Coastal GasLink completes $7.15B bond offering, largest in corporate Canadian history

The Canadian Press

Calgary-based TC Energy Corp., the company behind the Coastal GasLink pipeline, says it has completed the largest corporate bond offering in Canadian history.

The company says it has concluded a $7.15-billion refinancing of its existing construction loan that helped pay the capital costs of building the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

That $14.4-billion, 670-kilometre project was completed last fall and was one of the largest energy infrastructure projects in recent Canadian history. 

TC Energy says the refinancing was completed through a bond offering which was oversubscribed by approximately 3.6 times, a level of interest it says is "unprecedented" for the energy infrastructure industry. 

The Coastal GasLink project ran into numerous construction-related hurdles and cost overruns, and TC Energy has been under pressure from investors and credit rating agencies to reduce its level of debt in the wake of the project's completion.

But the company says restructuring construction loans with bond proceeds is a standard post-construction activity for major projects.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2024.

National Bank deal to acquire Canadian Western Bank may face political hurdles: analyst

Mansi Thakker, BNN Bloomberg    Jun 14, 2024

National Bank of Canada’s deal to buy Canadian Western Bank (CWB) for about $5 billion in an all-stock deal is a win for the acquiring company, according to Veritas analyst Nigel D’Souza.

In an interview with BNN Bloomberg, D’Souza said the acquisition will help National expand and diversify the bank’s personal and commercial franchise across Canada.

“Canadian banking generates the highest [return on investment] typically close to 30 per cent or higher with the lowest credit losses and in a financial system that’s relatively stable,” D’Souza said.

When the offer was made, National was offering $52.24 for every CWB share, a premium of 110 per cent over where the shares were valued before the deal, but that price tag has come down a little since National’s stock price declined following the announcement.

D’Souza said he was expecting further consolidation within the Canadian banking industry, following RBC's acquisition of HSBC Canada, as regional or smaller banks are unable to overcome the structural competitive advantages of larger banks.

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"Over the long term, there will be more consolidation in the space for any bank that competes with the big six banks, because you simply can’t beat them competitively.”

While the transaction is not expected to close until the end of 2025, Stephen Boland from Raymond James believes that any roadblocks to the deal will be based on regulatory and ministerial approval. In his latest analyst note, Boland said that for many years, this transaction always seemed a logical fit with each underrepresented outside their home provincial geographies.

Boland doubts the regulator would be concerned about potential competition issues as the Big 5 banks are well represented in Western Canada and in Quebec. However, he does warn that there could be institutions or politicians based in Western Canada that may not be overly positive about their ‘domestic bank’ being acquired.

"Since it’s a Quebec-based institution taking over, I can imagine that the provincial politicians are going to want some political insurance from National, that the job losses are not going to be material,” D’Souza said.

National Bank deal at 'hefty premium' to test investor patience

Christine Dobby, Bloomberg News   

Jun 12, 2024

National Bank of Canada’s deal to acquire a smaller rival in western Canada makes strategic sense, analysts said, but the transaction may take years to deliver on its promised benefits for shareholders.

Shares of the Montreal-based lender fell almost 6 per cent on Wednesday after its surprise announcement that it agreed to pay $5 billion (US$3.6 billion) in stock to acquire smaller rival Canadian Western Bank. The transaction, in which National would exchange 0.45 of its shares for each share of CWB, represented a 110 per cent premium over the target’s closing price on Tuesday. 

Canadian Western shares surged 68 per cent to close at $41.89 on Wednesday, still well below the implied price of the bid. That’s partly because of the long path to regulatory approval, which isn’t expected until late next year.  

“This is a solid move for National as it has significant strategic benefits,” Jefferies Financial Group Inc. analyst John Aiken said in a report, citing increased scale and the opportunity for National to expand into western Canada. 

CWB has higher exposure to commercial lending, which will help boost National on that front, Aiken wrote. The smaller bank is also less reliant on more volatile capital markets revenue.

“There is a high degree of likelihood that the deal is completed,” Aiken said, but while he expects it will ultimately win the blessing of Canada’s Competition Bureau, the timing of that is “hard to gauge.” The deal will also need an opinion from Canada’s banking regulator, and the finance minister has the final say.  

