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Facebook takes down Trump-Pence ads featuring symbols previously used by Nazis

Published: June 18, 2020 By Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facebook has removed campaign ads by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that featured an upside-down red triangle, a symbol once used by Nazis to designate political prisoners, communists and others in concentration camps.

Nathaniel Gleicher, the company’s FB, +0.17% head of security policy, confirmed at a House Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday that the ads had been removed, saying Facebook does not permit symbols of hateful ideology “unless they’re put up with context or condemnation.”

“In a situation where we don’t see either of those, we don’t allow it on the platform and we remove it. That’s what we saw in this case with this ad, and anywhere that that symbol is used, we would take the same action,” Gleicher said.

The ad began running on Wednesday.

In a statement, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said the inverted red triangle was a symbol used by antifa so it was included in an ad about antifa. He said the symbol is not in the Anti-Defamation League’s database of symbols of hate.

“But it is ironic that it took a Trump ad to force the media to implicitly concede that Antifa is a hate group,” he added.

Antifa is an umbrella term for leftist militants with no known organizational structure. Trump has blamed antifa for the violence that erupted during some of the recent protests, but federal law-enforcement officials have uncovered little evidence of this.


Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress in 2018 about the 87 million Facebook users who had their personal information harvested by Cambridge Analytica, the British-based political consulting firm linked to the Trump campaign. GETTY IMAGES

Gleicher appeared with representatives of Twitter TWTR, -0.90% and Google GOOG, -1.04% GOOGL, -1.26% at a hearing centered on efforts by the technology companies to police the spread of disinformation, tied to both the election and COVID-19, on the platforms. That is a significant challenge in a country facing potentially dramatic changes in how people vote, with expected widespread use of mail-in ballots creating openings to cast doubt on the results and even spread false information.

Facebook said Thursday that it is working to help Americans vote by mail, including by notifying users about how to request ballots and whether the date of their state’s election has changed.

The Vote By Mail notification connects Facebook users to information about how to request a ballot. It is targeted to voters in states where no excuse is needed to vote by mail or where fears of the coronavirus are accepted as a universal excuse.

In working to facilitate voting by mail during the pandemic, the company is stepping onto politically sensitive ground. Trump and other Republicans are trying to limit such voting, while Democrats are pushing it to boost turnout.

See:Biden supports nationwide voting by mail, calls Trump’s opposition ‘un-American’

Democrats pressed the Facebook and Twitter representatives on why certain content, including tweets by Trump referencing the shooting of looters and a video that was doctored to make House Speaker Nancy Pelosi look intoxicated, were not taken down and remained on their platforms. The questions were part of persistent criticism of Facebook by Democrats who say CEO Mark Zuckerberg has refused to take action on inflammatory posts by Trump.

See:Facebook launches voting information hub, but still won’t block Trump misinformation

The hearing came as Big Tech faces increasing pressure to monitor content and be transparent about the accuracy of information visible to users. Twitter has begun labeling tweets based on manipulated media that are attempting to confuse and mislead people, and has taken steps to prohibit paid political advertising, including by government-controlled news media entities.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, proposed this week rolling back legal protections for technology companies for material posted on their platforms.

Of particular concern heading into November are foreign influence operations, reliant on bogus social media accounts, aimed at swaying opinion. An investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller revealed a vast Russian effort to sow discord on the internet during the 2016 presidential election campaign by playing up divisive social issues.

Facebook said that two days before the 2018 elections, it dismantled more than 100 accounts linked to the same operation. Between January and March of this year, the company said it dismantled roughly 1.7 billion accounts.


Facebook Removes Trump Campaign Ads Containing Symbols Reminiscent Of The Nazi Era

Shivdeep Dhaliwal , Benzinga Staff Writer  June 19, 2020




Advertisements and posts from the Trump campaign that contained an upside-down red triangle, a former symbol used by Nazis to identify political opponents, were removed by Facebook Inc. FB citing a policy against hate.
What Happened

On Thursday, Facebook removed the Trump campaign materials featuring the offensive symbol saying, “Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group's symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol,” reported NPR.

One advertisement laid claim that dangerous “MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem.”

The Trump campaign responded in a tweet claiming the symbol is an emoji and widely used by Antifa. The campaign also said that it is not in the Anti-Defamation League Hate Symbols Database.

The League’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, told NPR that the database is not a collection of historical Nazi imagery but rather “symbols commonly used by modern extremist groups and white supremacists in the United States.”

Greenblatt also took to Twitter to explain the offensiveness of the symbol.

The Nazis used red triangles to identify their political victims in concentration camps. Using it to attack political opponents is highly offensive. @POTUS' campaign needs to learn its history, as ignorance is no excuse for using Nazi-related symbols. https://t.co/7R7aGLD7kl

— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) June 18, 2020
Why It Matters

According to NPR, the Trump advertisements had garnered more than a million impressions on Facebook, a social network with 2.5 billion users.

Media Matters For America, a left-leaning non-profit organization claimed that on Wednesday, the Trump campaign ran 88 advertisements on Facebook pages for Trump, Pence, and team Trump with the symbol.

While Twitter Inc. TWTR 0.03% has taken to moderating and fact-checking Trump’s tweets, Facebook has taken the opposite approach and refused to do the same.

Earlier in March, Facebook removed a campaign advertisement regarding the official United States Census that violated the social network’s policy on publishing fake or misleading information.

Price Action

Facebook shares traded 0.24% higher at $236.50 in the after-hours session on Thursday. The shares had closed the regular session 0.17% higher at $235.94.

Image: Screenshot of Facebook posts

© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Nazis used red triangles to mark political prisoners. 

That symbol is why Facebook banned a Donald Trump reelection campaign ad.

A red triangle that marked 'political prisoners' was the most common category of prisoners registered at the German Nazi #Auschwitz camp.

A red triangle was once a common sight at Nazi concentration camps, a part of history now thrust into the national spotlight by a banned political campaign ad.

Facebook moved Thursday to remove ads from President Donald Trump's reelection campaign that the company said violated its policies on "organized hate" and were a "banned hate group's symbol," an upside-down red triangle.

Joel Shannon, USA TODAY•June 18, 2020

The symbol is not listed in the Anti-Defamation League's database of symbols of hate and resembles an emoji that can be easily used. At particular issue currently: It may also be tied to antifa, an umbrella term for leftist militants.

In the historical context of Nazi concentration camps, however, the meaning of the symbol is well-documented.

Prisoners in concentration camps were identified using a system of symbols, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The practice of using triangles in that system started in the late 1930s, according to the 

.

Siegmund Sobolewski of the Auschwitz Awareness Society in Alberta, Canada, dressed in a uniform used by prisoners at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, rests during memorials marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp, Thursday, Jan 26, 1995. Sobolewski was a prisoner at the camp for over four years
NOTICE THE RED TRIANGLE WITH P IN THE CENTRE FOR POLITICAL PRISONER

Some examples of how the system would work, according to the sites:

Gay victims were forced to wear pink triangles.

