ex-regime, Al Qaeda, ISIS and the damage induced by the ruling political class,” said Luay al-Khatteeb, a technocrat former electricity minister.
“If this chaos continues it will lead to the destruction of the country.”
Jane Arraf reported from Baghdad, and Eric Schmitt from Washington. Falih Hassan contributed reporting from Baghdad.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/u- ... hp&pc=U531
"U.S. to Announce Troop Drawdown From Iraq"
Jane Arraf and Eric Schmitt
24 JULY 2021
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister is heading to Washington this weekend to demand that President Biden withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq, announcing to Iraqi media that the visit would “put an end to the presence of combat forces.”
American officials say the United States is likely to oblige the request from Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, setting a deadline to be announced on Monday for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces by the end of the year.
Pentagon and other administration officials say they will achieve this by removing a small but unspecified number of the 2,500 American forces currently stationed in Iraq, and by reclassifying on paper the roles of other forces.
Mr. al-Kadhimi will have a political trophy to take home to satisfy anti-American factions in Iraq and the U.S. military presence will remain.
“There will be no U.S. military forces in a combat role by the end of the year,” said a senior U.S. official familiar with ongoing discussions.
“We anticipate some force adjustments in line with that commitment.”
What appears to be a set piece of diplomatic theater is the latest effort by Mr. al-Kadhimi to tread between the needs and demands of Iraq’s two closest allies, the United States and Iran.
Pro-Iranian factions have been clamoring for a U.S. departure, while Iraqi officials acknowledge they still need the help of American forces.
The Biden administration in turn is grappling with how to operate in a country that since the U.S. invasion 18 years ago has fallen increasingly under the grip of Iranian-backed militias and a corrupt political system that has brought Iraq’s government institutions to the brink of collapse.
Mr. al-Kadhimi’s government, along with many senior Iraqi military officials, quietly favor the roughly 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq staying in their current form.
But the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s top security and intelligence commander, along with a senior Iraqi security official and eight others in an American drone strike in 2020, has made the United States’ current presence politically impossible, and politically undesirable in the United States.
After the U.S. drone strike, Iraq’s Parliament demanded the government expel U.S. forces — a motion that was nonbinding but sent a strong message to any politician who wanted to stay in power, including the prime minister.
Grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, a budget crisis and powerful Iranian-backed militias largely beyond his control, Mr. al-Kadhimi has accomplished little since taking office two years ago.
His advisers argue that if only he were given more time, he could rein in the militias, cut corruption and arrest more killers of hundreds of unarmed protesters and activists.
Most of Iraq’s paramilitary units were formed in 2014 in response to a call by the country’s most revered Shiite cleric for Iraqis to mobilize against the Islamic State.
Those militias were later absorbed into Iraq’s official security forces but the most powerful are tied to Iran and only nominally under control of the Iraqi state.
The United States has repeatedly blamed Iranian-backed militias for the persistent attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq.
The U.S. and many Iraqi officials believe the militias are also responsible for most of the assassinations of activists and for a wide range of illegal moneymaking schemes.
Monday’s announcement comes as the Pentagon nears the end of its withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, ending a 20-year presence there, even as the Taliban have captured dozens of districts around the country in a military offensive.
After President Barack Obama withdrew troops from Iraq in 2011, some remained, under the authority of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Three years later, with Islamic State fighters capturing territory across much of Iraq and Syria, the Iraqi government requested U.S. military support to help fight the terrorist group.
Since ISIS was driven from its last Iraqi stronghold in 2017, U.S. officials have consistently maintained that since there are currently no combat operations authorized in Iraq, there are no combat troops in the country.
But they acknowledge a small number of U.S. Special Operations Forces serving as advisers and trainers occasionally accompany Iraqi counterterrorism forces on combat missions against Islamic State fighters.
In Washington on Friday, Pentagon officials said they expected the troop levels in Iraq to remain at their current level of about 2,500, and that the role of some U.S. forces would be redefined.
But while giving Mr. al-Kadhimi temporary political cover, a reclassification of U.S. forces rather than a drawdown likely won’t satisfy the militias and political parties calling for a withdrawal of all troops, Iraqi officials say.
“Changing their name from combat forces to trainers and advisers — we consider it as an attempt at deception,” said Mohammad al-Rubai’e, political spokesman for Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the biggest Iranian-backed militias, which maintains 16 seats in the Iraqi parliament.
Those militias and many Iraqi politicians linked to them contend that the real purpose of U.S. forces in Iraq is to counter Iran, not threats from the Islamic State.
Iran this year has carried out increasingly sophisticated attacks, including drone strikes, on U.S. targets in Iraq, and the United States has launched calibrated retaliatory strikes.
“The dialogue with the United States is how can we think about maintaining a presence that is useful without incurring a high political cost,” Thanassis Cambanis, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, an American think tank, said during a visit to Iraq this week.
“The interests of the two sides don’t really align because the United States isn’t going to see it in its interests to continue to be attacked by these militias that the government of Iraq can’t curtail.”
Iran denies responsibility for the attacks, according to Iraqi officials, but its leaders have also made clear that they intend to retaliate against the United States for killing General Suleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi deputy commander overseeing militias.
The United States over the past year has increasingly focused on force protection, withdrawing from vulnerable bases in Iraq to consolidate its presence on three Iraqi military installations.
While the Islamic State is no longer able to capture territory, the group continues to launch destabilizing attacks such as bombings in markets that point out weaknesses in Iraqi security forces.
“Within Iraq, ISIS is defeated as a significant military threat but its radical ideology lives on,” said Mark Kimmitt, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general and former State Department official who now consults for American firms doing business in Iraq.
“Deradicalization, however, is not part of the U.S. mission.”
The American occupation of Iraq convulsed the country, not only toppling its dictator in 2003, but disbanding the army, hollowing out its government institutions and helping returned Iraqi exiles create a political system along sectarian and ethnic lines that haunts the nation to this day.
For years that system has awarded government ministries to political parties that siphon off money meant for public services has contributed to barely functioning hospitals, ongoing electricity cuts, millions of jobless Iraqis and a government that cannot pay its bills.
Infrastructure such as electricity that barely functioned after more than a decade of U.S.-led sanctions before the war has never been fully repaired.
Battles against Al Qaeda, Iraq’s civil war and the fight against the Islamic State further damaged infrastructure.
With falling oil prices last year, Iraq found itself having trouble meeting its huge government payroll, which has tripled since 2004 as political parties in charge of ministries create jobs for loyalists.
“We are now talking about repairing damage from the ex-regime, Al Qaeda, ISIS and the damage induced by the ruling political class,” said Luay al-Khatteeb, a technocrat former electricity minister.
“If this chaos continues it will lead to the destruction of the country.”
Jane Arraf reported from Baghdad, and Eric Schmitt from Washington. Falih Hassan contributed reporting from Baghdad.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/u- ... hp&pc=U531
Re: THE DAILY NEWS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"'We have to get it right,' Dem vows as Jan. 6 probe begins"
By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press
26 JULY 2021
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Bennie Thompson, didn’t realize the severity of the Jan. 6 insurrection until his wife called him.
He was inside the Capitol, sitting in the upper gallery of the House, hoping for what he called a “birds-eye view of the process” and to be able to tell his grandchildren that he was there when Congress certified Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
People are breaking into the building, London Thompson told him, and it was on television.
“I’m watching people climbing over the wall right now,” she said.
“It doesn’t register,” the Mississippi Democrat recalled in an interview with The Associated Press.
“I said, ‘You can’t break in.'"
"'There’s police and barricades and a lot of things out there.’”
But it was not long before the House chamber was under siege.
Police rushed Thompson and several dozen other members of Congress to another side of the gallery and told them to duck under their seats as supporters of then-President Donald Trump tried to break down the doors to the chamber below.
“It was a horrible day,” said Thompson, "still almost surreal that it even occurred."
Like Thompson, many who serve and work in the Capitol are trying to make sense of the chaos that unfolded on Jan. 6.
And he now has a guiding role in the process, appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as the chairman of a select committee that will investigate the attack.
The panel will hold its first hearing Tuesday with police officers who battled the rioters.
As the longtime chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Thompson is accustomed to dealing with grave matters of national security.
But his stewardship of the Jan. 6 panel will be a test unlike any other, as he tries to untangle the events of a violent insurrection that many House Republicans increasingly play down and deny.
“We have to get it right,” Thompson said.
If the committee can find ways to prevent anything like it from happening again, “then I would have made what I think is the most valuable contribution to this great democracy."
Thompson, 73, is a liberal fixture in Congress and longtime champion of civil rights, the only Democrat in the Mississippi delegation, hailing from a majority-black district in the state’s western half.
He has avoided the limelight during his more than 15 years on the Homeland Security Committee, notching achievements with careful bipartisan outreach.
Several Democrats and Republicans said Thompson was the right choice to lead an investigation that is certain to be partisan and fraught.
“I’ve dealt with Bennie for 15 years, and we disagreed on a lot, but I don’t think there was ever a harsh word between us,” says former Republican Rep. Pete King of New York, who was the chairman and top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee for years opposite Thompson.
“Bennie is low key, he manages his side well."
"He was a good guy to work with."
"He was strong and knew what he wanted, but there was very little drama.”
New York Rep. John Katko, who is now the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, gave a similar assessment.
Thompson is “a good man, a patriotic American” and a “productive partner,” Katko said in statement.
Pelosi chose Thompson as chairman after he crafted legislation with Katko that would have created an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.
That bill won almost three dozen Republican votes in the House only to flame out in the Senate, where the opposition of Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell was decisive.
Far fewer House Republicans supported creating the House select committee, dismissing the effort as partisan.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said the GOP won't participate after Pelosi rejected two of his appointments, Republican Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Only two Republicans voted to create the panel — Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger.
Pelosi first appointed Cheney to the committee and then added Kinzinger as well on Sunday after McCarthy withdrew his picks.
“I’m looking forward in the long run, to try to have as many of the 13 members that I can,” Thompson said last week.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who was appointed to the Jan. 6 committee, said Thompson’s history of working with Republicans and his popularity among members will make it harder to malign the panel’s work.
Reaching the bipartisan deal with Katko was not an easy task, he said.
“I think he has a very even keel that will help him get through this,” Schiff said.
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, another Democrat appointed to the select committee, says both parties have “partisan brawlers” — and Thompson is not one of them.
“He’s a workhorse, so he likes getting stuff done,” Raskin said.
“And I think that’s the right spirit for this.”
Still, Thompson has taken sharply partisan stances.
He joined with about 30 Democrats in a 2005 vote to invalidate President George W. Bush’s victory — not unlike the dozens of Republicans who voted to invalidate Biden’s in January.
In that challenge, the dissenting Democrats claimed irregularities if not fraud in Ohio’s vote.
The effort did not end in violence and John Kerry, the defeated Democratic presidential candidate, did not lead or join the effort to deny Bush his victory.
A frequent critic of Trump, Thompson joined other Democrats in filing a lawsuit against the former president after the insurrection, charging that he incited the attack and conspired to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.
Last week, Thompson withdrew his participation in that lawsuit, which he joined soon after the Senate acquitted Trump, at his second impeachment trial, of inciting the insurrection.
Thompson's withdrawal petition said he “wishes to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest between his role on the Select Committee and his role as a Plaintiff in this litigation.”
The lawsuit, which is still active, names as defendants Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, and the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
The Justice Department has filed charges against members of those groups in connection to the attack, and the panel is expected to investigate them as part of its probe.
Domestic extremism and its links to white supremacy are a familiar subject for Thompson not only from his time on the Homeland Security Committee but also from his early involvement in the civil rights movement in Mississippi.
He was active with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in college and organized voter registration drives before he was elected mayor of his small hometown of Bolton.
The FBI’s assessments about the growing dangers of domestic extremism, he said, show that “the significance of this committee’s work is as important as it can ever get.”
___
Associated Press video producer Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... hp&pc=U531
"'We have to get it right,' Dem vows as Jan. 6 probe begins"
By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press
26 JULY 2021
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Bennie Thompson, didn’t realize the severity of the Jan. 6 insurrection until his wife called him.
He was inside the Capitol, sitting in the upper gallery of the House, hoping for what he called a “birds-eye view of the process” and to be able to tell his grandchildren that he was there when Congress certified Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
People are breaking into the building, London Thompson told him, and it was on television.
“I’m watching people climbing over the wall right now,” she said.
“It doesn’t register,” the Mississippi Democrat recalled in an interview with The Associated Press.
“I said, ‘You can’t break in.'"
"'There’s police and barricades and a lot of things out there.’”
But it was not long before the House chamber was under siege.
Police rushed Thompson and several dozen other members of Congress to another side of the gallery and told them to duck under their seats as supporters of then-President Donald Trump tried to break down the doors to the chamber below.
“It was a horrible day,” said Thompson, "still almost surreal that it even occurred."
Like Thompson, many who serve and work in the Capitol are trying to make sense of the chaos that unfolded on Jan. 6.
And he now has a guiding role in the process, appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as the chairman of a select committee that will investigate the attack.
The panel will hold its first hearing Tuesday with police officers who battled the rioters.
As the longtime chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Thompson is accustomed to dealing with grave matters of national security.
But his stewardship of the Jan. 6 panel will be a test unlike any other, as he tries to untangle the events of a violent insurrection that many House Republicans increasingly play down and deny.
“We have to get it right,” Thompson said.
If the committee can find ways to prevent anything like it from happening again, “then I would have made what I think is the most valuable contribution to this great democracy."
Thompson, 73, is a liberal fixture in Congress and longtime champion of civil rights, the only Democrat in the Mississippi delegation, hailing from a majority-black district in the state’s western half.
He has avoided the limelight during his more than 15 years on the Homeland Security Committee, notching achievements with careful bipartisan outreach.
Several Democrats and Republicans said Thompson was the right choice to lead an investigation that is certain to be partisan and fraught.
“I’ve dealt with Bennie for 15 years, and we disagreed on a lot, but I don’t think there was ever a harsh word between us,” says former Republican Rep. Pete King of New York, who was the chairman and top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee for years opposite Thompson.
“Bennie is low key, he manages his side well."
"He was a good guy to work with."
"He was strong and knew what he wanted, but there was very little drama.”
New York Rep. John Katko, who is now the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, gave a similar assessment.
Thompson is “a good man, a patriotic American” and a “productive partner,” Katko said in statement.
Pelosi chose Thompson as chairman after he crafted legislation with Katko that would have created an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.
That bill won almost three dozen Republican votes in the House only to flame out in the Senate, where the opposition of Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell was decisive.
Far fewer House Republicans supported creating the House select committee, dismissing the effort as partisan.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said the GOP won't participate after Pelosi rejected two of his appointments, Republican Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Only two Republicans voted to create the panel — Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger.
Pelosi first appointed Cheney to the committee and then added Kinzinger as well on Sunday after McCarthy withdrew his picks.
“I’m looking forward in the long run, to try to have as many of the 13 members that I can,” Thompson said last week.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who was appointed to the Jan. 6 committee, said Thompson’s history of working with Republicans and his popularity among members will make it harder to malign the panel’s work.
Reaching the bipartisan deal with Katko was not an easy task, he said.
“I think he has a very even keel that will help him get through this,” Schiff said.
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, another Democrat appointed to the select committee, says both parties have “partisan brawlers” — and Thompson is not one of them.
“He’s a workhorse, so he likes getting stuff done,” Raskin said.
“And I think that’s the right spirit for this.”
Still, Thompson has taken sharply partisan stances.
He joined with about 30 Democrats in a 2005 vote to invalidate President George W. Bush’s victory — not unlike the dozens of Republicans who voted to invalidate Biden’s in January.
In that challenge, the dissenting Democrats claimed irregularities if not fraud in Ohio’s vote.
The effort did not end in violence and John Kerry, the defeated Democratic presidential candidate, did not lead or join the effort to deny Bush his victory.
A frequent critic of Trump, Thompson joined other Democrats in filing a lawsuit against the former president after the insurrection, charging that he incited the attack and conspired to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.
Last week, Thompson withdrew his participation in that lawsuit, which he joined soon after the Senate acquitted Trump, at his second impeachment trial, of inciting the insurrection.
Thompson's withdrawal petition said he “wishes to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest between his role on the Select Committee and his role as a Plaintiff in this litigation.”
The lawsuit, which is still active, names as defendants Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, and the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
The Justice Department has filed charges against members of those groups in connection to the attack, and the panel is expected to investigate them as part of its probe.
Domestic extremism and its links to white supremacy are a familiar subject for Thompson not only from his time on the Homeland Security Committee but also from his early involvement in the civil rights movement in Mississippi.
He was active with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in college and organized voter registration drives before he was elected mayor of his small hometown of Bolton.
The FBI’s assessments about the growing dangers of domestic extremism, he said, show that “the significance of this committee’s work is as important as it can ever get.”
___
Associated Press video producer Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... hp&pc=U531
Re: THE DAILY NEWS
RIGZONE
"Oil Prices Decline As Delta Variant Spreads"
by Bloomberg | Jill R. Shah
Monday, July 26, 2021
(Bloomberg) -- Oil dipped as investors eyed the spreading delta variant’s impact on demand while cases surge.
Futures in New York fell 0.2% on Monday after rallying the previous four sessions.
Global cases of Covid-19 have increased the most in two months with infections surging in the U.S., Brazil, India, Indonesia and the U.K.
Countries with lower vaccination coverage in parts of Asia are seeing more fatalities and renewed restrictions, posing a threat to fuel consumption and demand for oil.
On Monday, the U.S. raised a Covid-19 travel warning for Spain to the highest level.
“We’ve seen demand, excluding jet fuel, come back in the developed world in a really strong way,” said Peter McNally, global head of industrials, materials and energy at Third Bridge.
“So that’s a known."
"The impact on the the developing world’s been more unknown.”
The resurgence of coronavirus cases has created volatility in the oil market and interrupted a steady price rally this year.
Money managers cut their net-long positions in the U.S. crude benchmark by the most since 2017 last week as the delta variant shook broader markets.
“There is seemingly a battle within the energy complex between the prevailing supply deficit engineered by OPEC+ and the threat of the COVID-19 Delta variant in regions with low-vaccination rates,” said Kevin Solomon, an analyst at brokerage StoneX Group.
Prices
West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery fell 16 cents to settle at $71.91 a barrel in New York.
Brent for September settlement added 40 cents to end the session at $74.50 a barrel.
Investors are also awaiting earnings reports from major oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. this week.
Last week, U.S. shale producers suggested slowing production growth in the latter half of the year and continued discipline.
“There’s been a lot of talk, and a lot of action on capital discipline, there’s no doubt on that,” said McNally.
“But it’s hard to pinpoint the exact week, day, that we do see this turn in supply and it’s something we’re certainly going to watch a bit more closely.”
--With assistance from Alex Longley and Elizabeth Low.
https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/oil_p ... 2-article/
"Oil Prices Decline As Delta Variant Spreads"
by Bloomberg | Jill R. Shah
Monday, July 26, 2021
(Bloomberg) -- Oil dipped as investors eyed the spreading delta variant’s impact on demand while cases surge.
Futures in New York fell 0.2% on Monday after rallying the previous four sessions.
Global cases of Covid-19 have increased the most in two months with infections surging in the U.S., Brazil, India, Indonesia and the U.K.
Countries with lower vaccination coverage in parts of Asia are seeing more fatalities and renewed restrictions, posing a threat to fuel consumption and demand for oil.
On Monday, the U.S. raised a Covid-19 travel warning for Spain to the highest level.
“We’ve seen demand, excluding jet fuel, come back in the developed world in a really strong way,” said Peter McNally, global head of industrials, materials and energy at Third Bridge.
“So that’s a known."
"The impact on the the developing world’s been more unknown.”
The resurgence of coronavirus cases has created volatility in the oil market and interrupted a steady price rally this year.
Money managers cut their net-long positions in the U.S. crude benchmark by the most since 2017 last week as the delta variant shook broader markets.
“There is seemingly a battle within the energy complex between the prevailing supply deficit engineered by OPEC+ and the threat of the COVID-19 Delta variant in regions with low-vaccination rates,” said Kevin Solomon, an analyst at brokerage StoneX Group.
Prices
West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery fell 16 cents to settle at $71.91 a barrel in New York.
Brent for September settlement added 40 cents to end the session at $74.50 a barrel.
Investors are also awaiting earnings reports from major oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. this week.
Last week, U.S. shale producers suggested slowing production growth in the latter half of the year and continued discipline.
“There’s been a lot of talk, and a lot of action on capital discipline, there’s no doubt on that,” said McNally.
“But it’s hard to pinpoint the exact week, day, that we do see this turn in supply and it’s something we’re certainly going to watch a bit more closely.”
--With assistance from Alex Longley and Elizabeth Low.
https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/oil_p ... 2-article/
Re: THE DAILY NEWS
CNBC
"Housing boom is over as new home sales fall to pandemic low"
Diana Olick @IN/DIANAOLICK @DIANAOLICKCNBC @DIANAOLICK
PUBLISHED MON, JUL 26 2021
KEY POINTS
* Sales of new single family homes fell to an annualized rate of 676,000, 6.6% below May’s rate of 724,000 and 19.4% below the June 2020 level of 839,000.
* The median price of a newly built home in June rose just 6% from June 2020
* The inventory of new homes for sale jumped from a 5.5-month supply in May to a 6.3-month supply in June. Last fall, it sat at a low of just 3.5 months.
Sales of newly built homes dropped in June to the lowest level since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Monday.
Sales of new single family homes fell to an annualized rate of 676,000, 6.6% below May’s rate of 724,000 and 19.4% below the June 2020 level of 839,000.
Analysts were expecting new home sales to increase by 3.4% in June.
After a year of frenzied buying and price gains in the double digits, newly built homes are now out of reach for much of the demand that remains in the market.
The median price of a newly built home in June rose just 6% from June 2020, and while that is a large gain historically, it is nothing compared with the 15%-20% annual gains seen in previous months.
Most of the homebuying is on the higher end of the market, and builders cannot afford to put up affordable homes due to skyrocketing construction costs.
Softwood lumber, in particular, spiked more than 300% during the pandemic, and while it has fallen back dramatically in the last month, it is still about 75% above its 2019 average.
Other lumber products are still significantly more expensive.
“We also know there are shortages of appliances, labor and affordable lots,” noted Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at the Bleakley Advisory Group.
“The moderation in home sales is likely a combination of sticker shock and the slowdown in the ability of builders to finish homes because of a variety of delays.”
The inventory of new homes for sale jumped from a 5.5-month supply in May to a 6.3-month supply in June.
Last fall, it sat at a low of just 3.5 months.
In June, the number of homes for sale that had not yet been started hit an all-time high.
“Annual comparisons will get even more difficult in coming months, as it was this time last year that the market began to surge and reach highs not seen since before the Great Recession,” wrote Zillow economist Matthew Speakman in a release.
Buyers in June were also hit with higher mortgage rates, which spiked about a quarter of a percentage point during the month.
While that may not sound like a lot, if buyers are already stretched by higher home prices, they have less of a financial cushion to absorb higher mortgage rates.
Single family housing starts continue to gain, albeit slowly and not on the lowest end of the market.
Permits, an indicator of future construction, are not as robust as the market needs.
While there is unquestionably still strong demand from buyers, much of it is being squelched by affordability and supply issues.
Those signs clearly showed up at builder home sites in June and have been a factor in weakening homebuilder sentiment for the past two months.
Noted builder analyst Ivy Zelman wrote as much in a note last month.
“We are shifting our tone on the housing market based on our analysis of proprietary data showing early signs of a cool down,” according to the note.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/26/housing ... c-low.html
"Housing boom is over as new home sales fall to pandemic low"
Diana Olick @IN/DIANAOLICK @DIANAOLICKCNBC @DIANAOLICK
PUBLISHED MON, JUL 26 2021
KEY POINTS
* Sales of new single family homes fell to an annualized rate of 676,000, 6.6% below May’s rate of 724,000 and 19.4% below the June 2020 level of 839,000.
* The median price of a newly built home in June rose just 6% from June 2020
* The inventory of new homes for sale jumped from a 5.5-month supply in May to a 6.3-month supply in June. Last fall, it sat at a low of just 3.5 months.
Sales of newly built homes dropped in June to the lowest level since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Monday.
Sales of new single family homes fell to an annualized rate of 676,000, 6.6% below May’s rate of 724,000 and 19.4% below the June 2020 level of 839,000.
Analysts were expecting new home sales to increase by 3.4% in June.
After a year of frenzied buying and price gains in the double digits, newly built homes are now out of reach for much of the demand that remains in the market.
The median price of a newly built home in June rose just 6% from June 2020, and while that is a large gain historically, it is nothing compared with the 15%-20% annual gains seen in previous months.
Most of the homebuying is on the higher end of the market, and builders cannot afford to put up affordable homes due to skyrocketing construction costs.
Softwood lumber, in particular, spiked more than 300% during the pandemic, and while it has fallen back dramatically in the last month, it is still about 75% above its 2019 average.
Other lumber products are still significantly more expensive.
“We also know there are shortages of appliances, labor and affordable lots,” noted Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at the Bleakley Advisory Group.
“The moderation in home sales is likely a combination of sticker shock and the slowdown in the ability of builders to finish homes because of a variety of delays.”
The inventory of new homes for sale jumped from a 5.5-month supply in May to a 6.3-month supply in June.
Last fall, it sat at a low of just 3.5 months.
In June, the number of homes for sale that had not yet been started hit an all-time high.
“Annual comparisons will get even more difficult in coming months, as it was this time last year that the market began to surge and reach highs not seen since before the Great Recession,” wrote Zillow economist Matthew Speakman in a release.
Buyers in June were also hit with higher mortgage rates, which spiked about a quarter of a percentage point during the month.
While that may not sound like a lot, if buyers are already stretched by higher home prices, they have less of a financial cushion to absorb higher mortgage rates.
Single family housing starts continue to gain, albeit slowly and not on the lowest end of the market.
Permits, an indicator of future construction, are not as robust as the market needs.
While there is unquestionably still strong demand from buyers, much of it is being squelched by affordability and supply issues.
Those signs clearly showed up at builder home sites in June and have been a factor in weakening homebuilder sentiment for the past two months.
Noted builder analyst Ivy Zelman wrote as much in a note last month.
“We are shifting our tone on the housing market based on our analysis of proprietary data showing early signs of a cool down,” according to the note.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/26/housing ... c-low.html
Re: THE DAILY NEWS
CNBC
"Treasury yields start the week slightly higher with Fed meeting in focus"
Vicky McKeever @VMCKEEVERCNBC
PUBLISHED MON, JUL 26 2021
U.S. Treasury yields ticked higher on Monday, with investor attention focused on the Federal Reserve two-day monetary policy meeting this week.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose less than a basis point to 1.291% at 4:00 p.m. ET.
The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond rose 1.6 basis points to 1.94%.
Yields move inversely to prices.
The Federal Open Market Committee’s two-day meeting is due to begin on Tuesday, with a policy statement issued on Wednesday afternoon.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released new home sales data Monday for the month of June, which were weaker by 6.6% compared to the 3% increase initially estimated by analysts.
Auctions were held on Monday for $54 billion of 13-week bills, $51 billion of 26-week bills and $60 billion of 2-year notes.
— CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel contributed to this market report.
Data also provided by Reuters
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/26/us-bond ... focus.html
"Treasury yields start the week slightly higher with Fed meeting in focus"
Vicky McKeever @VMCKEEVERCNBC
PUBLISHED MON, JUL 26 2021
U.S. Treasury yields ticked higher on Monday, with investor attention focused on the Federal Reserve two-day monetary policy meeting this week.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose less than a basis point to 1.291% at 4:00 p.m. ET.
The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond rose 1.6 basis points to 1.94%.
Yields move inversely to prices.
The Federal Open Market Committee’s two-day meeting is due to begin on Tuesday, with a policy statement issued on Wednesday afternoon.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released new home sales data Monday for the month of June, which were weaker by 6.6% compared to the 3% increase initially estimated by analysts.
Auctions were held on Monday for $54 billion of 13-week bills, $51 billion of 26-week bills and $60 billion of 2-year notes.
— CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel contributed to this market report.
Data also provided by Reuters
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/26/us-bond ... focus.html
Re: THE DAILY NEWS
REUTERS
"Biden nominates top prosecutors, including one to oversee Jan. 6 riot cases"
By Sarah N. Lynch, Nate Raymond
JULY 26, 2021
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday nominated a slate of eight people to serve as U.S. attorneys, including the top federal prosecutor who will oversee the Jan. 6 Capitol riots cases if he is confirmed, and a progressive prosecutor in Massachusetts.
Matthew Graves, a former federal prosecutor now with the corporate law firm DLA Piper, is Biden’s choice to run the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which has been overwhelmed with a flood of cases stemming from the riots.
Federal prosecutors have arrested more than 535 people on charges of taking part in the violence, in which followers of then-President Donald Trump fought police, smashed windows and sent members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for safety.
Graves earlier in his career served as a prosecutor in the same U.S. Attorney’s Office he would lead, securing a guilty plea from former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr for misusing campaign funds and investigating banks for sanctions violations.
Biden also nominated Rachael Rollins, a local prosecutor in Boston who is part of a growing national movement of “progressive prosecutors” who support efforts to eliminate racial disparities by rejecting the traditional “tough on crime” culture that has led to the disproportionate incarceration of Black men.
The nominations must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Rollins, who earlier in her career worked as a federal prosecutor, was elected in 2018 as the first Black woman to serve as the district attorney in Suffolk County, which covers Boston.
She would be the first Black woman to serve as the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts.
Rollins campaigned on a promise to decline prosecution for some low-level crimes, and she had been vocal about the need for police reform even before the nationwide protests following the May killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Some other progressive district attorneys have also been under consideration to serve as U.S. attorneys.
Other nominees to serve as U.S. attorneys include Erek Barron for the District of Maryland, Nicholas Brown for the Western District of Washington, Clifford Johnson for the Northern District of Indiana, Zachary Myers for the Southern District of Indiana, Trini Ross for the Western District of New York and Vanessa Waldref for the Eastern District of Washington.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKBN2EW1RW
"Biden nominates top prosecutors, including one to oversee Jan. 6 riot cases"
By Sarah N. Lynch, Nate Raymond
JULY 26, 2021
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday nominated a slate of eight people to serve as U.S. attorneys, including the top federal prosecutor who will oversee the Jan. 6 Capitol riots cases if he is confirmed, and a progressive prosecutor in Massachusetts.
Matthew Graves, a former federal prosecutor now with the corporate law firm DLA Piper, is Biden’s choice to run the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which has been overwhelmed with a flood of cases stemming from the riots.
Federal prosecutors have arrested more than 535 people on charges of taking part in the violence, in which followers of then-President Donald Trump fought police, smashed windows and sent members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for safety.
Graves earlier in his career served as a prosecutor in the same U.S. Attorney’s Office he would lead, securing a guilty plea from former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr for misusing campaign funds and investigating banks for sanctions violations.
Biden also nominated Rachael Rollins, a local prosecutor in Boston who is part of a growing national movement of “progressive prosecutors” who support efforts to eliminate racial disparities by rejecting the traditional “tough on crime” culture that has led to the disproportionate incarceration of Black men.
The nominations must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Rollins, who earlier in her career worked as a federal prosecutor, was elected in 2018 as the first Black woman to serve as the district attorney in Suffolk County, which covers Boston.
She would be the first Black woman to serve as the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts.
Rollins campaigned on a promise to decline prosecution for some low-level crimes, and she had been vocal about the need for police reform even before the nationwide protests following the May killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Some other progressive district attorneys have also been under consideration to serve as U.S. attorneys.
Other nominees to serve as U.S. attorneys include Erek Barron for the District of Maryland, Nicholas Brown for the Western District of Washington, Clifford Johnson for the Northern District of Indiana, Zachary Myers for the Southern District of Indiana, Trini Ross for the Western District of New York and Vanessa Waldref for the Eastern District of Washington.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKBN2EW1RW
Re: THE DAILY NEWS
REUTERS
"TREASURIES-U.S. yields edge higher ahead of Fed meeting"
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
JULY 26, 2021
* U.S. 2-year note auction shows solid results
* U.S. 10-year TIPS yield hits record low
* U.S. 10-year breakeven inflation falls
* Fed's policy meeting this week in focus
NEW YORK, July 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury yields drifted higher in choppy trading on Monday, recovering from sharp falls earlier in the session and tracking shifts in risk appetite, with investors cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting this week.
A solid U.S. two-year note auction earlier added to some bids in Treasuries, before losing steam.
"The 2-year auction was met with a reasonable reception and given the link between 5-year yields and lift-off expectations, we’ll be closely watching Tuesday's Treasury auction for any indication of a market lean ahead of (Fed Chair Jerome) Powell's press conference," said BMO Capital Markets rates strategists Ian Lyngen and Ben Jeffery in a research note.
The Fed's two-day policy meeting starts on Tuesday, concluding on Wednesday with a possible policy decision and a news conference by Powell on Wednesday.
The Treasury is selling $61 billion in 5-year notes on Tuesday and $62 billion in 7-year notes on Thursday.
Earlier in the global session, U.S. yields dropped following steep losses in Chinese stocks on worries over tighter regulations in the world's second-largest economy.
Chinese blue chips shed 3.2% in the biggest daily decline since March, as the education and property sectors were battered due to concerns over tighter government rules.
The U.S. Treasury's auction of $60 billion in 2-year notes, meanwhile, had solid results.
The yield was 0.213%, compared with the when-issued or expected rate of 0.217% at the bid deadline, suggesting investors were willing to receive a slightly lower yield for the note.
The bid-to-cover ratio, a gauge of demand, was 2.47, below both last month's 2.54 and the
2.53 average.
"You rarely see a 2-year auction struggle for demand just because their rates have been stable," said Gennadiy Goldberg, senior rates strategist at TD Securities in New York.
In late afternoon trading, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose to 1.293% from 1.285% late on Friday.
U.S. 30-year yields were up at 1.941% from Friday's 1.924%.
Post-auction, U.S. 2-year note yields were down at 0.196%, compared with 0.2% last Friday.
The yield on 10-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) plunged to a record low of -1.12% on Monday, as investors bought the instrument with the yield on nominal 10-year Treasuries continuing to trade below the expected inflation rate.
U.S. 10-year TIPS yield was last at -1.119%.
The U.S. 10-year inflation breakeven, the bond market's gauge of investors' price outlook over the next 10 years, was down at 2.416% from Friday's 2.44%.
In mid-May, 10-year breakeven inflation hit 2.564%, the highest since March 2013.
Investors are also focused on this week's Fed meeting, though analysts expect no change in policy.
"Given Fed Chair Powell's focus on downside risk in recent testimony and in the June press conference, we believe the surge in the Delta variant will combine with the headwinds from supply shortages and bottlenecks to leave the FOMC firmly on hold," Action Economics said in its latest blog.
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Steve Orlofsky and Dan Grebler)
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-bon ... SL1N2P21W4
"TREASURIES-U.S. yields edge higher ahead of Fed meeting"
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
JULY 26, 2021
* U.S. 2-year note auction shows solid results
* U.S. 10-year TIPS yield hits record low
* U.S. 10-year breakeven inflation falls
* Fed's policy meeting this week in focus
NEW YORK, July 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury yields drifted higher in choppy trading on Monday, recovering from sharp falls earlier in the session and tracking shifts in risk appetite, with investors cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting this week.
A solid U.S. two-year note auction earlier added to some bids in Treasuries, before losing steam.
"The 2-year auction was met with a reasonable reception and given the link between 5-year yields and lift-off expectations, we’ll be closely watching Tuesday's Treasury auction for any indication of a market lean ahead of (Fed Chair Jerome) Powell's press conference," said BMO Capital Markets rates strategists Ian Lyngen and Ben Jeffery in a research note.
The Fed's two-day policy meeting starts on Tuesday, concluding on Wednesday with a possible policy decision and a news conference by Powell on Wednesday.
The Treasury is selling $61 billion in 5-year notes on Tuesday and $62 billion in 7-year notes on Thursday.
Earlier in the global session, U.S. yields dropped following steep losses in Chinese stocks on worries over tighter regulations in the world's second-largest economy.
Chinese blue chips shed 3.2% in the biggest daily decline since March, as the education and property sectors were battered due to concerns over tighter government rules.
The U.S. Treasury's auction of $60 billion in 2-year notes, meanwhile, had solid results.
The yield was 0.213%, compared with the when-issued or expected rate of 0.217% at the bid deadline, suggesting investors were willing to receive a slightly lower yield for the note.
The bid-to-cover ratio, a gauge of demand, was 2.47, below both last month's 2.54 and the
2.53 average.
"You rarely see a 2-year auction struggle for demand just because their rates have been stable," said Gennadiy Goldberg, senior rates strategist at TD Securities in New York.
In late afternoon trading, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose to 1.293% from 1.285% late on Friday.
U.S. 30-year yields were up at 1.941% from Friday's 1.924%.
Post-auction, U.S. 2-year note yields were down at 0.196%, compared with 0.2% last Friday.
The yield on 10-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) plunged to a record low of -1.12% on Monday, as investors bought the instrument with the yield on nominal 10-year Treasuries continuing to trade below the expected inflation rate.
U.S. 10-year TIPS yield was last at -1.119%.
The U.S. 10-year inflation breakeven, the bond market's gauge of investors' price outlook over the next 10 years, was down at 2.416% from Friday's 2.44%.
In mid-May, 10-year breakeven inflation hit 2.564%, the highest since March 2013.
Investors are also focused on this week's Fed meeting, though analysts expect no change in policy.
"Given Fed Chair Powell's focus on downside risk in recent testimony and in the June press conference, we believe the surge in the Delta variant will combine with the headwinds from supply shortages and bottlenecks to leave the FOMC firmly on hold," Action Economics said in its latest blog.
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Steve Orlofsky and Dan Grebler)
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-bon ... SL1N2P21W4
Re: THE DAILY NEWS
REUTERS
"U.S. new home sales hit 14-month low amid supply constraints"
Lucia Mutikani
July 26, 2021
Summary
*New home sales drop 6.6% in June; May revised down
*Median house price rises 6.1% to $361,800 from year ago
WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) - Sales of new U.S. single-family homes tumbled to a 14-month low in June and sales in the prior month were weaker than initially estimated, the latest signs that expensive lumber and shortages of other building materials were hurting the housing market.
The third straight monthly decline in sales reported by the Commerce Department on Monday followed news last week that permits for future homebuilding dropped to a nine-month low in June while home resales rebounded modestly.
Higher production costs are forcing builders to scale back, keeping supply tight and boosting home prices to the detriment of first-time buyers.
"Home builders continue to hold back on contracts for new homes given input cost and availability uncertainties, with significant uncertainty about what it will cost to build a house and when it can be delivered," said David Berson, chief economist at Nationwide in Columbus, Ohio.
"Until builder costs and supply-chain problems become less of an impediment, it is hard to see new sales picking up significantly in the near term."
New home sales fell 6.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676,000 units last month, the lowest level since April 2020, the Commerce Department said on Monday.
May's sales pace was revised down to 724,000 units from the previously reported 769,000 units.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for a small share of U.S. home sales, increasing 3% to rate of 800,000 units in June.
New home sales are drawn from a sample of houses selected from building permits and tend to be volatile on a month-to-month basis.
Sales plunged 19.4% on a year-on-year basis in June, the first annual decrease since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Massive fiscal policy and historically low mortgage rates are driving demand for housing, which was further boosted by the pandemic as millions of Americans worked from home and took online classes.
But supply has lagged behind, with builders constrained by soaring lumber prices as well as shortages of other building materials, household appliances, land and labor.
Though lumber prices have dropped sharply from May's record highs, that is being tempered by wildfires in the Western United States and British Columbia in Canada.
The backlog of single-family homes approved for construction but yet to be started surged in June to the highest level since October 2006.
"It will probably take months for lower lumber prices to flow through to the price of new homes."
"Also, some of the recent decline in lumber prices has been reversed due to the impact of wildfires," said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics in New York.
U.S. stocks were trading higher.
The dollar fell against a basket of currencies.
U.S. Treasury prices were mixed.
The housing market was one of the economy's star performers during the pandemic, posting double-digit growth for three straight quarters.
That streak likely came to an end in the second quarter, with residential investment believed to have had a neutral impact on gross domestic product.
The government is scheduled to publish its snapshot of second-quarter GDP on Thursday.
According to a Reuters survey of economists, GDP growth likely increased at an 8.6% annualized rate last quarter, an acceleration from the first quarter's 6.4% pace.
The anticipated growth pace in the second quarter would be the fastest since 1983 and also likely mark a peak in the current cycle.
A separate report on Monday from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas showed business activity in Texas cooling in July.
Though production at factories expanded this month, a gauge of future output slipped eight points to a still-high reading of 48.4.
"The somewhat softer reading on conditions six months from now is a signal that producers know this booming period won't last forever," said Edward Friedman a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
"Fiscal stimulus of the magnitude in early 2021 will come to an end, interest rates will ultimately start to rise, and the resulting weight on equity markets will lead to deceleration."
Last month's drop in new home sales was concentrated in the populous South, the Northeast and West.
Sales rose in the Midwest.
The median new house price increased 6.1% from a year earlier to $361,800 in June.
Sales were concentrated in the $200,000-$749,000 price range.
Sales below the $200,000 price bracket, the sought-after segment of the market, accounted for only 2% of transactions last month.
There were 353,000 new homes on the market, up from 330,000 in May.
Homes yet to be built accounted for about 30% of supply.
At June's sales pace it would take 6.3 months to clear the supply of houses on the market, up from 5.5 months in May.
About 77% of homes sold last month were either under construction or yet to be built.
Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci
https://www.reuters.com/business/us-new ... 021-07-26/
"U.S. new home sales hit 14-month low amid supply constraints"
Lucia Mutikani
July 26, 2021
Summary
*New home sales drop 6.6% in June; May revised down
*Median house price rises 6.1% to $361,800 from year ago
WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) - Sales of new U.S. single-family homes tumbled to a 14-month low in June and sales in the prior month were weaker than initially estimated, the latest signs that expensive lumber and shortages of other building materials were hurting the housing market.
The third straight monthly decline in sales reported by the Commerce Department on Monday followed news last week that permits for future homebuilding dropped to a nine-month low in June while home resales rebounded modestly.
Higher production costs are forcing builders to scale back, keeping supply tight and boosting home prices to the detriment of first-time buyers.
"Home builders continue to hold back on contracts for new homes given input cost and availability uncertainties, with significant uncertainty about what it will cost to build a house and when it can be delivered," said David Berson, chief economist at Nationwide in Columbus, Ohio.
"Until builder costs and supply-chain problems become less of an impediment, it is hard to see new sales picking up significantly in the near term."
New home sales fell 6.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676,000 units last month, the lowest level since April 2020, the Commerce Department said on Monday.
May's sales pace was revised down to 724,000 units from the previously reported 769,000 units.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for a small share of U.S. home sales, increasing 3% to rate of 800,000 units in June.
New home sales are drawn from a sample of houses selected from building permits and tend to be volatile on a month-to-month basis.
Sales plunged 19.4% on a year-on-year basis in June, the first annual decrease since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Massive fiscal policy and historically low mortgage rates are driving demand for housing, which was further boosted by the pandemic as millions of Americans worked from home and took online classes.
But supply has lagged behind, with builders constrained by soaring lumber prices as well as shortages of other building materials, household appliances, land and labor.
Though lumber prices have dropped sharply from May's record highs, that is being tempered by wildfires in the Western United States and British Columbia in Canada.
The backlog of single-family homes approved for construction but yet to be started surged in June to the highest level since October 2006.
"It will probably take months for lower lumber prices to flow through to the price of new homes."
"Also, some of the recent decline in lumber prices has been reversed due to the impact of wildfires," said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics in New York.
U.S. stocks were trading higher.
The dollar fell against a basket of currencies.
U.S. Treasury prices were mixed.
The housing market was one of the economy's star performers during the pandemic, posting double-digit growth for three straight quarters.
That streak likely came to an end in the second quarter, with residential investment believed to have had a neutral impact on gross domestic product.
The government is scheduled to publish its snapshot of second-quarter GDP on Thursday.
According to a Reuters survey of economists, GDP growth likely increased at an 8.6% annualized rate last quarter, an acceleration from the first quarter's 6.4% pace.
The anticipated growth pace in the second quarter would be the fastest since 1983 and also likely mark a peak in the current cycle.
A separate report on Monday from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas showed business activity in Texas cooling in July.
Though production at factories expanded this month, a gauge of future output slipped eight points to a still-high reading of 48.4.
"The somewhat softer reading on conditions six months from now is a signal that producers know this booming period won't last forever," said Edward Friedman a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
"Fiscal stimulus of the magnitude in early 2021 will come to an end, interest rates will ultimately start to rise, and the resulting weight on equity markets will lead to deceleration."
Last month's drop in new home sales was concentrated in the populous South, the Northeast and West.
Sales rose in the Midwest.
The median new house price increased 6.1% from a year earlier to $361,800 in June.
Sales were concentrated in the $200,000-$749,000 price range.
Sales below the $200,000 price bracket, the sought-after segment of the market, accounted for only 2% of transactions last month.
There were 353,000 new homes on the market, up from 330,000 in May.
Homes yet to be built accounted for about 30% of supply.
At June's sales pace it would take 6.3 months to clear the supply of houses on the market, up from 5.5 months in May.
About 77% of homes sold last month were either under construction or yet to be built.
Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci
https://www.reuters.com/business/us-new ... 021-07-26/
Re: THE DAILY NEWS
REUTERS
"Fed now facing twin inflation, growth risks as virus jumps and supply chains falter"
Howard Schneider Ann Saphir
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO, July 26 (Reuters) - A U.S. Federal Reserve divided over how to respond to fast-rising prices meets this week with the fresh complication of increased coronavirus infections and a global supply chain that, far from sorting out its problems, may be headed for more inflation-inducing trouble.
Fed officials are likely to affirm after their two-day meeting that a strong U.S. recovery and their planning for an eventual policy shift both remain underway.
But the new risks, threatening the twin ills of slowed growth and higher prices, mean the rosy future seen in June seems less assured.
Debate over how to shape post-pandemic monetary policy has just begun, and decisions were not expected before the fall.
But since the Fed met just six weeks ago, what had seemed a blue-sky setting for that debate has become clouded by a quadrupling of daily infections led by the more-contagious Delta variant to levels approaching those seen in last summer's virus surge.
Even if the worst of the new outbreak is concentrated among less-vaccinated communities, economists see it potentially changing consumers' willingness to spend and travel, and say it will likely require the Fed to strike a balance between keeping faith in the recovery while taking explicit stock of what could go wrong.
So far, the risks to growth remain just that: Data on air travel and restaurant visits show consumers are still in recovery mode, not hunkering down.
A new policy statement is to be issued Wednesday at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT) followed by a press conference by Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
"Again and again we’ve seen over the last 18 months that the No. 1 determinant of economic activity is the virus," said Karen Dynan, a Harvard University economics professor and former assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary.
"I think that we will continue to make forward progress, but that progress will be slower than otherwise.”
Developments since the last meeting "strengthened the case against pulling back on accommodation prematurely," given the new uncertainty about the recovery and despite higher-than- expected June inflation, Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle wrote.
The Fed continues to buy $120 billion in government bonds each month and hold its policy interest rate near zero, measures rolled out in the spring of 2020 to buttress the economy from the pandemic.
Some Fed officials already feel it is time to pivot from those policies because of the unexpected pace of recent price increases, and trading in bond markets in recent weeks showed investors betting the Fed may have to accelerate its exit from the crisis programs.
SUPPLY ISSUES 'NOT GOING ANYWHERE'
Yet it is, indeed, a long list of new problems that have arisen since June 16, when the Fed expressed confidence the pandemic was fading and that "progress on vaccinations will likely continue to reduce the effects of the public health crisis on the economy."
The rise of infections could, if it continues, weigh on the recovery, and would do so at a particularly tenuous moment.
The Fed is still hoping the economy can regain all of the 6.8 million jobs missing since the start of the pandemic, but that depends on other aspects of the recovery continuing apace - particularly a full reopening of public schools in the fall.
That's anticipated to help free parents to return to jobs, but the process could be set back if the health crisis intensifies again.
Any slowdown in the recovery or hiring, meanwhile, would occur amid the expiry of the federal spending and benefits that sustained personal incomes last year, a "fiscal cliff" already expected to slow annual economic growth from its current high-octane pace of around 7%.
Rising inflation had been the immediate focus of Federal Reserve officials in recent weeks, cleaving the central bank between those worried prices may be increasing too fast and those arguing that the economy needed much more time to grow and regain lost jobs before any change in monetary policy.
Powell was peppered with questions about that politically sensitive subject during recent hearings on Capitol Hill.
The issue is being watched carefully at the White House as well, with both the core of Fed officials and the Biden administration saying they remain convinced current price increases are mostly the result of a complicated economic reopening and will ease on their own.
There may be new reason to doubt.
A collision of events, including floods in Germany and China, are again clogging the flow of parts and materials around the world, prolonging the supply bottlenecks that Fed officials and the White House have counted on getting resolved to help ease price pressures.
"Supply-side issues are clearly not going anywhere," Citi economists wrote on Friday.
"Costs from inputs and supplier wait times are likely to continue appearing in consumer inflation for months to come."
From a relatively straight-forward and even somewhat old-fashioned dilemma in June - was inflation too high or not? - the Fed now "has risks in two directions," said former Fed monetary policy director and Yale School of Management professor William English, with the likelihood of more embedded inflation now running alongside risks to growth and the waning of federal fiscal support.
"Things could play out in a way they didn't expect," English said.
Reporting by Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir; Editing by Dan Burns and Andrea Ricci
https://www.reuters.com/business/financ ... 021-07-26/
"Fed now facing twin inflation, growth risks as virus jumps and supply chains falter"
Howard Schneider Ann Saphir
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO, July 26 (Reuters) - A U.S. Federal Reserve divided over how to respond to fast-rising prices meets this week with the fresh complication of increased coronavirus infections and a global supply chain that, far from sorting out its problems, may be headed for more inflation-inducing trouble.
Fed officials are likely to affirm after their two-day meeting that a strong U.S. recovery and their planning for an eventual policy shift both remain underway.
But the new risks, threatening the twin ills of slowed growth and higher prices, mean the rosy future seen in June seems less assured.
Debate over how to shape post-pandemic monetary policy has just begun, and decisions were not expected before the fall.
But since the Fed met just six weeks ago, what had seemed a blue-sky setting for that debate has become clouded by a quadrupling of daily infections led by the more-contagious Delta variant to levels approaching those seen in last summer's virus surge.
Even if the worst of the new outbreak is concentrated among less-vaccinated communities, economists see it potentially changing consumers' willingness to spend and travel, and say it will likely require the Fed to strike a balance between keeping faith in the recovery while taking explicit stock of what could go wrong.
So far, the risks to growth remain just that: Data on air travel and restaurant visits show consumers are still in recovery mode, not hunkering down.
A new policy statement is to be issued Wednesday at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT) followed by a press conference by Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
"Again and again we’ve seen over the last 18 months that the No. 1 determinant of economic activity is the virus," said Karen Dynan, a Harvard University economics professor and former assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary.
"I think that we will continue to make forward progress, but that progress will be slower than otherwise.”
Developments since the last meeting "strengthened the case against pulling back on accommodation prematurely," given the new uncertainty about the recovery and despite higher-than- expected June inflation, Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle wrote.
The Fed continues to buy $120 billion in government bonds each month and hold its policy interest rate near zero, measures rolled out in the spring of 2020 to buttress the economy from the pandemic.
Some Fed officials already feel it is time to pivot from those policies because of the unexpected pace of recent price increases, and trading in bond markets in recent weeks showed investors betting the Fed may have to accelerate its exit from the crisis programs.
SUPPLY ISSUES 'NOT GOING ANYWHERE'
Yet it is, indeed, a long list of new problems that have arisen since June 16, when the Fed expressed confidence the pandemic was fading and that "progress on vaccinations will likely continue to reduce the effects of the public health crisis on the economy."
The rise of infections could, if it continues, weigh on the recovery, and would do so at a particularly tenuous moment.
The Fed is still hoping the economy can regain all of the 6.8 million jobs missing since the start of the pandemic, but that depends on other aspects of the recovery continuing apace - particularly a full reopening of public schools in the fall.
That's anticipated to help free parents to return to jobs, but the process could be set back if the health crisis intensifies again.
Any slowdown in the recovery or hiring, meanwhile, would occur amid the expiry of the federal spending and benefits that sustained personal incomes last year, a "fiscal cliff" already expected to slow annual economic growth from its current high-octane pace of around 7%.
Rising inflation had been the immediate focus of Federal Reserve officials in recent weeks, cleaving the central bank between those worried prices may be increasing too fast and those arguing that the economy needed much more time to grow and regain lost jobs before any change in monetary policy.
Powell was peppered with questions about that politically sensitive subject during recent hearings on Capitol Hill.
The issue is being watched carefully at the White House as well, with both the core of Fed officials and the Biden administration saying they remain convinced current price increases are mostly the result of a complicated economic reopening and will ease on their own.
There may be new reason to doubt.
A collision of events, including floods in Germany and China, are again clogging the flow of parts and materials around the world, prolonging the supply bottlenecks that Fed officials and the White House have counted on getting resolved to help ease price pressures.
"Supply-side issues are clearly not going anywhere," Citi economists wrote on Friday.
"Costs from inputs and supplier wait times are likely to continue appearing in consumer inflation for months to come."
From a relatively straight-forward and even somewhat old-fashioned dilemma in June - was inflation too high or not? - the Fed now "has risks in two directions," said former Fed monetary policy director and Yale School of Management professor William English, with the likelihood of more embedded inflation now running alongside risks to growth and the waning of federal fiscal support.
"Things could play out in a way they didn't expect," English said.
Reporting by Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir; Editing by Dan Burns and Andrea Ricci
https://www.reuters.com/business/financ ... 021-07-26/