“Despite our optimism on National Bank’s outlook from the deal, with the close 18 months out, investors will have to be patient on the expected payback,” Aiken said.

‘Vote of Confidence’

Merger approvals can be slow in Canada, as shown by the extended closings for Royal Bank of Canada’s acquisition of HSBC Holdings Plc’s assets in the country, which took well over a year from the announcement to completion. Rogers Communications Inc.’s purchase of Shaw Communications Inc. took more than two years.     

And with a federal election expected next year, the transaction has the potential to become a political issue, Stephen Boland, an analyst at Raymond James Financial Inc., said during an interview on BNN Bloomberg Television. Politicians in Alberta “are going to want some assurances from National that the job losses are not going to be too material,” he said. 

National Bank has said it will maintain Edmonton-based CWB’s headquarters in the west and add two nominees from the acquired bank to its board, once the deal is done.   

“I think it’s a vote of confidence in Western Canada,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Wednesday. “That being said, I would far prefer them to be domiciled in Alberta and be paying Alberta corporate income taxes than Quebec corporate income taxes.”

Nigel D’Souza, an analyst with Veritas Investment Research, praised the deal for expanding National Bank’s reach within Canada — where large banks tend to generate better returns on equity — despite its “hefty premium.” 

“Strategically, this deal is a win for National Bank as it expands and diversifies the bank’s Canadian personal and commercial franchise across Canada, further enhancing risk-adjusted ROE,” D’Souza said in report. 

It will be three years after closing before National Bank can fully realize projected annual cost savings of about $270 million, and it will take some time to determine what other benefits it can wring out of the deal, D’Souza said. 

“The amount of revenue, cost and funding synergies realized will determine if National Bank paid a ‘fair price’ for CWB.”

'50-50 chance' that AI outsmarts humanity, Geoffrey Hinton says

Jon Erlichman, BNN Bloomberg   

Jun 14, 2024

Geoffrey Hinton remembers the moment he became the "godfather" of artificial intelligence.

It was more than a decade ago, at a meeting with other researchers, including fellow AI guru Andrew Ng, who gave him the title.

"It wasn’t intended as complimentary, I don’t think," Hinton recalled in our exclusive television interview.  “We just had a session where I was interrupting everybody and I was the senior guy there who had organized the meeting, so he started referring to me as the godfather."

Today, Hinton is using his influence to interrupt another conversation.

At a time when the AI boom is pushing tech company valuations into the trillions, Hinton is urging the industry to set aside vast sums of money to address an existential threat -- what happens if AI becomes smarter than humans?

"I think there’s a 50-50 chance it will get more intelligent than us in the next 20 years," he said.

"We’ve never had to deal with things more intelligent than us.  And so people should be very uncertain about what it will look like."

Given the unknowns, Hinton believes companies should be spending between 20 to 30 per cent of their computing resources to examine how this intelligence might eventually evade human control.

Currently, he doesn’t see firms spending anywhere close to that amount on safety.

"It would seem very wise to do lots of empirical experiments when it’s slightly less smart than us so we still have a chance at staying in control.”

Given the realities of capitalism, Hinton has little faith that companies individually will pick safety over profits.

So he wants political leaders to step in urgently.

"I think governments are the only thing powerful enough to slow that down."

AI getting smarter

In making his case, Hinton points to the rapid rise of OpenAI and its ChatGPT technology.

"If you take something like GPT-4, which is bigger than GPT-3, it is quite a lot smarter.  It answers a whole bunch of questions correctly that GPT-3 would get wrong."

"So we know these things will get more intelligent just by making them bigger.  But in addition to them getting more intelligent by being made bigger, we’ll have scientific breakthroughs."

Meanwhile, Hinton points to the fact that self-preservation is already being built into the industry’s technology, to ensure things like chatbots can function effectively when they encounter problems, such as data center disruptions.

"As soon as they’ve got self-interest, you’ll get evolution kicking in," he said.

