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The 11 Retailers Most At Risk Of Bankruptcy In The Next 12 Months
By Cara Salpini of RetailDive
The first nine months of 2023 have seen big-name retailers including David’s Bridal, Bed Bath & Beyond and Party City file for bankruptcy. And more could be on the way.
Moody’s Investors Service in July said defaults in retail and apparel would continue to rise, jumping from 6% to 8.6% in the following 12 months as weakening consumer spending and high product, labor and freight costs weigh on businesses. And in a Sept. 20 report, S&P Global Ratings warned that the risk of a U.S. recession in the next 12 months, while lower than the start of the year, was still elevated.
“A lot of retail is consumer discretionary so in the event of an economic pullback, or economic uncertainty, you’ll see some of that revenue come down because it’s more of a discretionary purchase,” Elizabeth Han, a senior director on Fitch Ratings’ U.S. leveraged finance team, said in an interview.
Han noted supply chain and inventory challenges, as well as inflation and other macroeconomic concerns have affected retailers as well. Fitch has witnessed more distressed debt exchanges from retailers recently, and Han cited high interest rates as another challenge for companies loaded down with debt.
“There was really no expectation that the velocity of interest rate hikes would be this fast in such a short timeframe. I think there was some sense of, ‘if the Fed is going to raise rates, it won’t even be until next year,’ and then here we are,” Han said. “So I think some companies, they’ve just kind of caught a little bit off guard.”
Fitch’s own list of vulnerable retailers includes players like 99 Cents, At Home, Belk, Rugs USA and Joann. CreditRiskMonitor, which labels companies with a FRISK score to measure the probability of them filing for bankruptcy within 12 months, listed 11 noteworthy retailers and brands with either a 4% to 10% chance of filing for bankruptcy or a 10% to 50% chance.
The story of who files and who doesn’t often comes down to debt, according to David Silverman, senior director of Fitch Ratings’ U.S. retail team.
“Abercrombie & Fitch and J. Crew actually had very similar operating stories,” Silverman said. “These are mid-tier, mall-based department store brands that had lost their way a little bit. One ended up undertaking a number of distressed debt exchanges and ultimately filed bankruptcy at the beginning of the pandemic. The other one didn’t really and still doesn’t really have any debt.”
The other difference? “One of them went through an LBO and one of them didn’t,” Silverman said.
The majority of high-profile retail bankruptcies in the past few years have featured a leveraged buyout, Silverman noted, including Neiman Marcus, J. Crew and Toys R Us. And several retailers at risk according to CreditRiskMonitor, or by Fitch’s measure, are either currently owned by private equity or had previous private equity ownership.
Some occupy sectors that seemed to thrive during the pandemic, like home, pets or crafting. Trends that buoyed those sectors are showing signs of reversing, and the boost the pandemic gave some of those businesses may have been simply a “positive interruption” to an otherwise negative trajectory, according to Silverman.
“Some companies that saw this period as a little bit more temporal took the opportunity to say, ‘Look, we’re over-earning, let’s take some cash flow and pay down debt. Let’s clean up the balance sheet,’” Silverman said. “Unfortunately, there were a number of consumer and retail companies that felt like, ‘The strength that we are seeing today is going to continue’ … and they actually made decisions that turned out to be, frankly, regrettable.”
Here’s a closer look at a few of the companies with a higher risk of bankruptcy in the next 12 months, and how they got here.
Click here to continue reading.
-Tyler Durden, Zerohedge
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Former Target exec says internet, social media driving 'acceleration' in organized retail theft
The former vice chairman of Target spoke out against spiraling theft nationwide as the popular retailer announced it would close its doors in a series of liberal cities amid public safety concerns.
Gerald Storch reacted to the news during "FOX & Friends," saying the announcement makes him "want to cry" as the "acceleration in crime" continues to impact giant retailers across the country.
"It just makes you want to cry because we have worked so hard to get stores into markets like this," Storch told Steve Doocy on Wednesday. "Every company I've ever worked at we worked so hard because it's good for the community to have stores that can offer products with great value in these environments. We know it's going to be tough, but it's good for business, and it's good for the community. What's going on right now, though, is an acceleration in crime."