Criminals, including those convicted of minor offenses, were given green triangles.

Jewish people were given yellow triangles arranged to form the Star of David. The top triangle in the star could be another color to mark them as an additional type of prisoner.

Political prisoners were forced to wear red triangles.

And those red triangles were common in the camps. The Auschwitz Memorial tweeted Thursday that 95% of prisoners at Auschwitz were accused of political crimes in August 1944. A letter could also be included inside the triangle to mark a person's nationality, the museum said.

A red triangle that marked 'political prisoners' was the most common category of prisoners registered at the German Nazi #Auschwitz camp.

In August 1944, political prisoners constituted 95 percent of camp prisoners'. A letter inside the triangle could mark the nationality. pic.twitter.com/jBuNn0xmL1
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 18, 2020

"Social Democrats, Communists, trade unionists and other persons regarded as political opponents by the Nazis wore red triangles. Often a joke about Hitler or a denunciation could suffice for someone to be arrested as a 'political,'" according to an article published by the International Center on Nazi Persecution.

Political opponents were among some of the first victims of Nazi concentration camps, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum reports.

People considered "enemies of the state" were housed at various types of camps, some open for more than a decade, the museum says.

The term "concentration camp" can include a variety of incarceration sites, including forced labor camps and "killing centers" used for mass genocide, particularly of Jewish people, the museum says.

Contributing: Nicholas Wu, USA TODAY; The Associated Press.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nazis used red triangles. Are they a symbol of 'organized hate'?

Coronavirus update: U.S. case tally climbs above 2.2 million as Tulsa prepares for Trump’s indoor rally


Published: June 19, 2020 By  Ciara Linnan

Supporters of President Donald Trump sleep while lined up to attend a campaign rally planned for Saturday. GETTY IMAGES
The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus illness COVID-19 in the U.S. rose above 2.2 million on Friday, as Tulsa, Okla., geared up for President Donald Trump’s planned campaign rally on Saturday night.

A group of local business owners and residents, worried at the prospect of a fresh outbreak of infections at the 19,000-seat indoor arena if attendees do not observe the safety guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had sued the owner of the venue to block it, but a Tulsa County judge denied their request for an injunction. The group has appealed the decision with the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which is expected to make a ruling on Friday, as the Washington Post reported.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines for reopening safely last Friday, and identified the highest risk of spreading the virus as stemming from: “large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart and attendees travel from outside the local area.”

From the CDC:Considerations for Daily Life and Considerations for Events and Gatherings

Trump’s rallies tend to involve attendees queuing outside for hours before going through security and into arenas, where they cheer, shout and chant, all risk factors for spreading the droplets that contain the virus. The Trump campaign has acknowledged that risk by insisting that those who attend sign legal waivers absolving Trump and his staff of any blame, if people get sick or are injured.

Read: What we do know — and don’t know — about the coronavirus at Day 100 of the pandemic

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, reiterated in an interview with the Washington Post his message that Americans should continue to observe social distancing, frequently was their hands and cover their faces in public.

“When you have a congregation of people, you increase the risk. It doesn’t matter why they’re congregating or where they’re congregating. When you have a congregation of people in a setting in which there’s active virus circulating in the community, you are at risk. You need to wear a mask.”

For more on Tulsa, read:Trump rally attendees dismiss heat and coronavirus concerns as they line up outside Tulsa arena

Face masks have been caught up in a culture skirmish that has seen many resist wearing them, including President Donald Trump, who has theorized this week that some Americans are wearing them not for stemming the spread of a deadly virus but to express displeasure with him. The White House has been criticized for failing to push the message that masks are an important means of containing the spread of COVID-19, although local officials have stepped into the vacuum.

Read:Despite concerning data, White House continues to play down coronavirus worries

California Gov. Gavin Newsom made them mandatory for Californians when they’re in public on Thursday.

Fauci said the virus is “one of the most highly transmissible viruses that we know of,” and urged Americans to pull together and work to get the outbreak under control. “It’s tough for everyone. But remember, we are in this all together. We’re not just separate individual components. We’re in it together.”

Don’t miss:100 days of the COVID-19 pandemic: 5 critical mistakes that created the biggest public health crisis in a generation
Latest tallies

There are now 8.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, and at least 454,582 people have died, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. At least 4.2 million people have recovered.

The pandemic is actually accelerating, according to the World Health Organization, which said it received reports of a record of more than 150,000 new cases on Thursday. WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu told reporters that about half of those new cases came from the Americas.

“The world is in a new and dangerous phase,” Tedros said. “We call on all countries and all people to exercise extreme vigilance.”

The U.S. has the highest case toll in the world at 2.19 million and the highest death toll at 118,467, with 20 states still seeing daily increases in infections, including Florida, Texas and Georgia.

Brazil has 978,142 cases and 47,748 fatalities, the data show, the second highest death toll in the world.

Russia has 568,292 cases and 7,831 fatalities. India has 380,532 cases and 12,573 deaths.

The U.K. has 301,935 cases and 42,546 deaths, the highest death toll in Europe and now third highest in the world.

Spain has 245,268 cases and 27,136 deaths, while Italy, another early hot spot in Europe, has 238,159 cases and 34,514 deaths.

Peru moved past Italy by case number, with 244,388 cases and 7,461 deaths.

Chile, Iran, France, Germany, Turkey, Pakistan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and Canada are next and all ahead of China, where the illness was first reported late last year.

China has 84,494 cases and 4,638 deaths. China has shut down parts of Beijing after a fresh cluster of cases.




What are companies saying?
The IPO market continued to heat up with supermarket operator Albertsons Cos. ACI, +3.69% setting terms for its planned deal on Thursday. The company is planning to sell 65.8 million shares priced at $18 to $20 to share, to raise $1.3 billion at the top of the range.

Albertsons is profitable, earning $466 million in 2019 on sales of $62.5 billion. It has reported strong demand for delivery and pickup at its stores during the pandemic. The company has filed to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ACI.”

Chinese oncology biotech Genetron Holdings Ltd. priced its IPO at $16 per American depositary share, above its $11.50-to-$13.50 price range. The company upsized the deal early Thursday, indicating strong demand for its paper. The shares, trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “GTH,” jumped 10% in their post-IPO debut.


‘We did not want to be drawn into a political controversy. We thought it might be counterproductive if we forced mask wearing on those people who believe strongly that it is not necessary.’— Adam Arom, CEO of cinema chain AMC

Elsewhere, companies continued to update investors on their reopening plans and post their latest earnings.