"Suppose there’s two chatbots and one’s a bit more self-interested than the other…the slightly more self-interested one will grab more data centers because it knows it can get smarter if it gets more data centers to look at data with.  So now you’ve got competition between chatbots.  And as soon as evolution kicks in, we know what happens: the most competitive one wins, and we will be left in the dust if that happens."

Hinton juxtaposed that risk with the potential money to be made from this technology, as one of the key tensions that led OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever to recently leave the company.

"The people interested in safety, like Ilya Sutskever, wanted significant resources to be spent on safety. People interested in profits, like Sam Altman, didn’t want to spend too many resources on that.

“I think (Altman) would like big profits,” he added.

Life after Google

Having spent more than 50 years leading research in this area, Hinton long ago became a hot commodity in Silicon Valley, which ultimately landed him at Google.

But last year, Hinton resigned his role at the company so he could speak more freely about the existential risks surrounding AI.

"In the spring of 2023, I began to realize that these digital intelligences we’re building might just be a lot better form of intelligence than us and we had to take seriously the idea that they were going to get smarter than us."

He says before Wall Street caught on to the AI opportunity, profits weren’t as much of a priority.

“When I was at Google, they had a big lead in all of this stuff.  And they were actually very responsible.”  They weren’t doing that much work on safety, but they didn’t release this stuff because they had a very good reputation and they didn’t want to besmirch their reputation [with] chatbots saying prejudicial things … so they were very responsible with it.  They used it internally, but didn’t release chatbots to the public even though they had them.  But as soon as OpenAI used some of the Google research on transformers to make things as good as Google had… and actually tune them up slightly better and give them to Microsoft, then Google couldn’t help getting involved in an arm’s race.”

Hinton added that skyrocketing stock market values — and competitive realities for these companies — is quickly lessening the industry’s focus on safety issues.

"It makes it clear to the big companies that they want to go full speed ahead and there’s a big race on between Microsoft, Google and possibly Amazon, Nvidia and Meta.  If any one of those (companies) pulled out, the others would keep going."

That’s not to say he doesn’t believe tech leaders aren’t concerned about the risks.

"Some people in industry —  particularly Elon Musk — have said this is a real threat. I don’t agree with much of what he says but that aspect I do agree with," Hinton said.

As for companies putting aside roughly a third of their computational resources for safety testing, Hinton is skeptical.  But if they were collectively required to do so, he could see a path towards that happening.

“I’m not sure they would object if all of them had to do it.  It would be equally difficult for all of them.  And I think that might be feasible."

And in the end, that is what leads Hinton to believe that government intervention is the only solution, despite the fact that many countries are already competing with each other to ensure they respectively have an AI lead.

"None of these countries want super intelligence to take over.  And that will force them to coordinate."

 

Home affordability to improve in Canada as rates fall and incomes rise, BMO says

Jay Zhao-Murray and Erik Hertzberg, Bloomberg News

One of Canada’s biggest banks says housing affordability is poised to gradually get better — but not enough to bring it close to pre-pandemic levels.

A combination of falling interest rates, roughly flat home prices and rising incomes will make buying a home easier for more Canadians, Bank of Montreal economists Robert Kavcic and Sal Guatieri wrote in a report to investors. Even in this scenario, however, affordability will still be “strained” by 2027, they said. 

Their forecast assumes a decline of 75 basis points in five-year mortgage rates to 4.25 per cent and flat home prices in 2024, followed by three years of 3 per cent annualized price growth and per-capita income growth of just under 3 per cent.

The report underscores the challenges faced by policymakers who are dealing with frustration, particularly among younger Canadians, over the cost of housing. “We do see progress, but it’s going to take a long time to unravel something that took years to develop,” Guatieri said in an interview. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — whose party is lagging Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives in the polls — has announced billions of dollars to accelerate home construction. Still, the government’s housing agency says that homes are not being built quickly enough to keep pace with rapid population gains. 

A surge of temporary residents such as foreign workers and students pushed the population growth rate last year to 3.2 per cent, one of the fastest in the world. It’s a “historic demand shock,” Guatieri and Kavcic wrote. 

The key driver of home-price growth is demographics, Guatieri said. “Even though the federal government is planning to curb the number of non-permanent residents, which will ultimately slow population growth maybe to 1 per cent or a little more, we still will see positive population growth.”

