Thailand rushes to rein in cannabis use a week after decriminalisation



New Thai regulations to control use of cannabis come into effect a week after legalisation


Fri, June 17, 2022

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand hastily issued a raft of new regulations for cannabis use this week after a long-planned decriminalisation raised alarm at the potential for unchecked use of the substance anywhere and by anyone - including children.

Soon after the country became the first in Asia to legalise growing and consumption of cannabis in food and drink on June 9, businesses began openly selling marijuana, with strains called "Amnesia" and "Night Nurse" on offer from a truck in Bangkok.

The rapid rise in cannabis sales sparked concern from a Bangkok city official: Deputy Permanent Secretary Wantanee Wattana said at least one person had died and several were hospitalised this week after consuming or smoking marijuana.

A draft cannabis bill is making its way through parliament, but could be months away from becoming law.

"There are no control measures other than word of mouth," lamented Mana Nimitmongkol, head of the Anti-Corruption Organization (Thailand), in an online post earlier this week.

This week, the central government has been issuing piecemeal rules to try to bring some order to cannabis use.

On Friday, new regulations went into effect forbidding all public smoking of cannabis as well as the sale of marijuana to people under the age of 20, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. The rules were published overnight in the Royal Gazette.

Several other rules included banning cannabis from schools, requirement for retailers to provide clear information on usage of cannabis in food and drinks and the application of a health law that defined smoke from marijuana a public nuisance punishable by jail and a fine.

Critics have said the government rushed to remove criminal penalties on marijuana before passing a law to ensure the substance is regulated.

Thailand's health minister Anutin Charnvirakul, a leading advocate for the legalisation of cannabis, has defended the government's approach to legalisation.

"We legalised cannabis for medical use and for health," Anutin said at Government House on Friday.

"Usage beyond this are inappropriate... and we need laws to control it," he said.

Anutin's Bhumjaithai Party campaigned on legalisation of marijuana ahead of 2019 election and is a main partner in the ruling coalition.

(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat: editing Kay Johnson and Philippa Fletcher)

Doctor of weed? Thailand now offering cannabis science degrees after marijuana legalization

Rebecca Moon

Waldo 18, a medicinal cannabis supply chain company in Thailand, is partnering with Filipino-Thai restaurant Toto Inasal to give individuals an opportunity to obtain a degree in cannabis science.

The Waldo Institute of Petchburi, officially accredited by Thailand’s Office of Higher Education Commission, will offer bachelors, masters and PhDs in Cannabis Science.

Hemp and cannabis were officially decriminalized in Thailand on June 9.

With Thailand’s decriminalization of cannabis on June 9, a company that distributes medicinal plants is offering degrees in cannabis science.

Waldo 18, a commercial supply chain company that grows and sells medicinal plants, is teaming up with Jongkasem Julakham-Platon, the owner of Filipino-Thai restaurant Toto Inasal in Bangkok, to provide cannabis science degrees at the Waldo Institute of Petchburi. The institution is accredited by Thailand’s Office of the Higher Education Commision, making the degree officially recognized. According to Julakhan-Platon, the institute will be offering bachelors, masters and PhDs in cannabis science.

“They are also developing a new breed named Rocher Breed. It’s a highly resistant and high survival-rate cannabis breed,” Julakham-Platon told Mashable. “Toto Inasal will also help in the experimentation of Cannabis products with food and beverages.”

Thailand is the first Southeast Asian country to decriminalize cannabis, permitting people to grow their own cannabis at home, although they must be of medical grade and for medicinal purposes only. Cannabis products must also contain less than 0.2% of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient that produces the sensation of being high.

Although the Thai government stated that cannabis is only legal for medicinal purposes, many food and beverage establishments are serving edibles and cannabis-infused teas and coffees.

The country’s public health minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, previously announced on Facebook that 1 million cannabis plants would be given away for free in celebration of the drug’s legalization.

Feature image via Pexels

Engineer’s Internet Explorer tombstone goes viral: ‘He was a good tool to download other browsers’

Jane Nam

NEXTSHARK

South Korean software engineer Jung Ki-young’s decision to commemorate the end of Internet Explorer by erecting the browser its own gravestone has gone viral.

Tech giant Microsoft had announced that Internet Explorer would be “retiring” on June 15, recommending that users download Microsoft Edge.