Here are the latest things companies have said about COVID-19:

• AMC Theatres, the biggest cinema chain in the U.S. that’s owned by AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. AMC, -1.95%, will require all guests to wear face masks when it reopens its cinemas across the U.S. on July 15. The Leawood, Kansas-based company made the decision after listening to its customers and to scientific advisers, who recommend face masks to stop the spread of the coronavirus illness COVID-19. The announcement comes after AMC Chief Executive Adam Aron told Variety on Thursday that the company would not force customers to wear face masks, as he did not want to become part of what is now a political hot potato. His comments “prompted an intense and immediate outcry from our customers, and it is clear from this response that we did not go far enough on the usage of masks,” the executive said on Friday. “At AMC Theatres, we think it is absolutely crucial that we listen to our guests. Accordingly, and with the full support of our scientific advisors, we are reversing course and are changing our guest mask policy.” AMC will continue to monitor the scientific community’s thinking on the efficacy of masks and will look at the varying case numbers around the country as it moves forward. It will make face masks available for a nominal price of $1.00 each.

What we do know — and don’t know — about the coronavirus at day 100 of the pandemicPublished: June 18, 2020 at 1:56 p.m. ET
By
Jaimy Lee


Does having antibodies provide immunity? When will herd immunity kick in? Will there be a viable vaccine?


IRF - Frederick 3/9/2020 10:05 110000 8.0 80 Imaging #2020-04-E SARS-COV-2 XpixCal=3.848812 YpixCal=3.848812 Unit=nm ##fv3 4096 3008 7.0.1.147 Blank1 Blank2 ##fv4 NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH

Scientists and infectious-disease experts are pushing hard to understand more about the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and how to treat patients suffering from the sometimes deadly illness and prevent transmission.

In the roughly three months since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared regional COVID-19 outbreaks a worldwide pandemic and hundreds of millions of Americans began to observe stay-at-home orders, much has changed. As of June 18, more than two million people in the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19, and at least 117,000 have died, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

We have a standard of care for hospitalized patients, though that is sure to evolve. We know that masks and physical distancing prevent transmission of the virus, though both practices have become politicized and aren’t always observed in Western countries where mask-wearing hasn’t been part of the culture. We know that investors overreact to mildly positive clinical news about COVID-19 treatments and vaccines and tend to ignore the bad news.

“The most important thing we’ve learned is that in the absence of a vaccine or therapeutic, aggressive public health action and individual public health practices can reduce transmission,” Dr. Brian Castrucci, an epidemiologist and president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, said in an email. “Mask-wearing, social distancing, and hand-washing are critical to mitigating the spread of the virus, reopening portions of the economy, and allowing us to return to some semblance of normalcy.”

Here’s what we know so far about COVID-19 treatments:

• Once-promising drugs have failed. Hydroxychloroquine, once lauded by President Donald Trump as a “very successful drug,” doesn’t reduce mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, according to studies conducted by Veterans Health Administration and the University of Minnesota, among others. Many clinical trials including the WHO’s Solidarity trial have stopped enrolling participants in their hydroxychloroquine trials, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week revoked the emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.

• Gilead Sciences Inc.’s GILD, +4.63% remdesivir works; however, it’s no silver bullet. While the experimental drug hasn’t been proven to reduce deaths among severely ill patients, research found it can reduce the amount of time patients spend in the hospital, which in turn can help reduce capacity at overcrowded intensive care units in regions with severe outbreaks and allow patients to go home sooner.

• At least one drug can reduce death in severely ill patients, a finding announced this week on the heels of the FDA’s hydroxychloroquine decision. University of Oxford researchers said a clinical trial found that dexamethasone, a commonly prescribed steroid, can reduce mortality among hospitalized patients on ventilators and oxygen support.

• The growing clinical evidence behind remdesivir and dexamethasone matters for two reasons: having a widening range of viable treatments can reduce the number of deaths from COVID-19, reducing capacity in emergency rooms and intensive care units and can also create a safer environment for economies to reopen, according to Dr. Roger Shapiro, associate professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “It’s a lot better to be a patient today than in March,” he said.

Here’s what we know so far about how the virus behaves:

• The virus is more likely to spread by the droplets or aerosols we release when we speak, yell, or sing than on the shared surfaces we touch. Transmitting the disease becomes even more of a concern in enclosed indoor spaces than outdoors, especially in the presence of a super spreader. (“Everything we do outside is a lot safer,” Shapiro said.)

• COVID-19 has disproportionately sickened and killed certain groups of people, including people of color, men, the elderly, and those living in contained, crowded environments, like nursing homes and prisons. It is less likely to make children ill. More than one-third of the people who have died in the U.S. from COVID-19 lived in long-term care facilities. “COVID-19 has exposed the weakness of infection control programs in many of our nation’s long-term care and assisted living facilities,” said Ann Marie Pettis, a registered nurse and president-elect of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

• The U.S. has primarily focused on providing diagnostic testing to people who present with common COVID-19 symptoms but there are concerns about asymptomatic and presymptomaticindividuals, who may be inadvertently continuing to spread the disease. Experts want to see more random testing of the population. “People without symptoms can transmit the virus, making containment very challenging,” Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, wrote in an email.

• Wearing a mask or engaging in social distancing behaviors can prevent transmission of the virus. One reason why there may be fewer cases in China, Japan, and South Korea is that mask-wearing is more common in Asia. China, where the virus first emerged late last year, has about 84,000 cases, Japan has roughly 17,000 cases, and South Korea about 12,000 cases. “What we do know is that social distancing, hand washing and wearing a face mask in public are the ways people can help protect themselves and others,” Pettis said.

Here’s what we don’t know:

• Does having antibodies provide immunity for the people who have been exposed to or recovered from COVID-19? With other viruses, antibodies usually indicate a level of protection against re-infection with the same virus for a set period of time. People who had SARS, for example, had antibodies for about two years and weren’t thought to be susceptible to reinfection until three years after the first exposure to the severe acute respiratory syndrome. “How long does immunity last, and do you need a certain level of antibodies to be immune?” Wen asked.

• Will herd immunity kick in?And if it does, when? Some experts predict that about two-thirds of Americans would need to have antibodies to declare herd immunity in the U.S. But without practicing physical distancing, using masks, and developing a contract tracing system, “it’s impossible to flatten the curve,” said Dr. Bob Kocher, a partner at venture-capital firm Venrock and a member of California’s coronavirus testing task force. “The question is whether we have the desire and discipline to do that.”

• Will there be a viable vaccine? Vaccine development is moving at a record pace, with 13 vaccine candidates now in clinical trials worldwide. Moderna Inc. MRNA, +2.15% was the first company to release some clinical data from a Phase 1 study, finding that eight out of 45 participants in the first phase of its COVID-19 vaccine study developed neutralizing antibodies. However, vaccine development is notoriously difficult and time intensive — vaccines traditionally take up to seven years to be developed — and have to be both safe and efficacious.