In contrast, an immediate return to “normal” affordability levels would require either a 15 per cent drop in home prices, a 25 per cent jump in incomes or a plunge in mortgage rates to 3 per cent or lower, the economists say — assuming all other factors remain equal. 

In an interview with Bloomberg last year, Housing Minister Sean Fraser said the government’s goal was to make shelter more affordable without driving down home prices. Trudeau echoed that in a recent interview with The Globe and Mail, saying: “Housing needs to retain its value.”

New study shows up to 43% of US households are not storing guns securely

DR. MICHELLE MARCH and DR. SEJAL PAREKH
Thu, 13 June 2024 

Firearms are the leading cause of death in the United States for children aged 0-19 years, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting over 4,700 pediatric gun-related deaths in 2021.

Many of those deaths are unintentional.

A new study published by the CDC described how often guns are stored in different U.S. states. Up to 43% of households store loaded guns, which is not considered safe, while half of the households that store guns loaded with ammunition do not put them in locked containers, according to the study.

Loaded guns that are not locked can be easy for children to find and accidentally fire.

Households from eight states were surveyed for this high-quality report; including Alaska, California, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Oklahoma. The percentage of households who had guns and stored guns securely varied widely between states.

PHOTO: Stock photo of a gun improperly stored. (Alan Majchrowicz/Getty Images)

North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Nevada had the highest rates of households storing loaded guns, the report said.

Pediatricians and advocates say one simple strategy could dramatically reduce the number of children who are killed: Secure firearm storage.

This means storing a firearm locked, unloaded and with the ammunition stored separately from the firearm. Though it sounds simple, there are a range of options for storing your gun securely at home.

Options include cable locks, lock boxes, trigger locks and gun safes. Most can be found for purchase on large retail websites, such as Amazon, or through stores like The Home Depot or Dick's Sporting Goods.

"It really comes down to what does the family want or need," Dr. Sandra McKay, an associate professor of pediatrics at UTHealth Houston and nonresident fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, told ABC News.

The bottom line is too many children are in harm's way, according to McKay.

This sentiment was also shared by Dr. Eric Sigel, a pediatrician, adolescent medicine specialist, and co-chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Firearm Injury Prevention Special Interest Group who highlighted a recent study estimating that 1 in 3 middle and high schoolers have access to a firearm.

Through statistical modeling, another study calculated that if 20% of parents changed their current storage practices to storing firearms unloaded and with the ammunition locked away separately "there would be an estimated decrease of up to 122 pediatric firearm-related fatalities and 201 injuries annually."

Four common types of secure storage devices include:
Cable locks:

Like a bike lock, but for a firearm. A cable lock is a flexible cable that loops through an empty firearm, making it impossible to load or fire. These range in price from $5-50 and are oftentimes available for free through both local and national community organizations.
Lock boxes:

Smaller, portable versions of a gun safe. A lock box is made of metal or durable plastic. It has a lock on it to keep it shut. They are perfect for storing a single gun to make sure it's secure but available for quick access. They cost between $25-$350.
Trigger locks:

Trigger locks fit over the trigger mechanism of a firearm to keep it from being pulled. They are small and compatible with most firearms, but not as safe as other options because a firearm can still be loaded with a trigger lock in place. And, if not put on correctly, a loaded firearm may accidentally fire. These cost between $10-$50.
Gun safes and cabinets:

Large, heavy safes that can store multiple guns, including rifles and shotguns. Made of tough metal, they have electronic or mechanical locks. Gun safes are one of the most secure places to store guns, but they are also the most expensive starting at $500.

"There are a lot of different places that families can go to learn about these various devices. I think one of the secret gems out there are going to your [Gun] Range Safety Officers," said McKay. Other resources include Hunter Safety Training, gun shops, and local law enforcement agencies.

Outside of the home, McKay and Sigel encourage parents to discuss secure firearm storage with healthcare providers, family members, friends, and neighbors. McKay recommends using neutral language that emphasizes child safety, similar to how one would address food allergies, pool access and pets.