Jung spent one month and 430,000 won (approximately $330) designing and constructing a headstone to mark the browser’s 27 years of existence. Internet Explorer was the dominant browser for online banking and shopping in South Korea until 2014, despite its notoriety for being sluggish and glitchy.

The finished design included the Explorer’s “e” logo, with the dates “1995. 8. 17 ~ 2022. 6. 15” etched below, with an inscription that read, “He was a good tool to download other browsers.”

Jung showcased the gravestone at a cafe run by his brother in Gyeongju, a city in the southern part of South Korea. It was a picture taken there that went on to become viral.

The comical image of the gravestone was posted to Twitter multiple times, with one post in particular receiving nearly 40,000 likes.

“Someone built a real tombstone of Internet Explorer in Korea,” wrote the user.

Journalist Cian Maher also posted an image, along with a caption about the browser getting killed a second time.

“I can’t believe someone in South Korea went to the trouble of commissioning a tombstone for Internet Explorer just so they could kill it a second time with the most vicious roast you’ll ever see,” they said.

In an interview with Reuters, Jung commented that despite his mixed feelings for the browser, it still played a big role in his working life.

“It was a pain in the ass, but I would call it a love-hate relationship because Explorer itself once dominated an era.”

Jung also mentioned that he was surprised by the amount of reactions his joke had produced, saying it was another reason to thank Explorer, since it allowed him “to make a world-class joke.”

“I regret that it’s gone, but won’t miss it. So its retirement, to me, is a good death.”

Internet Explorer was initially launched in 1995, but after a decade as the world’s leading browser, it began to be overtaken by its competitors, including Google Chrome, which was known to be faster and less glitchy than its predecessor.

Featured Image via Reuters

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New research reveals Central Asia, rather than China, as origin of the Black Death



Ryan General
Fri, June 17, 2022

A study by a team of international researchers has traced the origins of the Black Death to a site in Central Asia, countering previous theories that the bubonic plague emerged in China.

The plague, considered the deadliest pandemic ever known to humankind, caused the death of around a third of Europe’s population in the 14th century, and up to 200 million people worldwide.

Published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, the study drew on the previous work of Russian historian Phil Slavin, who linked the disease’s origins to a spike of deaths in a town in Central Asia from 1338 to 1339.

In their new study, the scientists extracted DNA from the teeth of seven bodies exhumed from the Kara-Djigach Cemetery by Lake Issyk Kulin in modern-day Kyrgyzstan.

They found that those buried with tombstones referring to a “pestilence” contained genetic fingerprints of the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which causes the bubonic plague.

The findings contradict previous theories that the Mongols may have brought the plague to China in the 13th century.

“We found that the ancient strains from Kyrgyzstan are positioned exactly at the node of this massive diversification event,” said Maria Spyrou, the study’s lead author. “In other words, we found the Black Death’s source strain and we even know its exact date (the year 1338).”

The disease was spread by rats and their fleas but can also be spread via person-to-person contact. For years, it was believed to have reached Messina’s Sicilian port via trade ships arriving from the Black Sea in 1347.

“It is like finding the place where all the strains come together, like with coronavirus where we have Alpha, Delta, Omicron all coming from this strain in Wuhan,” study co-author Johannes Krause said.

Slavin, who was also part of the research team, proclaimed that their findings “managed to actually put to rest all those centuries-old controversies about the origins of the Black Death."

More from NextShark: Sri Lankan grandma makes history as oldest master’s degree earner at Canada’s York University

2 large tornadoes tear through China, and it was all caught on camera 

At about 7:30 pm on June 16, Taiping Town in Guangzhou, was hit by a tornado. The intensity of the tornado is about EF1, and the maximum wind force is about 14. Although the tornado lasted only 3 minutes, the damage it caused was severe. According to Guangzhou Weather, the tornado caused power outages in some areas, collapsed temporary scaffolding and blocked traffic, mainly in Taiping Development Zone.

Zachary Rosenthal

ACCUWEATHER

Fri, June 17, 2022, 

Two visually stunning tornadoes struck China this past week, part of a series of natural disasters in the sprawling country of more than 1.4 billion people.

A dramatic video filmed in the Chinese megacity of Guangzhou, located in the southeastern province of Guangdong, shows a terrifyingly large twister tearing through buildings in the dark on June 16. As the tornado strikes a downtown train station, several small explosions are seen, with sparks being lifted into the sky by the rapidly rotating storm.

The tornado, illuminated by city lights and the explosions of transformers, is clearly visible from several perspectives in the darkness as it tears through the dense urban center. According to witnesses, the twister was on the ground for about three minutes.