Just 39 migrant kids avoided expulsion at the border in May

Camilo Montoya-Galvez,CBS News•June 18, 2020





The U.S. allowed just 39 unaccompanied migrant children at the southern border to stay and seek refuge in the country last month as immigration officials continued to expel most border-crossers, regardless of their age, under an emergency order the Trump administration says is needed to contain the coronavirus.

In May, officials at the southern border carried out 1,001 arrests of unaccompanied children, who are encountered without parents or legal guardians. However, only 39 of these migrant minors were transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and avoided being expelled, according to unpublished government data obtained by CBS News.

The low number of referrals to the refugee agency in May is part of an unprecedented decline in the admissions of unauthorized migrant minors since March, when the expulsions policy was implemented. The Trump administration has argued that a directive by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supersedes the laws that created a process for these minors to request asylum and other protections while in shelters overseen by the U.S. government.

After receiving 1,900 migrant minors in January and 2,273 in February, the Office of Refugee Resettlement reported 1,852 new admissions in March and just 62 in April. Since the agency has continued to release children to sponsors, who are typically family members in the U.S., the dwindling referrals from the border have fueled a dramatic drop in the number of minors in its care.

As of Thursday, the refugee agency had less than 975 migrant children in its custody — a 72% decline from late March. Through its current network of contracted shelters and other housing facilities, the agency has the capacity to care for more than 13,000 minors at a time.

Jennifer Nagda, a policy director at the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights, said the U.S. can continue offering refuge to unaccompanied children during the pandemic, especially given the ample bed capacity the Office of Refugee Resettlement currently has.

"There were 1,000 children who came to our border and asked for help and — with 39 exceptions — every single one of them was turned away," Nagda told CBS News.

"If those children would have come into our system, large percentages of them would have been found to have claims for protection. They would be eligible for asylum. They would be eligible for protection as trafficking victims," she continued. "We are sending children back to traffickers, back to persecutors, back to abusers."

Since 2008, most non-Mexican unaccompanied migrant children have been protected from rapid deportations under a bipartisan anti-trafficking law that also requires border officials to transfer these minors to the refugee agency within three days, barring extraordinary circumstances. With the help of government-funded lawyers and child advocates, these children can apply for relief from deportation as they await to be released to sponsors.

Trump administration officials and immigration hawks have denounced this process as a series of "loopholes" that encourage teenagers and other minors to journey to the U.S. without proper documents in search of a better life.

Through the CDC directive, which has been extended indefinitely, the administration has largely shut this process down. Officials have defended the expulsions of children, saying that minors pose the same public health risk during a pandemic as adults and families.

So far, nearly 43,000 expulsions have been carried out under the CDC order, which officials have portrayed as a successful tool in blocking the entry of people who could spread the coronavirus in the U.S.

Customs and Border Protection carried out nearly 900 expulsions of unaccompanied minors in March and April, but has declined to provide figures for May. The agency has also not said how its officers determine whether to transfer a child to the Office of Refugee Resettlement during the pandemic.

"If this information were made public it would be exploited by human smugglers and activists, adding to cartel profits, and potentially raising the risk of infection within CBP holding spaces," spokesperson Matthew Dyman said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups filed two lawsuits on behalf of a 16-year-old Honduran teenage boy in U.S. custody and a 13-year-old Salvadoran girl who was expelled in April.

Though the relief sought in the lawsuits is limited to the two minors, advocates believe the court challenges can ultimately help them block the expulsions policy.

Magdalena, the mother of the 13-year-old girl, said she fears her daughter could be persecuted in El Salvador by the same gang members who prompted her to flee to the U.S. in 2013.

"It surprised me, filled me with sadness and disappointment," she said in an interview with CBS News, referring to her daughter's deportation. "Before being deported, they should have a fair trial. I think we all deserve that."

What Supreme Court? Trump's HHS pushes LGBT health rollback

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR,Associated Press•June 19, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration Friday moved forward with a rule that rolls back health care protections for transgender people, even as the Supreme Court barred sex discrimination against LGBT individuals on the job.

The rule from the Department of Health and Human Services was published in the Federal Register, the official record of the executive branch, with an effective date of Aug. 18. That will set off a barrage of lawsuits from gay rights and women's groups. It also signals to religious and social conservatives in President Donald Trump's political base that the administration remains committed to their causes as the president pursues his reelection.

The Trump administration rule would overturn Obama-era sex discrimination protections for transgender people in health care.

Strikingly similar to the underlying issues in the job discrimination case before the Supreme Court, the Trump health care rule rests on the idea that sex is determined by biology. The Obama version relied on a broader understanding shaped by a person's inner sense of being male, female, neither, or a combination.

Writing for the majority in this week's 6-3 decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch said, "An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex.

“Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what (civil rights law) forbids," wrote Gorsuch, who was nominated to the court by Trump.

The president thundered back in a tweet: “These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives.”

In the HHS rule, the department's Office for Civil Rights anticipated a Supreme Court ruling on job discrimination “will likely have ramifications” for its health discrimination rule.

But health care is different, HHS argued. “The binary biological character of sex (which is ultimately grounded in genetics) takes on special importance in the health context,” administration lawyers wrote. “Those implications might not be fully addressed by future (job discrimination) rulings even if courts were to deem the categories of sexual orientation or gender identity to be encompassed by the prohibition on sex discrimination in (civil rights law).”

Cornell University constitutional law scholar Michael Dorf says that doesn't sound like a persuasive argument to him.

“I don't think it works very well,” said Dorf. “In Justice Gorsuch's opinion he's not saying the word ‘sex’ is ambiguous. He's saying that when you do all the reasoning, it's clear that ‘sex’ includes sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Civil rights laws on employment and health care may be different in a technical sense, said Dorf, but “it seems to be a very short distance to say (the Supreme Court ruling) also applies” to sex discrimination in health care.

Not so fast, said Gregory Baylor, an attorney for the religious liberty group Alliance Defending Freedom. “Biological sex matters in many health care settings in a way that it doesn't matter in many employment decisions,” Baylor said. He cited the shortcomings of drug trials that use male patients but not women, when there can be differences in how medications affect both genders.

But gay rights and women's groups say their arguments against the health care rule have clearly been strengthened by the Supreme Court.

“The decision puts the (HHS) rule on even shakier ground than it ever was,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a lawyer specializing in health care with the LGBTQ civil rights group Lamba Legal.

Michelle Banker, an attorney for the National Women's Law Center, said the administration's timing raises process questions that could later become important in a court challenge. It was only last week HHS announced it had finalized the rule.

“Agencies are required to make reasoned, rational decisions when they make policy,” said Banker. “The Supreme Court just weighed in and said that the legal interpretation they are relying on is wrong, and they have not grappled with that.”