Michelle March, MD, MPH, MEd is a general pediatrics research fellow at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit. Sejal Parekh, MD is a practicing pediatrician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

New study shows up to 43% of US households are not storing guns securely originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Internships Are Drying Up, Especially in Tech and Finance

Jo Constantz
Thu, 13 June 2024
 

(Bloomberg) -- Companies are hiring fewer interns this summer, and that’s cranked up competition among college students and new graduates for a crucial entry point into the workforce.

The total number of internships listed on Handshake, a job search platform for college students, fell more than 7% from last June through May compared with the same period a year earlier. And the average number of applications that each internship drew jumped to 93, up from 53 the previous year, according to an analysis by Handshake provided to Bloomberg exclusively.

“Honestly, I don’t remember a time when getting an internship has been this challenging since I have been working in this space,” said Lesley Mitler, a career coach who has worked with college students for almost 15 years.

The tougher road for internship seekers reflects companies’ move to temper entry-level hiring. That’s especially true in fields like finance, consulting and tech, which have cooled dramatically amid industry-wide layoffs. Last month, Tesla Inc. made the unusual move of rescinding summer internship offers as Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk pushed to cut headcount at the company, leaving students in the lurch weeks before the program was set to start.

Executives are laser-focused on efficiency and cost-cutting, making internships an investment that many companies aren’t prepared to make right now. “Internship programs are expensive: You have to use part of your HR team to oversee these interns and make their lives great,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at job site ZipRecruiter, which registered a 14% drop in internship listings in the first quarter compared with the same period last year. “You have to pay them and not necessarily get great quality work out of them.”

Some companies that have pared back internship programs are offering workshops that cost less and come with a lower time commitment, said Sean McGowan, director of employer relations at Carnegie Mellon University. “None of these companies can afford to take their brand fully out of a campus — you’ll lose your talent to your competitor,” he said. Educational programs — like those offered by Morgan Stanley for rising sophomores or Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for all undergraduates — are a way to keep students interested in the companies even when fewer formal opportunities are available.

For those entering the job market, the chances of landing one of the most desirable opportunities has gotten slimmer. Goldman Sachs, for example, saw a record number of applicants this year — over 315,000 resumes for only 2,700 spots, an acceptance rate of less than 1%. That’s up from over 260,000 applications for some 2,900 spots last year.

Other companies are reevaluating their internship programs after pandemic lockdowns forced them to cancel them or make them fully remote. “Ever since, companies have struggled to figure out what to do with the interns,” Pollak said — especially as there are fewer people in the office to oversee them. “Many companies have pulled back on those programs because they can’t really figure out how to do it that well.”

For students, the stakes are high: According to recent research by the Burning Glass Institute and the Strada Education Foundation, those who don’t complete an internship while in school are at substantially greater risk of long-term underemployment.

Isabel Cramer, a rising senior at the University of Toronto, applied to over 40 internships this spring, spending hours tailoring her resume and cover letter to each role. When an offer failed to materialize, Cramer was disappointed — but ultimately decided to take the summer to develop her video editing skills and build her presence on TikTok. It’s an experience she hopes will help her land her ideal social media marketing job in the future. “The whole point of internships is to be more prepared for the job market,” she said. “So I’m like, ‘What ways can I do that by myself?’”

Jade Bahng, a rising junior at the University of Southern California, applied to 118 internships before securing a marketing role with Korean entertainment company CJ ENM. Out of those applications, only six resulted in face-to-face interviews. The process was nerve-wracking, and in some cases moved slowly. Bahng said it appeared that choosing an intern wasn’t at the top of most hiring managers’ to-do lists. “A lot of these companies are busy, and they’re trying to stay lean,” she said. “But for me, landing an internship is the biggest priority of my spring semester.”

The challenges for job seekers also extend to entry-level jobs, where offers aren’t always what they appear to be: Tech companies such as Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. last year withdrew offers, while consulting firms Accenture Plc. and Deloitte LLP have delayed start dates for new hires.

In this atmosphere, more students continue to interview even after they land a role, according to Carnegie Mellon’s McGowan, given that companies are reneging on offers. “There was a trust that was broken in the last couple years,” he added.

To stand out, career coaches say it’s more important than ever to network aggressively.