As the tornado rampaged through the city, one man filming a video added his own colorful commentary.

"It has a power cut. The huge tornado is moving along the track of Line 14. Wow, the sparks fly here and there! The Line 14 metro station is struck!" he said, according to a translation by Newsflare.

In the storm's aftermath, Guangzhou residents took to the streets to survey the damage and begin cleaning up. Trees and scaffolding had collapsed into the street, and the tornado and strong winds associated with the storm knocked out power in the area. Amazingly, no storm-related casualties were reported.

Earlier in the week on June 13, a large tornado tore through Changzhai Village in the eastern Henan Province. The stunning close-up footage captured the twister tearing apart farmland and tossing several pieces of large debris up into the air.

As the dirt brown twister moved across the field, it brushed up against a large structure with a white tarp on its roof. The tornado left the tarp tattered and damaged, with the fabric joining the collection of debris that was orbiting the storm.

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When the twister moved into the village, several houses were damaged by the storm, with parts of their roofs tossed into the street. Trees were ripped out of the ground and left on their side, with the area looking more like a war zone than a quaint village. No injuries were reported from the storm.

The two twisters are the latest outbursts in a recent series of severe weather events in China, according to Reuters. Torrential rainfall has been impacting parts of southern China, and temperatures in northern China are set to eclipse 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

"Weather conditions in China will tend to be unfavorable this summer," an official at the country's aviation regulator said at a news briefing on Friday.

UK government orders the extradition of Julian Assange to the US, but that is not the end of the matter

Holly Cullen, Adjunct professor, The University of Western Australia 

Amy Maguire, Associate Professor in Human Rights and International Law, University of Newcastle

THE CONVERSATION
Sat, June 18, 2022

AAP/AP/Matt Dunham

On June 17 2022, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel issued a statement confirming she had approved the US government’s request to extradite Julian Assange. The Australian founder of Wikileaks faces 18 criminal charges of computer misuse and espionage.

This decision means Assange is one step closer to extradition, but has not yet reached the final stage in what has been a years-long process. Patel’s decision follows a March decision to deny leave to appeal by the UK Supreme Court, affirming the High Court decision that accepted assurances provided by the US government and concluded there were no remaining legal bars to Assange’s extradition.

The High Court decision overruled an earlier decision by a District Court that extraditing Assange to the US would be “unjust and oppressive” because the prison conditions he was likely to experience would make him a high risk for suicide. In the High Court’s view, the American government’s assurances sufficiently reduced the risk.

Read more: Julian Assange's extradition case is finally heading to court – here's what to expect

Another appeal ahead

Wikileaks has already announced Assange will appeal the home secretary’s decision in the UK courts. He can appeal on an issue of law or fact, but must obtain leave of the High Court to launch an appeal. This is a fresh legal process rather than a continuation of the judicial stage of extradition that followed his arrest in 2019.

Assange’s brother has stated the appeal will include new information, including reports of plots to assassinate Assange.

Several legal issues argued before the District Court in 2020 are also likely to be raised in the next appeal. In particular, the District Court decided the question of whether the charges were political offences, and therefore not extraditable crimes, could only be considered by the home secretary. The question of whether and how the home secretary decided on this issue could now be ripe for argument.

Assange’s next appeal will also seek to re-litigate whether US government assurances regarding the prison conditions Assange will face are adequate or reliable. His lawyers will also again demand the UK courts consider the role of role of freedom of expression in determining whether to extradite Assange.

Assange will remain detained in Belmarsh prison while his appeal is underway. The decision of the High Court on his appeal against the home secretary’s decision may potentially be appealed to the Supreme Court.

If, after all legal avenues are exhausted in the UK, the order to extradite stands, Assange could take a human rights action to the European Court of Human Rights.

However, the European Court has rarely declared extradition to be contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, except in cases involving the death penalty or whole-life sentences. It has not yet considered freedom of expression in an extradition case.

Further appeals could add years more to the saga of Assange’s detention.
Responses from the Assange family and human rights advocates

Assange’s wife, Stella Moris, called Patel’s decision a ‘“travesty”. His brother Gabriel Shipton called it “shameful”. They have vowed to fight his extradition through every legal means available.

According to Secretary General of Amnesty International Agnes Callamard:

Assange faces a high risk of prolonged solitary confinement, which would violate the prohibition on torture or other ill treatment. Diplomatic assurances provided by the US that Assange will not be kept in solitary confinement cannot be taken on face value given previous history.