Target announced Tuesday it would close nine stores across San Francisco; Oakland, California; Seattle; New York City; and Portland, Oregon.
"We cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance," the company said in a statement.
Storch noted that retail theft has "gone through the roof" because of social media and the internet.
"Why is the internet a bad thing? Usually, it's a good thing. First of all, it helps all the gangs organize. So they get together through social media and say, 'show up here now and let's do it together.' Secondly, the marketplace on the internet is the ultimate fencing operation. It's like a flea market on steroids for getting rid of the product. So anything you steal, you can monetize it really fast on the internet," he explained, adding that there is a "sophistication" to the organized criminal operations.
Image Credit: A U.S. Marshal is pictured on the scene of a reported shooting at a Target store in Omaha, Nebraska, on Jan. 31, 2023. (Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP / AP Newsroom)
"It's not… just simple, like people do locally, just steal stuff, post it on the internet, get the money. Sometimes it's many, many layers of distribution before it even gets anywhere near a marketplace, and by the last layer could be a legitimate business person who's buying this from some guy with a warehouse."
-Bailee Hill, Fox News
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U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Remove Donald Trump from 2024 Presidential Ballot
Image Credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
In a landmark, the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a challenge aimed at removing former President Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot.
The case was brought forth by John Anthony Castro, a Republican presidential candidate and tax consultant who has unsuccessfully run for several political offices. He argued that Trump should be disqualified from running due to his alleged involvement in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“A primary candidate has judicial standing to bring a claim challenging the eligibility of a fellow primary candidate for competitive injury in the form of a diminution of votes and/or fundraising if the primary candidate believes that the fellow primary candidate is ineligible to hold public office and to prevent actions irreconcilable with the U.S. Constitution,” Castro wrote.
Castro’s legal argument hinged on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, a Civil War-era provision initially used to bar former members of the Confederacy from holding office.
“The January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol was an insurrection within the meaning of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Donald J. Trump provided aid or comfort to the insurrectionists in the form of words of encouragement and expressions of support springing from a want of sympathy with the insurrectionary attack on the United States Capitol. As such, Donald J. Trump is constitutionally ineligible to hold any public office in the United States of America,” according to Castro.
The case was denied without any comment or recorded vote, according to CNN.
The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case effectively shuts down this avenue of attack against the former President, who is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024. Critics of the use of Section 3 have called it a “fringe legal theory.”
Similar lawsuits have been filed in Colorado, Minnesota, and Michigan by both liberal and conservative organizations, as well as individual voters.
The Gateway Pundit reported that a coalition of six Republicans and unaffiliated Colorado voters, including former state and federal officials, filed a lawsuit last month seeking to disqualify former President Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s 2024 presidential ballot.
The case argues that Trump violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies any individual from holding federal office if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States.
-Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit
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House Democrat under investigation for pulling Capitol Hill alarm
Image Credit: Rep. Jamaal Bowman. Photo: Barry Williams for NY Daily News via Getty Images.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) is facing an investigation and a Republican-led expulsion effort after he pulled a fire alarm in a House office building while the House scrambled to head off a government shutdown on Saturday.
Driving the news: Bowman spokesperson Emma Simon told Axios in a statement that the congressman "did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote."
Bowman later told reporters he "thought the alarm would open the door" because "the door that's usually open wasn't open."
The backdrop: In the lead-up to a House vote on a measure to extend federal funding for 45 days, an audible alarm went off in the Cannon House office building that prompted the Capitol Police to evacuate staff.
House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.) said in a statement: "Rep Jamaal Bowman pulled a fire alarm in Cannon this morning. An investigation into why it was pulled is underway."
“An investigation into what happened and why continues,” Capitol Police spokesperson Paul Starks.
What we're hearing: Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), a fellow New Yorker, has drafted a resolution to expel Bowman from Congress, her office told Axios.
That resolution could face an uphill battle – it would require a two-thirds vote, meaning many Democrats would have to cross the aisle to vote to expel one of their own.