Ryan Levine, a rising senior at Colby College, began applying to internships last summer, putting in close to 60 applications. Levine crafted each cover letter with care and diligently networked with employees, mostly recent college graduates, at each company on LinkedIn. But by February, he still hadn’t gotten a single interview — and was starting to get nervous.

Levine reached out to someone who ended up being very senior at New York Life Insurance Company who helped him land the role. “It just worked out. I got very, very lucky with that one,” he said. “If I didn’t get that then it would have been really late — I would’ve been struggling to find anything.”

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PURITANS!

New Hampshire remains New England's lone holdout against legalizing recreational marijuana

Associated Press
Thu, 13 June 2024 


Rhododendrons bloom outside the New Hampshire Statehouse on Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Concord, N.H. On Thursday, June 13, the House killed legislation that would have legalized recreational use of marijuana, a step all other New England states have taken. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer)

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Legislation to legalize recreational marijuana in New Hampshire died on the House floor Thursday after advancing further than ever in New England’s only holdout state.

The House has passed multiple legalization bills over the years only to have them blocked in the Senate. This year, both chambers passed legislation, and the Senate approved a compromise worked out by negotiators from both chambers. But the House declined to go along, instead voting 178-173 to table it and let it die as the session ended.

The House-passed version had included a 10% tax, while the final version kept the 15% favored by the Senate, as well as the state-run franchise model the Senate wanted and the House strongly opposed.

Rep. Jared Sullivan, a Democrat from Bethlehem, said the compromise did little to change what he called an “ugly” Senate bill. He described it as “the most intrusive big-government marijuana program proposed anywhere in the country, one that ignores free market principles, will stifle innovation in an emerging industry and tie future generations of Granite Staters to an inferior model indefinitely.”

Sullivan also pushed back against the suggestion that the law could have been tweaked next year to better reflect the House’s stance.

“Does anyone in here actually believe that we will be able to reel in a newly empowered government bureaucracy after they’ve spent millions of dollars?” he said. “Does anyone honestly believe it will be easy to pull back power from an unelected agency once they have it?”

Supporters had urged colleagues to pass the bill, suggesting that New Hampshire becoming the 25th state to legalize marijuana could be a tipping point for the federal government. Supporters also pointed to polls showing more than 70% of the state’s residents believe it should be legal.

“This bill does address what the people of our state want,” said Sen. Shannon Chandley, a Democrat from Amherst. “And besides being the will of the majority, it allows us to do what is really necessary, and that is to regulate.”

Devon Chaffee, executive director of the ACLU of New Hampshire, said lawmakers appear content in ignoring the will of their constituents and to continuing to needlessly ensnare people, including many Black residents, in the criminal justice system.

“Marijuana legalization is not just a political squabble about the economic benefits,” she said in a statement. “The war on marijuana has real-life impacts.”

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, a past opponent of such bills, had signaled more openness to the idea but stopped short of saying he would sign the latest

Crypto Titans’ $160 Million War Chest Threatens Senate Democrats

Steven T. Dennis
Fri, 14 June 2024 


LEX LUTHER LOOK ALIKE

(Bloomberg) -- Crypto billionaires and their allies have amassed a $160 million war chest to protect their fortunes by bolstering US candidates who favor light-touch regulation of the embattled industry.

The staggering sum makes the crypto industry one of the most influential players in federal campaign finance. It’s the kind of money that’s already proven it can roil a California Senate race. In November, it could be pivotal in handing the Senate majority to Republicans.


Democratic control of the Senate hinges on the reelection of Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana, both cryptocurrency skeptics with tremendous sway over the fate of the crypto titans’ main legislative goals. They’re also the only two Democratic incumbents running this year in states Donald Trump won in the last election, making them prime targets for Republicans.

Fairshake, the crypto industry’s political action committee, and allied groups have nearly doubled their funding in just the past few weeks after getting $25 million each from Ripple Labs, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and Coinbase Global Inc. The billionaire twins Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, who co-founded crypto exchange Gemini, contributed $4.9 million earlier this year.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, whose estimated net worth soared 50% so far this year with the resurgent crypto market to $10.8 billion as of Thursday, last week urged followers to vote out lawmakers in either party who don’t support digital assets. This week, Armstrong went to Capitol Hill to meet with more than a dozen senators in both parties. That list included Tester, who said afterward he wants to talk to other senators about a crypto regulation bill.