What role for the Australian government?

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus responded to the latest development last night. They confirmed Australia would continue to provide consular assistance to Assange:

The Australian government has been clear in our view that Mr Assange’s case has dragged on for too long and that it should be brought to a close. We will continue to express this view to the governments of the United Kingdom and United States.

However, it remains unclear exactly what form Australia’s diplomatic or political advocacy is taking.

In December 2021, Anthony Albanese said he could not see what purpose was served by the ongoing pursuit of Assange. He is a signatory to a petition to free Assange. Since he was sworn in as prime minister, though, Albanese has resisted calls to demand publicly that the US drop its criminal charges against Assange.

In contrast, Albanese recently made a public call for the release of Sean Turnell from prison in Myanmar.

Read more: A new book argues Julian Assange is being tortured. Will our new PM do anything about it?

In a way, Patel’s decision this week closes a window for stronger advocacy between Australia and the UK. While the matter sat with the UK Home Secretary, the Australian government might have sought to intervene with it as a political issue. Now it seems possible Australia may revert to its long established position of non-interference in an ongoing court process.

Some commentators argue this is insufficient and that Australia must, finally, do more for Assange. Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie said it was high time Australia treated this as the political matter it is, and demand from its allies in London and Washington that the matter be brought to an end.

Barrister Greg Barns likened Assange’s situation to that of David Hicks, who was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay:

The Howard government at the time brought him back to Australia. This is not unprecedented. It is important that Australia is able to use the great relationship it has with Washington to ensure the safety of Australians.

These comments suggest that Australia ought to focus any advocacy towards the US government, making a case for the criminal charges and extradition request to be abandoned. At this stage it is impossible to say if the Albanese government has the will to take a stronger stand on Assange’s liberty. The prime minister and foreign minister have certainly invested heavily in foreign relations in the early weeks of their government, with emphasis on the significance of the US alliance.

Perhaps strong advocacy on Assange’s behalf at this time might be regarded as unsettling and risky. The US has had plenty of opportunity, and its own change of government, and yet it has not changed its determination to prosecute Assange. This is despite former President Barack Obama’s decision to commute the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the whistleblower who provided classified material to Assange for publication through Wikileaks.

Stronger Australian advocacy may well be negatively received. Assange’s supporters will continue to demand that Albanese act regardless, banking on the strength of the Australia-US alliance as capable of tolerating a point of disagreement.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Holly Cullen has done occasional volunteer work with the Australian Labor Party..

Amy Maguire does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Chief of Westbank First Nation resigns, says fighting corruption ‘has taken a toll’

On Friday, Christopher Derickson announced he was stepping down,

 with Friday, June 17, 2022, being his last day as WFN’s chief.

Doyle Potenteau - Yesterday

The chief of Westbank First Nation is resigning due to alleged corruption within the band.

On Friday, through a press release issued to the media, Christopher Derickson announced he was stepping down, with Friday being his last day as chief.

Sparking the decision is the controversial sale of 147 acres on behalf of the WFN in Peachland that an independent investigator said occurred without council authorization.

Read more:
Westbank First Nation elects new chief (Sept. 20, 2019)

Elected in 2019, Derickson said in March that he was looking to freeze the 2021 sale, as it potentially deprived the band of millions of dollars.

However, in his Friday statement, Derickson said he met resistance.

“I was elected as chief on a platform of good governance,” Derickson began his statement. “The definition of good governance has been hotly debated at membership meetings, around the council table, and at dinner tables across our Nation.

“To me, good governance has three main ingredients: competence, fairness and equity. It means that when government officials make decisions and apply laws and policies that they do so appropriately, impartially and consistently; not influenced by personal interest, relationships, likes and dislikes.

“Good governance should also empower the people through transparency and participation.”

Video: Westbank First Nation has treated more than 400 hectares of forested land in an effort to reduce the risk of wildfire

According to Derickson, the 147-acre land sale was not only unauthorized, but also undervalued, and he worked to hold the WFN government to account.

“In June 2021, at my request, the (chief administrative officer) launched an independent third-party investigation into the transaction. Council shut down this investigation,” Derickson said.

“In the ensuing months, I worked with a principled few within the government administration and the Nation to design and establish a review of the purported land sale by The Hon. Marion Buller, former B.C. provincial court judge and federal chief commissioner and chancellor of the University of Victoria.”