The Obama-era rule was intended to carry out anti-discrimination provisions in former President Barack Obama's signature health care law, which included a provision that barred sex discrimination in health care. The Trump administration says its predecessor went beyond what Congress authorized in protecting gender identity as well as biological gender.

Another provision of the Obama rule bars discrimination in health care against women on grounds of having or not having abortions. The Trump rule overturns that as well. Baylor said there's nothing in the Supreme Court decision that would affect the Trump administration's decision.

HHS rejects charges by Trump administration critics that it's opening the way for discrimination.

“HHS respects the dignity of every human being," said Roger Severino, head of the department's civil rights office. “We vigorously protect and enforce the civil rights of all to the fullest extent permitted by our laws as passed by Congress.”

Chick-fil-A CEO urged white people to take action against racism and said he does not blame looters after multiple locations were damaged last week

Business Insider•June 19, 2020
 

Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy.
Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post/Getty Images

Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy urged white people to repent and take action against racism during a roundtable discussion Sunday at Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

Cathy said a dozen Chick-fil-A restaurants had been vandalized in the last week.

"My plea would be for the white people, rather than point fingers at that kind of criminal effort, would be to see the level of frustration and exasperation and almost a sense of hopelessness that exists among some of those activists within the African American community," Cathy said in the discussion.

Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy urged white people to take action against racism amid a period of tension and protest in the US, following the death Rayshard Brooks, a Black man who died after a white police officer shot him last week.

In a Sunday roundtable discussion at Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia with Passion City founder Louie Giglio and Lecrae, a Christian rapper, the fast-food chain CEO spoke of repentance and understanding.

The CEO said that a dozen Chick-fil-A restaurants had been vandalized in the last week, but urged white people not to place blame on the vandals.

"My plea would be for the white people, rather than point fingers at that kind of criminal effort, would be to see the level of frustration and exasperation and almost a sense of hopelessness that exists among some of those activists within the African-American community that are so exasperated," Cathy said.

Read more: The exec behind the Nike and Petco apps reveals why Chick-fil-A's chicken sandwich giveaways are a brilliant strategy

The Cathy family, which owns Chick-fil-A, cites Christian values as part of their philosophy guiding their leadership of the company. Founder Truett Cathy, Dan Cathy's father, translated his faith into his business practices, which has helped contribute to the fast-food giant's success.

During the roundtable, Cathy mentioned that "conscious and unconscious biases" at the workplace and in corporate offices are not entirely uncommon, mentioning a conversation he had with a Black Chick-fil-A employee who said she had experienced injustice in her job.

Dan Cathy previously outlined his thoughts on the current events in the US via a LinkedIn post, which was shared on the Chick-fil-A website. In the post, Cathy described the ways Chick-fil-A is helping to rebuild and donate resources to what he described as "the most distressed zip code in Georgia."

While discussing the topic of repentance, Cathy got up and shined Lecrae's shoes on stage and said that the world needs to have a sense of shame, embarrassment, and "an apologetic heart."

"Our silence is so huge in this time," Cathy said during the roundtable. "We cannot be silent. Somebody has to fight."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Elderly Black Lives Matter protester injured by police and trolled by Trump in hiding after death threats

The Independent•June 19, 2020

A still from the video of two Buffalo police officers shoving Martin Gugino to the ground: WBFO NPR /AFP via Getty Images

Martin Gugino, the protester shoved to the ground by Buffalo police officers during the George Floyd protests, is recuperating in a secret location due to threats he's received.

Mr Gugino's attorney said on Thursday that his client had received "concerning and threatening messages and one letter" since he was assaulted by police officers in Buffalo.

The 75-year activist was seen in a viral video being shoved by a police officer. After hitting the ground, Mr Gugino lay unmoving, blood seeping from his ear. The officers marched by and ignored him, even after becoming aware of the blood. At one point, one officer actively prevents another officer from stopping to help.

Days after the video began circulating online, President Donald Trump tweeted out a conspiracy theory that Mr Gugino could have been an "antifa provocateur" who was trying to "scan police communications in order to black out the equipment."

The president's tweet – as well as other conspiracy theories alleging that Mr Gugino, a Catholic peace activist, was a plant or he was faking his injuries – has made the elderly activist a target of the far right.

Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
June 9, 2020

His lawyer said the seriousness of the threats was still being determined.

"It is not clear that these are credible death threats. In order to avoid the risk, Martin will be recovering in an undisclosed location when he is released from the hospital. We do not expect that to happen for a good week, so things could change," Kelly Zarcone said.

Mr Gugino has been hospitalised since his injury, with recent reports suggesting he suffered a brain injury and hasn't been able to walk.

The police officers who shoved him, Robert McCabe and Aaron Togalski, were suspended from the Buffalo police department and were charged with assault. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Following their suspension, 57 of their fellow officers resigned their assignments on the Buffalo police department's emergency response team. Originally the resignations were publicised as an act of solidarity by the police union representing the department, but officers later refuted that claim, instead attributing the mass resignations to fears that the union wouldn't cover their legal fees if they were sued over actions they took in the George Floyd protests.

COULD CHOCOLATE BE THE NEXT VICTIM OF THE PANDEMIC?

By Doloresz Katanich last updated: 19/06/2020 -

Did you know that on average, cocoa farmers earn just 6 per cent of the value of a chocolate bar?

Two-thirds of the world's chocolate supply comes from West Africa, but the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the continent is now rising fast. The pandemic is exacerbating cocoa farmers' poverty, meaning they can't invest in proper protection from the virus.

This uncertainty and disruption in the supply chain could jeopardise the future of cocoa production, which is already suffering from the effects of climate change and deforestation.

UK-based charity Fairtrade Foundation says it is more important than ever to support these vulnerable communities, by purchasing Fairtrade certified products. Fairtrade farmers earn a fair wage and benefit from a higher quality of life.

VIDEO https://www.euronews.com/living/2020/06/19/could-chocolate-be-the-next-victim-of-the-pandemic?jwsource=cl

What is the truth behind the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory? | Culture Clash

By Alexander Morgan • last updated: 15/05/2020

Conspiracy theorists link 5G to the coronavirus - Copyright Matt Dunham/Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Barrie Trower is a conspiracy theorist and says 5G is to blame for the rapid spread of COVID-19. He believes it degrades the immune system and that the dangers are being covered up by powerful forces in the global telecommunications industry.

Three months ago, Barrie was part of a tiny minority with these extreme and unfounded views. But all of that changed when COVID-19 spread and the world locked down.

Celebrities, with vast followings, started suggesting there could be truth to these unfounded claims by sharing the conspiracy theory into the mainstream.

Since then telecoms engineers have been spat at, threatened and chased down the streets. Phone masts have been set alight across Europe, threatening to cut off vital communications at a time of international emergency.

But what exactly are the claims that are fueling these conspiracies? And why are they dangerous nonsense?