But Reps. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) and Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) are both working on measures to censure Bowman, their offices told Axios. Such a vote would need only a simple majority.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said at a press conference he thinks the House Ethics Committee should investigate Bowman.
What they're saying: Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) told Axios that "it appears from the footage [of the incident] to be him ... I'd like to understand, obviously, what his explanation is."
"A member of Congress should certainly never put people in jeopardy and this puts people in the middle of health and safety issues," Morelle added.
McCarthy said he is "going to have a discussion" about it with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
-Andrew Solender, Axios
Biden admin releases most restrictive offshore oil and gas drilling plan in U.S. history
The Biden administration on Friday unveiled the most restrictive offshore oil and gas five-year leasing program in history.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) announced the plan, which allows for three offshore oil and gas lease sales through 2029, with sales in 2025, 2027 and 2029. That schedule represents the lowest number of sales that the administration could have pursued while maintaining its ability to push offshore wind development under provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and it is the “smallest number of oil and gas lease sales in history,” according to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
“The Biden-Harris administration is committed to building a clean energy future that ensures America’s energy independence,” Haaland said of the schedule’s release.
The decision is in line with the Biden administration’s sweeping climate agenda, which aims to reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. energy sector by 2035 and for the entire U.S. economy by 2050.
“The release of the U.S. offshore leasing program, mandated by law and long overdue, is an utter failure for the country,” National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito said of the schedule. “The White House simply ignores our energy realities in once again limiting U.S. energy production opportunities. With global demand at record levels and continuing to rise, regressive policies like this serve to harm Americans of all walks of life.”
The plan is deliberately designed to “phase down” offshore oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the DOI. Offshore oil production in federally controlled Gulf waters accounted for about 15% of total U.S. crude oil output in 2021, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The plan is also likely to draw the ire of numerous environmentalist groups that wanted the administration not to issue any offshore oil and gas leases at all, according to Bloomberg News. The pared-down schedule’s release follows a strong rally of oil prices in recent months, with the per-barrel price of oil nearing $100 as prices at the pump remain high for American consumers.
“At a time when inflation runs rampant across the country, the Biden administration is choosing failed energy policies that are adding to the pain Americans are feeling at the pump,” American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers said of the schedule. “This restrictive offshore leasing program is the latest tactic in a coordinated strategy to reduce energy production, ultimately weakening America’s energy dominance, limiting consumers access to affordable reliable energy and compromising our ability to lead on the global stage.”
-WND News Services
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Leaked U.S. strategy on Ukraine sees corruption as the real threat
Image Credit: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Joe Biden meet in the Oval Office on Sept. 21. Graft in Ukraine has long been a concern of U.S. officials all the way up to Biden. But the topic was deemphasized in the wake of Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion. | Evan Vucci/AP
Biden administration officials are far more worried about corruption in Ukraine than they publicly admit, a confidential U.S. strategy document obtained by POLITICO suggests.
The “sensitive but unclassified” version of the long-term U.S. plan lays out numerous steps Washington is taking to help Kyiv root out malfeasance and otherwise reform an array of Ukrainian sectors. It stresses that corruption could cause Western allies to abandon Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion, and that Kyiv cannot put off the anti-graft effort.
“Perceptions of high-level corruption” the confidential version of the document warns, could “undermine the Ukrainian public’s and foreign leaders’ confidence in the war-time government.”
That’s starker than the analysis available in the little-noticed public version of the 22-page document, which the State Department appears to have posted on its website with no fanfare about a month ago.
The confidential version of the “Integrated Country Strategy” is about three times as long and contains many more details about U.S. objectives in Ukraine, from privatizing its banks to helping more schools teach English to encouraging its military to adopt NATO protocols. Many goals are designed to reduce the corruption that bedevils the country.
The quiet release of the strategy, and the fact that the toughest language was left in the confidential version, underscores the messaging challenge facing the Biden team.