Read more:
Westbank First Nation looking to freeze ‘improper’ land sale, says reforms will be implemented (March 4, 2022)

Derickson said the Buller report “highlighted numerous gaps in the Nation’s governance and made sixteen recommendations for positive change. Beginning to implement these recommendations has brought further evidence of corruption to light.”

He also said independent appraisals estimated that the sale undervalued the land by at least $2 million, adding that the land sold for $1.5 million.

“The report raises issues of honesty and integrity of certain former senior employees and of deception of the WFN council and lack of council fulfilling its duties of oversight and continuing accountability to members,” Derickson said.

“Fighting corruption and promoting accountability, integrity and transparency was the right thing to do. But it has taken a toll on my family and my mental and physical health.”

Video: Jingle dancing to heal an Okanagan community

Derickson continued, saying “the lack of competency, integrity and moral courage within the WFN council and the departure of our principled CAO, Simon Melanson, leave me with no other choice but to resign.

“It is not an easy decision but one I have been forced to make. I want to thank all those who have supported, advised and encouraged me during my terms in office.”

He also asked that his privacy be respected as he takes steps to recover.

Global News has reached out to Westbank First Nation for comment.

Video: Westbank First Nation long-term care home announces closure

On Friday afternoon, WFN issued a statement saying it is preparing for a general election on Sept. 15.

"Although Chief Derickson resigned his position as Chief effective today, no by-election is necessary according to WFN’s constitution, as there are only three months remaining in the term," reads the statement.

WFN councillor Jordan Coble was quoted as saying "council thanks Chief Derickson for his service to WFN, and thanks (the) membership and past leadership for the strength of the constitution, ensuring effective governance in the face of any change. We will continue to operate as an elected body making collective decisions in the best interest of (the) membership, today and in the terms ahead.”

Regarding the land sale, the statement said "WFN's council unanimously supported an independent review of the transaction, led by the Honourable Marion Buller, and agreed to proceed in full with her recommendations. Over the past several months, council has been overseeing the review to determine what transpired, implement the recommendations, and take the necessary steps to protect WFN’s assets."

“Council remains committed to ensuring good governance, including open and inclusive dialogue with its Membership, all members of Council, and Administration,” said Coble. “We look forward to the upcoming election and to forging ahead with WFN’s government priorities in alignment with the growing needs of our members, residents, and businesses.”

Crypto lender Celsius is being investigated by multiple states after transactions freeze

Amrita Khalid
·Contributing Writer
Thu, June 16, 2022,

Dado Ruvic / reuters


Crypto lender Celsius Network opted to freeze customer withdrawals and other transactions on Sunday, leaving its nearly two million users unable to access their funds. Now, state security boards in Alabama, Kentucky, New Jersey, Texas and Washington have launched probes into Celsius, Reuters reports. The SEC has also been in contact with the firm. Engadget has reached out to the agency and will update if we hear back.

This isn’t the first time the crypto lender has run into trouble with state and federal officials. Multiple states ordered Celsius last year to stop selling what are known as high-yield crypto products, which many investors warn are risky because they don’t offer the same FDIC protections as banks if the institutions go under. Currently, residents in the states of New York and Washington can’t purchase assets on Celsius.

Officials at the Texas State Securities Board began discussing Celsius’s surprise freeze on consumer assets first thing on Monday morning, the agency’s enforcement director Joseph Rotunda told the Reuters. "I am very concerned that clients – including many retail investors – may need to immediately access their assets yet are unable to withdraw from their accounts. The inability to access their investment may result in significant financial consequences," he said.


In its memo to users explaining Sunday's decision, Celsius cited “extreme market conditions” as the primary motivator. The freeze includes transfers, withdrawals and swaps between accounts. “We are taking this action today to put Celsius in a better position to honor, over time, its withdrawal obligations,” wrote the firm.

Users responded via social media over the weekend, often sharing the negative impacts the freeze had on their own finances. One user claimed on Twitter that, because they were unable to access funds to pay or post collateral, the platform had liquidated a loan worth more than $27,000. "This is not the reason I unbanked myself," they wrote.

Retail Traders Who Drove Meme Frenzy Bail Out in Bear Market

Vildana Hajric and Peyton Forte
Fri, June 17, 2022





(Bloomberg) -- Stock traders who whipped up the meme craze that took Wall Street by storm last year are furiously rushing to the exits.

Roughly 50% of single-stock retail positions in the Nasdaq 100 and a quarter of those in the S&P 500 that had been accumulated since January 2019 have been sold, according to data from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. In another sign their exuberance has faded, call-option volumes have reversed about 70% of their increases from the start of 2019 to November 2021, when tech stocks and Bitcoin peaked.

“While historically retail investors have bought the dip, this time they haven’t,” wrote John Marshall, head of derivatives research at Goldman Sachs.

Wall Street had been obsessed with how at-home traders were behaving during the pandemic when it came to the market. The boredom-markets-hypothesis -- which postulated that many of those were stuck at home with little to do turned to stocks to fill their time and satisfy their boredom -- became just about settled science. Stocks only go up, the saying went at the time, with indexes notching impressive returns even as the pandemic raged.

Hordes of day traders flooded social-media forums like Reddit and Twitter and fed each other information and trading tips. Their collective efforts famously pushed up shares of GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., among others, dealing a blow to big-name short sellers who had bet against those stocks.

But the tides have turned and 2022 has offered only rough trading and much gut-wrenching volatility. The gumption among the retail crowd to buy the dip has come to a test, with the strategy not faring as well in a market that’s seen the S&P 500 lose more than 20% and the Nasdaq 100 drop 30% this year. In fact, a retail-investor behavior measure by TD Ameritrade shows they have been cutting exposure to equities all year.

“The way that they’re likely going to be trading going forward is likely selling dips as they try to protect any gains that they may have or reduce further losses,” said Eric Johnston, head of equity derivatives and cross asset at Cantor Fitzgerald. “We can no longer count on the individual investor to be a backstop for this market.”

All manner of investments have lost value in 2022. Among the retail crowd, tech and biotech have been heavily sold, according to Goldman. Meanwhile, a basket of retail-favored stocks tracked by the bank has lost more than 40% year to date, and another made up of companies most frequently mentioned on social-media forums is down roughly 50%. Crypto, another individual-investor favorite, has also been stuck in the gutter.

A key concern for economists, now that the Federal Reserve is working on cooling the economy and inflation, is how the consumer will bear it out. And while a debate rages over the central bank’s ability to engineer a softish landing or over-correct into a recession, even a mild one, consumers have already shown some signs of pulling back. Data this week showed retail sales in May unexpectedly declined for the first time in five months.

Charles Schwab surveyed over 1,000 of its retail clients in April and found that 57% of respondents have a bearish outlook on the U.S. stock market for the second quarter of 2022, an increase of 29% from the same time last year. The primary driver of the negative outlook is the higher cost of living, followed by geopolitical concerns, according to Schwab.

“Consumers are pulling back,” said Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at TIAA Bank. “We’re seeing most investors sit this out, which is probably smart, sitting out the volatility.”

Still, Goldman says retail investors are continuing to put money toward exchange-traded funds, especially and dividend-focused ones, which have seen more than $30 billion of inflows this year.

“There has been a regime shift from the old FAANG megatech names to more defensive, income plays,” said Jane Edmondson, CEO and founder of EQM Capital.

(Updates with new commentary.)

Congo Miner Threatens to Seize Giant Cobalt Project From Chinese Partner

Michael Kavanagh
Fri, June 17, 2022,



(Bloomberg) -- A shareholder dispute over one of the world’s biggest copper and cobalt mines is heating up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after state miner Gecamines threatened to block exports or even take the mine away from its partner, China Molybdenum Co.

Congo’s Gecamines, which owns 20% of the Tenke Fungurume mine’s holding company, has accused CMOC of manipulating the project’s finances and says it owes as much as $5 billion in payments.

The disagreement has extended to who is actually running the mine: a Congolese court appointed a temporary administrator to manage the holding company while the shareholders sort out their differences, but CMOC insisted nothing has changed. The administrator, Sage Ngoie Mbayo, says he now controls the company’s bank accounts but was blocked from entering the mine site last week by Congolese soldiers.

Things were set to come to a head Thursday at the first meeting between the shareholders and Ngoie at Tenke Fungurume Mining SA’s offices in the Congolese mining hub of Lubumbashi. But while Gecamines’ top two executives were there, CMOC representatives didn’t attend.

Gecamines Chief Executive Officer Bester-Hilaire Ntambwe Ngoy Kabongo and his deputy, Leon Mwine Kabiena, said they are prepared to take more drastic action, including effectively revoking CMOC’s ownership of the project by dissolving the partnership.