Faryar Shirzad, the chief policy officer for Coinbase, said the company doesn’t control Fairshake and gave to the PAC to promote the industry’s agenda in elections.

“We’ve learned as an industry that you have to show up politically to be heard,” he said. “We’re very, very committed to see that though. We’re very committed to this cycle and beyond. This is only the beginning of a long road.”

Regulatory Goals

Crypto giants want to reduce oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has sued many major crypto players and imposed hefty fines. Gary Gensler, the agency’s chair, has said the industry is riddled with fraud and that exchanges don’t properly safeguard their customers’ assets and often mix them with their own funds.

Platforms like Coinbase, which the SEC sued last year for allegedly violating securities laws, have a lot to lose if the regulator’s position holds. The SEC claims Coinbase has made billions of dollars illegally promoting the sale of securities, and has also failed to register, as required, as an exchange, a broker and a clearing agency.

Fairshake spokesman Josh Vlasto said this week the super PAC is eyeing both Brown’s and Tester’s reelection races, though it hasn’t committed spending on either race. Earlier this year, Kristin Smith, chief executive officer of crypto trade group Blockchain Association, said the industry would be watching how Brown handles crypto’s legislative agenda.

The Democratic-led Senate so far hasn’t acted on the industry-friendly regulation package, which the Republican-controlled House approved in May.

Michigan Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, who also met with Armstrong this week, said she’s working with senators on legislation to govern regulation of crypto assets by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, crypto’s preferred regulator.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer supports that effort, calling it “reasonable regulation.”

Heavy Spending

Fairshake spent $10 million ahead of California’s March open Senate primary to pummel progressive Representative Katie Porter, a Democratic crypto-skeptic, with negative ads ahead of her defeat. One television spot called the congresswoman a fake and an accomplished actor while the words bully, liar and unfit flashed across the screen. The ads didn’t mention crypto.

The high-visibility election influence campaign is a remarkable evolution from a year ago, when the crypto industry was reeling from a barrage of scandals and business failures, including exchange giant FTX’s implosion in late 2022.

FTX’s former chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried built significant political influence in Washington with tens of millions of dollars in donations during the 2022 election. He was convicted of a range of crimes related to his management of FTX and sentenced in March to 25 years in prison.

The fallout from his political donations continues. Just last month, a federal judge sentenced one of his top deputies to more than seven years in prison for making millions in political donations while at FTX, drawing on loans from Alameda Research and acting as a straw donor for Bankman-Fried.

The crypto market rebounded this year thanks in large part to the approval by US regulators in January of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, drawing more investors to the most widely held cryptocurrency.

Choosing Sides

Armstrong recently touted a crypto advocacy website, which gave Brown an “F” grade and recommended Brown’s Republican opponent, Bernie Moreno, a longtime crypto advocate who founded a blockchain-based titling company. The website gives Tester a middling “C.”

Brown and Tester are feeling the pressure. Both senators bristled last week when asked about the issue, with Brown repeatedly saying he’s done enough talking to reporters about crypto and won’t negotiate in the press.

Tester, a frequent ally of the banking industry, said he’s stayed fairly neutral on crypto. “When I fully understand it, then we’ll deal with it,” he said.

Moreno, meanwhile, has courted the industry with his crypto experience. “I’m up against the most anti-crypto guy in America,” he said at a recent CoinDesk conference in Austin, Texas.

Tester’s Republican opponent, Tim Sheehy, blasted the Montana senator in posts on X, accusing Tester of trying to kill crypto. Sheehy called Bitcoin and cash “FREEDOM money.”

 Bloomberg Businessweek

UK

‘Tone deaf’ email reprimands Tory members who don’t donate for election

Charles Hymas
Fri, 14 June 2024 

The author told MPs, activists and members that they briefed the 'senior leadership' about those who gave to campaigns - PA/James Manning


Tory chiefs have faced a backlash after reprimanding party members who do not donate money for “not doing everything you can” to help fight the election.