First, there’s the claim that 5G has caused the virus. We can get rid of this right away.
Watch: The truth behind the 5G conspiracy theory

Scientists confirm that COVID-19 is transmitted via respiratory droplets, and they are quick to point out that you cannot transmit droplets through 5G waves.

Perhaps the most prevalent of all the theories is the suggestion that 5G degrades the immune system, and that this has helped spread COVID-19.

Firstly, many of the hardest-hit countries currently have no 5G infrastructure. Iran has over 114,000 confirmed cases - and no 5G masts.

Secondly, the theory that 5G is dangerous to the immune system is exactly the same claim we saw when 2G, 3G, 4G and WiFi were all launched.

5G waves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum and it is true that higher frequency radiation at the end of this spectrum does pose dangers.
 

5G is non-ionising radiation ShutterStock

That’s because these high-frequency waves are “ionising”, meaning they can cause internal damage to our bodies if exposure is too great.

Take X-Rays as an example. These penetrate the body and are used for medical imaging, so a patient’s exposure must be limited.

5G is in a band of low-frequency waves, like WiFi, that are “non-ionising”. The overwhelming weight of scientific evidence has shown that non-ionising radiation does not cause internal damage to our cells.

So if we listen to the science, the simple fact is that 5G cannot be behind the pandemic, either by spreading the virus or by degrading our immune response.

Barr tries to oust Manhattan U.S. attorney investigating Trump allies, who now refuses to step down

Berman says he has ‘no intention of resigning’; White House wants SEC chief Jay Clayton to take over role

Published: June 20, 2020 By Associated Press

Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks during a news conference in 2019. ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department moved abruptly Friday to oust Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan overseeing key prosecutions of President Donald Trump’s allies and an investigation of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. But Berman said he was refusing to leave his post and his ongoing investigations would continue.

“I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position,” Berman said. His statement came hours Attorney General Bill Barr said Berman was stepping down from his position.

The standoff set off an extraordinary clash between the Justice Department and one of the nation’s top districts, which has tried major mob and terror cases over the years. It is also likely to deepen tensions between the Justice Department and congressional Democrats who have pointedly accused Barr of politicizing the agency and acting more like Trump’s personal lawyer than the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

The move to oust Berman came days after allegations surfaced from former Trump national security adviser John Bolton that the president sought to interfere in an Southern District investigation into the state-owned Turkish bank in an effort to cut deals with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Barr offered no explanation for the move in the statement he issued late Friday. The White House quickly announced that Trump was nominating the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission to the job, a lawyer with virtually no experience as a federal prosecutor.

Hours later, Berman issued his own statement saying he had learned that he was being pushed out through media report. He vowed to stay on the job until a Trump nominee is confirmed by the Senate. The investigations he oversees will continue, he said.

Federal prosecutors in New York are investigating Giuliani’s business dealings, including whether he failed to register as a foreign agent, according to people familiar with the probe. The people were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The office has also prosecuted a number of Trump associates, including Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who served a prison sentence for lying to Congress and campaign finance crimes.

Berman has also overseen the prosecution of two Florida businessmen, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were associates of Giuliani and tied to the Ukraine impeachment investigation. The men were charged in October with federal campaign finance violations, including hiding the origin of a $325,000 donation to a group supporting Trump’s reelection.

Bolton’s tell-all, excerpts of which were posted by the news media this week, included details on how Trump sought to cut a deal to halt SDNY’s investigation into whether Halkbank violated U.S. sanctions against Iran in order to free an American pastor imprisoned in Turkey. Six weeks after the pastor’s release, Bolton writes that on a call with Erdoğan, “Trump then told Erdoğan he would take care of things, explaining that the Southern District prosecutors were not his people, but were Obama people, a problem that would be fixed when they were replaced by his people.” The episode occurred months after Berman assumed the role of U.S. attorney.

A Republican who contributed to the president’s election campaign, Berman worked for the same law firm as Giuliani and was put in his job by the Trump administration. But as U.S. attorney, he won over some skeptics after he went after Trump allies.

Berman was appointed by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in January 2018, months after Bharara was fired after refusing to resign along with dozens of other federal prosecutors appointed by President Barack Obama.

Three months later, FBI agents raided Cohen’s offices, an act the president decried as a politically motivated witch hunt.

The following April, in the absence of a formal nomination by Trump, the judges in Manhattan federal court voted to appoint Berman to the position permanently. He has taken a direct hand in other investigations that have angered Trump.

His office subpoenaed Trump’s inaugural committee for a wide range of documents as part of an investigation into various potential crimes, including possible illegal contributions from foreigners to inaugural events.

And weeks before the 2018 midterm election, Berman announced insider trading charges against an ardent Trump supporter, Republican Rep. Chris Collins. Collins, who represented western New York, has since resigned.

Under Berman’s tenure, his office also brought charges against Michael Avenatti, the combative lawyer who gained fame by representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in lawsuits involving Trump. Avenatti was convicted in February of trying to extort Nike after prosecutors said he threatened to use his media access to hurt Nike’s r

SUPERSPREADERS COVID-TRUMPERS
Trump rally attendees dismiss heat and coronavirus concerns as they line up outside Tulsa arena

Temperatures in Tulsa have reached the 90s, and the Trump faithful are camped in an area with hardly a spot of shade

Published: June 19, 2020 By Associated Press

Trump supporters, including a man dressed in a suit representing a border wall even as the mercury hits 90° in Tulsa, line up outside outside the BOK Center arena on Thursday, two days ahead of the first Trump rally since early March. ASSOCIATED PRESS

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Rick Frazier drove more than 750 miles from Ohio to be one of the first campers in line for President Donald Trump’s first rally in months, undeterred by a days-long wait in searing heat, the growing risk of the coronavirus in Oklahoma or a lukewarm reception from local officials.

The 64-year-old is among scores of supporters who have brought their vans, tents, campers and Trump flags to the parking lots and sidewalks outside the 19,000-seat BOK Center, and who say what matters most is being there to see the president take the stage on Saturday — and to be sure he knows they have his back.


“The big thing is to go in and support the president,” said Frazier, who arrived Tuesday for what will be his 21st Trump rally. Frazier said he feels safe, noting he and other campers are using hand sanitizer to prevent spread of COVID-19.

Tulsa’s mayor, G.T. Bynum, declared a civil emergency and set a curfew for the area around the BOK Center ahead of the rally Saturday night.

The state supreme on Friday afternoon rejected a last-ditch appeal to require that rally attendees adhere to CDC guidelines on face masks and social distancing. The Tulsa lawyer who brought the suit, according to the newspaper Tulsa World, said the goal was to limit the risk to local public health.

The court said the Tulsa residents who had asked that the thousands expected at the rally be required to take the precautions couldn’t establish that they had a clear legal right to the relief sought. In a concurring opinion, two justices wrote that the state’s reopening plan is “permissive, suggestive and discretionary.”