Armed Guards

“If it continues like this, we are going to ask for the dissolution,” the CEO said. The two executives became increasingly agitated during the meeting, which lasted two hours in a boardroom surrounded by otherwise-empty company offices, while armed guards stood outside.

“What CMOC is doing now is stealing, it’s cheating, it’s covering-up,” Mwine said, adding that they were “liars,” “pillagers,” “bandits,” and “criminals.”

CMOC did not immediately answer questions on the meeting or Gecamines’ statements. The company previously said the mine is operating as usual without any change in management, and production is beating targets. In its 2021 annual report, CMOC said communication with Gecamines was “complex and dynamic” and they planned to engage an independent third party to verify disagreements over reserve estimates “and resolve the differences through fair and impartial negotiation.”

Any disruption to operations or exports from Tenke Fungurume could send ripples through global metals markets. Congo is one of the world’s top producers of copper and by far the largest supplier of the key battery mineral cobalt. Tenke alone accounts for about 14% of world cobalt production, according to calculations by Bloomberg using figures from Darton Commodities Ltd., and the ore body is expected to last for decades.

CMOC bought control of the project from Phoenix-based Freeport McMoRan Inc. about five years ago in a deal that ultimately cost the company more than $3 billion. The mine produced 209,120 tons of copper and 18,501 tons of cobalt in 2021, according to CMOC.

The dispute between the current partners began around last August, when CMOC announced it would invest another $2.5 billion to more than double production at the mine. Gecamines officials questioned how it could achieve the huge increase without raising its reserve estimates, which would trigger royalty payments of $12 per ton, Ntambwe said.

Within weeks of CMOC’s announcement, Congo President Felix Tshisekedi formed a commission to examine the partnership and Gecamines soon followed with a lawsuit at the Lubumbashi commercial court.

In February, the court decided in Gecamines’ favor, ordering that Tenke Fungurume Mining SA should be run for at least six months by Ngoie, who has a PhD in geohydrology and previously worked for a number of mines in Congo including TFM.

Broken Down

Congo’s government put the appointment on hold while the presidential commission tried to negotiate with CMOC, but talks have broken down again, according to Mwine, who is also coordinator of the commission.

Ngoie said he is neither on the side of CMOC nor of Gecamines, and his concern was the health of the company.

“I am the church in the middle of the village,” he said. In addition to TFM’s bank accounts, Ngoie said he soon will control its exports. “They don’t go by plane, they only go by road. And one way or another, I’ll control that,” he said. “I have the power to do that.”

Mwine says Gecamines has a right as a shareholder to block the project’s exports.

“Tactical arrangements can also be made at road level so that no TFM production can go out,” he said. “We have a lot of options on the table and if they continue with this game, things will get harder.”

(Updates with $5 billion figure in second paragraph.)

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Elon Musk sued for $258 billion over alleged Dogecoin pyramid scheme

Thu, June 16, 2022, 
By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters) - Elon Musk was sued for $258 billion on Thursday by a Dogecoin investor who accused him of running a pyramid scheme to support the cryptocurrency.

In a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, plaintiff Keith Johnson accused Musk, electric car company Tesla Inc and space tourism company SpaceX of racketeering for touting Dogecoin and driving up its price, only to then let the price tumble.

Musk is CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX.

"Defendants were aware since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value yet promoted Dogecoin to profit from its trading," the complaint said. "Musk used his pedestal as World's Richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure and amusement."

The complaint also aggregates comments from Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and others questioning the value of cryptocurrency.

Tesla, SpaceX and a lawyer for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A lawyer for Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for comment on what specific evidence his client has or expects to have that proves Dogecoin is worthless and the defendants ran a pyramid scheme.

Johnson is seeking $86 billion in damages, representing the decline in Dogecoin's market value since May 2021, and wants it tripled.

He also wants to block Musk and his companies from promoting Dogecoin and a judge to declare that trading Dogecoin is gambling under federal and New York law.

The complaint said Dogecoin's selloff began around the time Musk hosted the NBC show "Saturday Night Live and, playing a fictitious financial expert on a "Weekend Update" segment, called Dogecoin "a hustle."

Tesla in February 2021 said it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and for a short time accepted it as payment for vehicles.

Dogecoin traded at about 5.8 cents on Thursday, down from its May 2021 peak of about 74 cents.

The case is Johnson v. Musk et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-05037.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)