The administration wants to press Ukraine to cut graft, not least because U.S. dollars are at stake. But being too loud about the issue could embolden opponents of U.S. aid to Ukraine, many of them Republican lawmakers who are trying to block such assistance. Any perception of weakened American support for Kyiv also could cause more European countries to think twice about their role.
When it comes to the Ukrainians, “there are some honest conversations happening behind the scenes,” a U.S. official familiar with Ukraine policy said. Like others, the person was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.
Ukrainian graft has long been a concern of U.S. officials all the way up to President Joe Biden. But the topic was deemphasized in the wake of Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, which Biden has called a real-life battle of democracy against autocracy.
For months, Biden aides stuck to brief mentions of corruption. They wanted to show solidarity with Kyiv and avoid giving fuel to a small number of Republican lawmakers critical of U.S. military and economic aid for Ukraine.
Image Credit: William Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said many ordinary Ukrainians will likely welcome the strategy because they, too, are tired of the endemic corruption in their country. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
More than a year into the full-scale war, U.S. officials are pressing the matter more in public and private. National security adviser Jake Sullivan, for instance, met in early September with a delegation from Ukrainian anti-corruption institutions.
A second U.S. official familiar with the discussions confirmed to POLITICO reports that the Biden administration is talking to Ukrainian leaders about potentially conditioning future economic aid on “reforms to tackle corruption and make Ukraine a more attractive place for private investment.”
-Nahal Toosi, Politico
Russia Halts Further Troop Mobilization as West Pays for 70% of Ukraine’s Expenses
Image Credit: IherPhoto/iStock/Getty Images Plus
The Russian military leadership has no plans to draft more troops as career military service members can meet its present needs, including those who volunteered to fight against Ukraine, based on a testimony by a senior official on September 29.
Vladimir Tsimlyansky, the deputy chief of the mobilization directorate of the General Staff, reinforced Russia’s pledge to halt further troop mobilization, during a briefing regarding a scheduled conscription campaign that starts next week.
“The number of people wishing to enroll in Russian military service under a contract, as well as volunteers who have decided to take part in the special military operation, is sufficient for fulfilling our tasks,” Tsimlyansky said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment of an additional 300,000 troops in September 2022, seven months after the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, after Kyiv vowed to continue fighting against Russia with Western help and dismissed any notion of peace talks.
In late August, the Kyiv regime’s military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov alleged that Moscow was hoping to draft an additional 450,000 troops in the fall.
Moreover, Budanov tried to reassure Ukrainians, saying that they “should not be afraid of it too much” as Russia reportedly has been clandestinely recruiting tens of thousands each month and “nothing bad happened.”
Earlier this month, Putin claimed that around 300,000 people had enrolled in the Russian army this year alone, explaining why Moscow did not require foreign fighters, unlike the Kyiv regime. Putin made these statements to counter allegations that Moscow had requested aid from North Korea to replenish manpower, a prospect that he castigated as “total nonsense.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine has been embroiled in corruption scandals entailing conscription chiefs, prompting President Volodymyr Zelensky to declare in August that he was purging all regional draft heads in the country.
Besides, Kyiv has lowered eligibility standards for recruits, even deeming people with certain mental and physical disabilities as fit for duty. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has also demanded that female medics and pharmacists sign up for possible conscription, supposedly leading to a mass departure of women from these professions.
This recent amendment mandates that female medics and pharmacists register their personal data at the nearest draft office for potential enlistment.
“Owners of pharmacies are in a panic. People are resigning and moving to Europe before they could be stopped at the border,” Elena Prudnikova, the head of a Ukrainian pharmaceutical business association, disclosed to online news outlet Strana.ua.
“Who knows who would work, considering that the industry is already in a serious crisis,” Prudnikova continued.
This mandate materializes on October 1, with Kyiv stepping up its drive to replenish its military ranks by relaxing eligibility.
Potential draftees are forbidden from departing Ukraine without a special exemption. Local media reports indicate that implementing this rule for women may be challenging since Ukraine has not introduced an electronic database in which border-control officers can keep tabs on travelers. That being said, the Ukrainian Parliament is floating this bill for such a register.