A local convenience-store chain has reportedly opted to close over concerns for employee health and safety rather than seek to capitalize on the influx of prospective shoppers.

The president issued this crackdown threat on Twitter to would-be demonstrators, even as campaign representative Marc Lotter was telling MSNBC that peaceful exercise of the First Amendment right to protest is welcome:

Trump rallies are known for an atmosphere akin to a political tailgate party and have always drawn diehard fans who often travel from event to event and sleep outside for days to secure a spot and pass time. Some are self-described “front-row Joes.” The groups gathering in Tulsa are taking that loyalty to a new level, though some called the coronavirus threat “an exaggeration.”

Temperatures in Tulsa have reached the 90s, and the Trump faithful are camped in an area with hardly a spot of shade. While Trump said Thursday he picked Oklahoma partly because “you’ve done so well with the COVID,” the city has seen record numbers of new coronavirus cases this week, and Tulsa Health Department Director Bruce Dart has pushed for a postponement of the event.

Trump said there had been “tremendous requests for tickets” and that there will be “a crowd like I guess nobody has seen before,” creating the kind of packed, indoor space that scientists say heighten the virus’s spread as compared with outdoor gatherings.

His rallies typically include a lot of shouting and chanting, and attendees often travel from long distances, prompting fears they could be infected and then spread it to people back home, or bring it from their hometowns and become vectors within the Tulsa arena. In an attempt to protect itself from lawsuits, Trump’s campaign added language to the event registration stating guests assumed risk for exposure to COVID-19.

Key Words:Trump adviser Kudlow talks up limiting coronavirus liability for businesses: ‘I don’t think there should be a lawsuit’

But meeting with Trump at the White House on Thursday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt pledged the state is ready, noting its rate of positive COVID-19 tests is lower than many other states. As of this week, Tulsa County has displaced Oklahoma County as the state’s leading COVID-19 hot spot with 1,825 cases.

“It’s going to be safe,” said Stitt, a Trump-aligned Republican who was recommending dining in restaurants even as the World Health Organization made its pandemic declaration in March. “We have to learn how to be safe and how to move on.”

That has not reassured BOK Center management, who requested a written health and safety plan from the Trump campaign on Thursday. In a statement to Oklahoma City television station KFOR, rally organizers appeared unimpressed but said they would review the request.

The Trump campaign said Thursday that it takes “safety seriously,” noting that organizers are providing masks, hand sanitizers and doing temperature checks for all attendees.

“This will be a Trump rally, which means a big, boisterous, excited crowd,” the campaign said. “We don’t recall the media shaming [anti-racism] demonstrators about social distancing — in fact the media were cheering them on.”

Stitt, the governor, suggested in a Fox News interview that the campaign’s response was good enough for him:

Trump had originally been scheduled to speak on Friday. He changed the date amid an uproar that it would occur on Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the U.S., and in a city where a 1921 white-on-black attack killed as many as 300 people. Black community leaders — some of whom characterized the originally targeted date as a slap in the face — said they still worry Saturday’s rally could spark violence.

Juneteenth:Special coverage of date marking slavery’s end, including stories reparations, the salary gap, education and student debt, policing and more

Trump has been on a hiatus from the rallies that have been a centerpiece of his campaign — and indeed, unusually, his entire presidency — halting them since March 2 because of the spreading virus, which has killed more than 118,000 people in the U.S. But he has been eager to return to the events, which allow him to rally his base and build the campaign database of supporters. (Campaign manager Brad Parscale has crowed that the Tulsa arena is significantly oversubscribed — going on to describe those requesting the free tickets as having participated in a campaign “data haul.”)

Saturday’s rally also could provide a bit of diversion from criticism over Trump’s handling of the pandemic and the protests following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Rainey Strader, 48, who traveled to Tulsa from Iowa with her husband and 75-year-old mother, said she brought a mask but isn’t sure if she will wear it once she gets inside the venue. Strader said she isn’t worried about COVID-19, which she considers to be “like the flu.”

“It’s just a new thing, and everybody’s worried,” said Strader, who was working a word-search puzzle while she waited Thursday with her mother as her husband slept in their van. “It’s exaggerated.”

Strader’s mother, Catherine Pahsetopah, said she’s also not sure whether she will wear her mask, despite being considered high-risk for COVID-19 because of her age and health problems. She said she’s seen presidents come and go — all the way “back to Eisenhower” — and Trump ranks among the best.

“He’s great. He’s wonderful,” Pahsetopah said, adding: “If John Kennedy knew what happened to the Democratic Party he wouldn’t want them” because of their support for “aborting the babies.”

Delmer Phillips, 41, of Tulsa, described himself and others who showed up early for the rally as “front-row Joes” who are excited to get a glimpse of the president. He said he won’t wear a mask this weekend because he believes he may have already had the virus and has built up immunity.

“I’m personally not so worried about it,” he said. “I believe in God, and I don’t live in fear.”

MarketWatch contributed to this report.

In One Chart
‘La la land?’ The stock market is ‘insanely disconnected’ and due for a ‘reckoning,’ Warren Buffett buff warns

Published: June 18, 2020 By  Shawn Langlois

Are investors in "La La Land"... ? EVERETT/LIONS GATE

Those betting against this “absurdly overvalued” stock market are about to get paid, if Kevin Smith, Crescat Capital’s chief investment officer, has it right in his gloomy assessment.

“Speculation is rampant and being championed by a bold new breed of millennial day traders,” he said. “The mania is based on a widespread hope in Fed money printing. The catalysts for reckoning are numerous as a major cyclical economic downturn has only just begun.”

Smith, who recently talked about learning the ropes from a stack of Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A, -0.51% BRK.B, -0.55% shareholders letters his dad gave him long ago, said, in a very un–Warren Buffett fashion, that shorting stocks “is worthy of a significant allocation today.”

Smith used this chart of plunging S&P 500 SPX, -0.56% profit margins to show “how insanely disconnected equity prices are from their underlying fundamentals.” He warned that buy-the-dip investors are “not paying attention and have simply been too eager to call the bottom.”



Smith reiterated his “macro trade of the century” call that there’s never been a better set-up for rotating out of overvalued stocks and into undervalued precious metals.


“Markets driven by euphoria never end well,” he explained in a note to clients this week. “The U.S. stock market today is in la-la land. It is discounting a new expansion phase of the economy at the same time as a major recession has only just begun.”

Smith took some lumps in his funds when the market was soaring early in the year, but his returns ballooned in March as the coronavirus pandemic arrived. Here are his historical numbers:



The severe “reckoning” Smith has been warning about hasn’t arrived as of Thursday’s trading session, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.80%, S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.03% were all under pressure, at last check.