The party bosses issued the appeal for funds earlier this week to Tory party members via email, which was headed “Gone missing?”

The author told MPs, activists and members that they briefed the “senior leadership” of the party about those who gave to the Tories’ campaigns.


“I do so every day. And I really hope that tomorrow your name can be on the list,” said the email.

It then set out the key attack lines of the election campaign, including Labour’s plan to “hike taxes on working people by £2,094”, “roll out the welcome mat” for illegal migrants, cancel Rwanda deportation flights and raid pensions through a retirement tax.

“Don’t you want to do everything you can to stop him? I’m briefing the chairman tomorrow about who’s donated so far. And who’s with us for the last stretch of the campaign. Will your name be on the list?,” it concludes.

The email, described as “tone deaf” by one observer, has provoked criticism from Conservative members who are understood to be unhappy at what they see as an arrogant begging letter coming on top of the annual fees that they pay to the party.
Critics on the Right

The biggest critics were activists on the Right of the party, who suggested they would contribute when the centrist Conservative Central Office took greater account of their views.

It is also understood to have sparked complaints over the number of special advisers parachuted into winnable seats at the expense of local candidates.

The unopposed selection of Richard Holden, the party chairman, for the safe seat of Basildon and Billericay has sparked the biggest backlash, with one constituency official describing it as a “slap in the face” for Tories in the area.

The row over the funding email comes just a day after Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party overtook the Tories for the first time in a YouGov poll, putting them, respectively, on 19 per cent and 18 per cent.

ABOLISH CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Man who killed three soldiers in attack on India’s Red Fort to be hanged after president rejects mercy plea

KASHMIR IS INDIA'S GAZA

Arpan Rai
Thu, 13 June 2024 


Pakistani man Mohammad Arif (C) is escorted by Indian policemen as he walks out of the Karkardooma court in New Delhi in 2005 (Getty Images)

A convicted Pakistani national is set to face the death penalty in India after the president in New Delhi rejected his mercy petition over involvement in a deadly terrorist attack on popular monument Red Fort.

The man, Mohammed Arif aka Ashfaq, was confirmed to be a member of Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and was awarded death sentence on 31 October in 2005.

Indian president Droupadi Murmu rejected his mercy petition seeking relief from the execution sentence on 27 May, reported Indian news daily Hindustan Times. The mercy petition was sent to her on 15 May, officials aware of the matter said.

The attack, which took place a few days short of Christmas in December 2000, killed three Indian army personnel of 7 Rajputana Rifles unit. The armed forces personnel were guarding the pro Mughal-era monument from the inside when the terrorists entered the area. They later fled the spot by scaling the monument’s walls.

Indian police officials had said two men with automatic weapons had entered the Red Fort at about 9.40pm local time while a party for army families was being held inside. They reportedly fired indiscriminately.

Ashfaq was held four days later by the Delhi police’s special cell unit. He is currently lodged in India’s biggest prison facility – Tihar Jail – inside a high-risk cell. His mercy review petition was sent to India’s apex Supreme Court, after being rejected in lower Indian courts, but was rejected on 3 November 2022.

The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence and said there were no mitigating circumstances in Ashfaq’s favour. It underlined that the attack on the Red Fort posed a direct threat to the country’s unity, integrity, and sovereignty.

According to a former Indian civil servant who supervised the investigation into the attack, Ashfaq had camouflaged himself in India as a resident of Himalayan province Jammu.

He was arrested from Delhi’s eastern Ghazipur area where he was living as an Indian citizen, said Ashok Chand, the retired Indian Police Service officer told HT.

The attack on Red Fort was an attack on the country’s most important installations, he said.

Details of Ashfaq’s execution on Indian soil have not been officially released.

The attack came a day after the Indian government extended its unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir by a month.

After India’s announcement of the extension, Pakistan declared a partial withdrawal of its troops from along the ceasefire line dividing the Himalayan province. The ceasefire announced by India was dismissed by the terrorist group as an attempt to "hoodwink" the world over alleged violations in Kashmir.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, whose name means "Army of the Pure", had launched a number of similar attacks against Indian army installations in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir.