davel

Just two weeks after President Donald Trump sent a handwritten letter to Powell demanding lower interest rates, Russell Vought, Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), accused Powell of breaking the law by failing to comply with government oversight regulations and lying to Congress about details of an approximately $2.5 billion planned renovation of the Fed’s headquarters.

While some central banks, such as the European Central Bank and the Bank of Mexico, have lowered their benchmark lending rate a few times this year, the Fed has not. One big reason for that is the major policy shifts since Trump took office. Officials have said they want to see how those changes affect the economy first before considering further rate cuts.

Powell for his part has avoided responding to Trump’s harsh criticism, noting that the Fed is only focused on successfully taming inflation and preserving the labor market’s health.

The latest criticism about the rising costs of the Fed’s headquarters may signal the administration is laying the groundwork to justify firing Powell, said Ed Mills, a policy analyst at Raymond James.

Trump and his allies have said the Fed’s decision to keep rates steady is politically motivated, but Powell has signaled Trump’s tariff policy – and its potential to stoke inflation – have played a role.

Bullets:

• Western sanctions against oil producers in Russia and Europe have simply re-routed global trade routes.
• Energy shipments from Russia to the European Union have instead been snapped up by India, Turkiye, and Africa.
• Iran, though under heavy sanctions, produces more oil today that at any time in over 40 years, with $78 billion in export sales, mostly to China.
• Russia and Iran are some of the world's lowest-cost oil producers in the world, and can book profits even as prices fall.
• In the United States, drilling companies are shutting down oil rigs and shelving plans for new exploration. Energy companies cannot profitably drill new wells in North America, unless oil prices maintain long-term pricing far above $60 per barrel.
• Demand destruction is also being felt across the world, as Chinese production of new energy vehicles is a hit to future gasoline sales.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8474568

New satellite images reveal significant damage to the U.S. Al-Udeid air base in Qatar following Iran's retaliatory strikes last month.

New satellite images reveal significant damage to the U.S. Al-Udeid air base in Qatar following Iran's retaliatory strikes last month, debunking President Donald Trump's claims that the largest U.S. military base in the West Asia region had been unscathed.

The images, analyzed by The Associated Press and provided by Planet Labs PBC, showed that a geodesic dome, known as Radome, which housed key secure communications equipment used by U.S. forces, was present at the base just hours before the Iranian attack, but was no longer visible in subsequent images.

“Planet Labs photos showed the geodesic dome intact on the morning of June 23, the day of the Iranian retaliation,” the findings indicated. “Later images, taken from June 25, showed the dome missing, with visible burn marks and damage to an adjacent building.”

So far, U.S. and Qatari authorities have not offered an immediate official response on the extent of the damage, and neither government has publicly acknowledged the incident.

The damage to the dome occurred following the U.S. attack on three Iranian nuclear facilities in Natanz, Fordo and Isfahan on June 22. This attack was responded to the next day with Iranian bombing raids on the U.S. air base.

Trump dismissed the June 23 Iranian response as “very weak” in a Truth Social post.

The U.S. did not retaliate after the Iranian attack on the U.S. airbase, and Trump quickly enacted a unilateral ceasefire on behalf of Washington and Tel Aviv, which is still in effect.

Iran's missile attack on the US Al-Udeid air base in Qatar reveals an uncomfortable fact: this base represents both a military and political liability for the United States. Worse, it gives Qatar, with its sometimes anti-American agenda, undue influence over Washington policy.

Former U.S. Central Command commander Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. is quoted as detailing in a report that the base “will be rendered unusable in the event of a sustained Iranian attack.”

Israel launched its aggression against Iran on June 13, attacking nuclear and military facilities as well as residential areas. This attack triggered a series of Iranian retaliatory missile strikes against Israeli targets in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The war also included a U.S. aggression against Iranian nuclear facilities, followed by an Iranian missile attack against the U.S. air base in Qatar on June 23.

After 12 days of conflict, Israel ended its aggression against Iran in the early hours of Tuesday morning after suffering heavy blows at the hands of the Iranian Armed Forces.

Images and video:

[T]he guidance urges officers to consider a range of nonviolent behavior and common protest gear—like masks, flashlights, and cameras—as potential precursors to violence, telling officers to prepare “from the point of view of an adversary.”

Protesters on bicycles, skateboards, or even “on foot” are framed as potential “scouts” conducting reconnaissance or searching for “items to be used as weapons.” Livestreaming is listed alongside “doxxing” as a “tactic” for “threatening” police. Online posters are cast as ideological recruiters—or as participants in “surveillance sharing.”

One list of “violent tactics” shared by the Los Angeles–based Joint Regional Intelligence Center—part of a post-9/11 fusion network—includes both protesters’ attempts to avoid identification and efforts to identify police. The memo also alleges that face recognition, normally a tool of law enforcement, was used against officers.

Vera Eidelman, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, says the government has no business treating constitutionally protected activities—like observing or documenting police—as threats.

DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

“Exercising those rights shouldn't be justification for adverse action or suspicion by the government,” Eidelman says. Labeling something as harmless as skateboarding at a protest as a violent threat is “disturbing and dangerous,” she adds, and could “easily lead to excessive force against people who are simply exercising their First Amendment rights.”

“The DHS report repeatedly conflates basic protest, organizing, and journalism with terroristic violence, thereby justifying ever more authoritarian measures by law enforcement,” says Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People. “It should be sobering, if unsurprising, that the Trump regime’s response to mass criticism of its police state tactics is to escalate those tactics.”

http://archive.today/lYtbo

NATO member Poland scrambled fighter jets overnight as Russia launched record numbers of drones and missiles at neighboring Ukraine.