Opinion: Here’s why the FDA may approve a Covid-19 vaccine before the November elections, according to Jefferies’ biotech-research team

If true, any approval may not actually benefit a vaccine company, but instead other parts of the stock market

GIVES NEW MEANING TO; VIRAL POLITICKS 

GETTY IMAGES
Published: June 19, 2020 By Michael Brush

As fears of a second wave of Covid-19 weigh on stocks, here’s some potentially good news: A vaccine may be approved before the November election, according to a major biotechnology investing research firm.

The prediction is a big deal for investors for three reasons.


1. It’s credible because it comes from Jefferies, a high-profile brokerage in biotech and pharma that’s wired in to literally hundreds of companies in the group, including the major vaccine developers. Jefferies has nine analysts covering the industry.

2. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a vaccine ahead of voting could have an impact on the elections, possibly swaying the outcome in favor of President Trump.


3. For investors, early vaccine approval would be bullish for biotech stocks, cyclical stocks, travel stocks, the economy and the market overall. The S&P 500 Index US:SPX and the Dow Jones Industrial Average US:DJIA have recovered most of their March losses, and the Nasdaq Composite Index US:COMP recently hit new highs. They’ll need some good news to support further advances.

Ironically, early vaccine approvals probably won’t mean much for investors who have already enjoyed good runs in vaccine developers. It might not mean much for most people worried about contracting the virus, either. Weird, right? We’ll get to that later in this column.

Bold prediction

We hear time and again that vaccines take 10 to 15 years to research and bring to market. So given the limited timeline of Covid-19 vaccine safety and efficacy studies to date, the following is a bold projection.

“We believe the FDA will likely approve at least one vaccine prior to the November election,” Jefferies health-care strategist Jared Holz said in an interview. “Perhaps multiple vaccines could get the go-ahead at some point early in the fourth quarter and quell fears of a second wave of Covid-19.”

But this isn’t too off the wall, even if Covid-19 vaccines have only been investigated for under a year. That’s because Holz is basing his prediction, in part, on signals from vaccine-development companies.

He says New York-based Jefferies has heard from several vaccine developers — including Moderna US:MRNA and AstraZeneca US:AZN — that an emergency authorization may happen before the elections. And just as important, they’ll be close to having the capacity to produce millions of doses.


“That sets a very high bar, which no one is asking them to set,” says Holz.

Efficacy studies will continue. Moderna is moving into Phase II Covid-19 vaccine trials now, and it will start a larger Phase III clinical study at the beginning of July, the company has said. Both trials look at efficacy, and they will continue to examine safety. Many other vaccine companies are on a similar timeline.
Machiavellian maneuver

Here are three other reasons we may well see Covid-19 vaccine approval before early November.

1. President Trump has a penchant for timing policy decisions (such as China trade negotiation breakthroughs) to influence the markets and the electorate at key tactical turning points. So it won’t be surprising if he exerts behind-the-scenes pressure to get vaccine approval to boost ratings and his odds against the Democrats, says Holz. Sounds Machiavellian. But welcome to politics.

2. The federal government is directly funding many of the vaccine-development programs. This “raises the odds of near-term approval, given the inherent bias,” says Holz.

3. Initial approval would be for emergency use only, which lowers the research hurdles for efficacy. “The efficacy bar will be fairly low considering the toll Covid-19 has taken on the world over the past four to six months from a health and an economic standpoint,” says Holz.

Emergency-use approval seems like a letdown because it would take a lot of potential beneficiaries, including you and me, out of the equation. Health-care workers would be first in line. But limited-use approval would still be important for investors and the economy.

Here’s why.

It would help the health-care system. Our leaders shut down much of the economy when Covid-19 struck because they had failed to prepare the health-care system for a pandemic. Having vaccines that might keep more front-line health care workers on the job and healthy — boosting their morale and numbers — would take some of the pressure off politicians to reimpose fresh lockdowns to “flatten the curve” in a resurgence.

Will we get a resurgence? Probably, but not right now. I think the current resurgence data are just noise. The case-count data are based on non-random samples, which renders them meaningless, statistically. Florida tested more and found more, in lockstep. Exactly what you would expect. The Florida data do not show a resurgence in Covid-19, only more testing.

But I do expect a meaningful resurgence starting in early October when the flu season begins. This is what happened with the swine flu in 2010 and the Spanish flu a century ago. However, the October resurgence won’t be as scary as round one, because a lot of people will already have been exposed, and we will have better testing and tracking capabilities to support selective rather than blanket lockdowns. And we might even have a vaccine.
Vaccine investors, hold the Champagne

Early approval of vaccines before the elections probably wouldn’t help investors in the companies developing them, including Moderna, AstraZeneca, Pfizer US:PFE, Johnson & Johnson US:JNJ, Sanofi US:SNY, Inovio Pharmaceuticals US:INO, Novavax US:NVAX and Arcturus Therapeutics US:ARCT, among others.

That’s because many of the stocks have already risen a lot, especially those closer to being pure plays because they are smaller.

Next, it would be bad PR for vaccine producers to be seen making a lot of profits off a global pandemic health crisis. (The same goes for Covid-19 therapy developers including Gilead US:GILD, which is researching remdesivir as a treatment.) Given the government’s role in funding research, it would likewise also pressure vaccine makers to cap pricing.
Winners

But many other investors would benefit from vaccine approvals. Biotech and pharma investors would get a boost if the public and politicians view them as having “saved the day” in the Covid-19 crisis. That would mean there would be less pressure for them to rein in drug pricing.

That would support biotech and pharma companies and exchange traded funds including iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index US:IBB and SPDR S&P Biotech US:XBI. They have been plagued for years by worries the government will regulate drug prices.

“In the end, a vaccine likely does more for the sector as whole from a sentiment standpoint,” says Jefferies’ Holz.

Vaccine approval would also help cyclical and travel stocks because it would lower the odds of another full lockdown. It would also benefit a group I call “public-gathering-place” stocks.

A portfolio of eight public gathering place stocks I suggested in my stock letter, Brush Up on Stocks, on March 17 was already up 71% by the close June 15, compared with 26.3% gains for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust US:SPY. I wrote about this topic in MarketWatch last month.

I expect further gains from those stocks when vaccines are approved. My portfolio includes Churchill Downs US:CHDN, Royal Caribbean Cruises US:RCL, Carnival US:CCL, Planet Fitness US:PLNT and Cedar Fair US:FUN in amusement parks.

At the time of publication, Michael Brush owned CHDN and CCL. Brush has suggested PFE, JNJ, SNY, INO, NVAX, IBB, XBI, CHDN, RCL, CCL, PLNT and FUN in his stock newsletter, Brush Up on Stocks. Brush is a Manhattan-based financial writer who has covered business for the New York Times and The Economist Group, and he attended Columbia Business School. Follow Brush on Twitter: @mbrushstocks.

EXPERTS SUGGEST IMPROVING VENTILATION MAY REDUCE VIRUS SPREAD