“Many female medics are urgently preparing to leave for Europe,” Vasily Voskboynik, the head of a Ukrainian association of international staffing agencies, admitted.
“With their professions, they have good chances to find employment there,” he pointed out.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s first attempt to order mandatory registration gave rise to widespread public anger, prompting the authorities to postpone it.
Following its expensive and faltering counteroffensive against Russia, Kyiv is grappling with replenishing its forces, with some estimates putting Ukrainian losses at nearly 80,000 troops since the beginning of June.
-Angeline Tan, The New American
Ex-Soviet state claims US funding ‘violent’ color revolution plotters
The Georgian government said on Monday it had interrogated agitators from a US-funded group planning to unleash a violent color revolution. The group was previously involved in the 2003 civil unrest in the country.
The head of the ruling party explained that he is seeking an explanation from Washington. The US embassy in Tbilisi didn’t deny bankrolling the outfit, but said its activities were about supporting Georgian democracy.
According to Georgia’s State Security Service (SUS), three Serbian nationals from the organization called CANVAS arrived in Georgia last week and met with local activists at a Tbilisi hotel to train them how to “overthrow the government by violent means.”
The “destructive and illegal actions” would target the government, security services, and the Orthodox Church, using techniques such as roadblocks and setting up protest encampments in front of government buildings, the SUS said. CANVAS activists also showed examples from Serbia on how to invade the parliament, take broadcasting services offline, and overthrow the government, according to the security agency.
When questioned by the SUS on September 29, Sinisa Sikman, Jelena Stoisic, and Slobodan Djinovic allegedly “tried to disguise the real reason for their stay in Georgia” and provided testimonies that contradicted evidence obtained by the investigators. The trio left Georgia the following day.
Commenting on the SUS report, leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze told local media on Monday that the US should explain why it is funding possible unrest in Georgia.
In a statement later in the day, the US embassy in Tbilisi said the accusations against CANVAS are “false and fundamentally mischaracterize the goals of our assistance to Georgia.” US aid to Tbilisi has always been “transparent,” the embassy insisted, adding that CANVAS was contracted by USAID more than two years ago to “deliver training to mothers advocating for better cancer treatments for children, and to people advocating for the rights of elderly citizens in their communities.”
The US will “continue to support Georgian organizations who support people to secure the future they determine and deserve,” the embassy added.
CANVAS stands for Center for Applied Nonviolent Strategies, and its mission is to “advocate for the use of nonviolent resistance in the promotion of human rights and democracy,” according to the group’s website. It was co-founded by Djinovic and Srdja Popovic, two prominent members of Otpor, a US-backed student group that played a key role in the October 2000 coup in Serbia.
A similar “color revolution” overthrew the Georgian government in 2003, with former Otpor activists coaching the Georgian copycat group Kmara. After the 2004 ‘Orange Revolution’ in Ukraine, The Guardian described the process as an American-devised “template for winning other people’s elections.”
-RT News
Who’s Organizing This? Why Is This Insanity Being Allowed Here In America? Chicago O'Hare Airport Housing Illegal Migrants “I want everybody to know that this is what they're doing out here. I just started over at the airport. So all the migrants are living out here. It's so clear, we still don't know where the $120 million went. This is the city's plan. This is what they do. This is the city's plan. Where did the money go? We don't know where the money went because CBS, FOIA's weren't responding to. Anyway, we just try to shine a light on it as much as we can and hopefully maybe somebody will step up and do something. What do you need here? What do you need? Do you need help? I'm going to Venezuela. Of Venezuela? All of Venezuela? Venezuela. Okay, okay. I mean, it's talking to him about what he needs here for health and stuff and everything because we're trying to get people. I can't stay here, why not? Why not? Okay. Lo siento. Okay, that's it. Okay. Excuse me. Okay. That doesn't make sense to me. So, I should be getting different types of help out here and not sleeping on the floor. You guys. Necesitemos. See? Alright. So this is O'Hare Airport. So they're upset about me being in there, but all I'm trying to do is just show everybody what's going on. You still have people sleeping on the floors out here at O'Hare. They're in all the police stations all across the city sleeping on the floors. There doesn't look like there's any plan. And it just goes all the way down. This used to be one tent, one curtain, then it was two, then it was four. And then, now it was that and everything, so. I'll go outside. Okay.”
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LA County's no cash bail policy takes effect Sunday
LOS ANGELES - Law enforcement officials and some residents continued to express safety concerns Tuesday about the imminent implementation of no cash bail in Los Angeles County, but backers of the plan told the Board of Supervisors that misinformation about the system is leading to unfounded perceptions that crime will increase and criminals won't be held accountable.
"Our communities have not been shy about telling us how nervous they are about this change," Sheriff Robert Luna told the board, saying crime victims who see offenders immediately released from custody are left with little confidence in the criminal justice system. He said he respects the need to respect constitutional rights of arrestees, but zero-bail can demoralize deputies and police officers who work hard to make arrests, only to "watch the offender walk away with a citation as the victim looks on in disbelief."
LOS ANGELES - Law enforcement officials and some residents continued to express safety concerns Tuesday about the imminent implementation of no cash bail in Los Angeles County, but backers of the plan told the Board of Supervisors that misinformation about the system is leading to unfounded perceptions that crime will increase and criminals won't be held accountable.
"Our communities have not been shy about telling us how nervous they are about this change," Sheriff Robert Luna told the board, saying crime victims who see offenders immediately released from custody are left with little confidence in the criminal justice system. He said he respects the need to respect constitutional rights of arrestees, but zero-bail can demoralize deputies and police officers who work hard to make arrests, only to "watch the offender walk away with a citation as the victim looks on in disbelief."
The system, officially dubbed by the Los Angeles Superior Court as Pre-Arraignment Release Protocols, or PARP, will take effect Sunday. The system will largely eliminate the existing cash bail system for all but the most serious of crimes. Most people arrested on suspicion on non-violent or non-serious offenses will be either cited and released in the field or booked and released at a police or sheriff's station with orders to appear in court on a specific date for arraignment once they are actually charged with a crime. Arrestees in such cases who are believed to present a heightened threat to the public or flight risk will be referred to a magistrate judge, who will review the case and determine if the person should be held in custody pending arraignment or released under non-financial restrictions or monitoring.
Once a person is charged and appears in court for arraignment, a judge could then change the defendant's release conditions.
The new system is borne from long-held criticism that cash bail favored the rich, meaning well-heeled people arrested for even the most serious of crimes could pay their way out of jail, while low-income people languished behind bars for far lesser offenses. The new system is based not on cash, but on the risk an offender presents to public safety or the possibility the person might fail to appear in court.
-CNS Staff, Fox11
FBI alerts public to be aware of ‘violent’ Satanic group targeting vulnerable children online
Image Credit: Shutterstock
The FBI has issued an advisory about a newly discovered “violent” Satanic group targeting vulnerable children online.
On September 12, the federal agency released a public service announcement warning Americans “of violent online groups deliberately targeting minor victims on publicly available messaging platforms to extort them into recording or live-streaming acts of self-harm and producing child sexual abuse material (CSAM).”
“These groups use threats, blackmail, and manipulation to control the victims into recording or live-streaming self-harm, sexually explicit acts, and/or suicide,” the announcement continues. “The footage is then circulated among members to extort victims further and exert control over them.”
The groups reportedly “use many names, including 676, 764, CVLT, Court, Kaska, Harm Nation, Leak Society and H3II.” Most groups require “prospective members … to live-stream or upload videos depicting their minor victim harming animals or committing self-harm, suicide, murder or other acts of violence.”
The FBI noted that prime targets of these groups are kids between the ages of 8 and 17 as well as those struggling with gender confusion, depression, and suicidality. Blackmail and threats of doxing victims “if they do not comply with the groups’ requests” are commonly used to “manipulate and extort minors.” The agency also detailed that acts of self-harm requested by such groups “includes cutting, stabbing or fan signing.”
A common “end-goal” among the groups is “forcing the minors they extort into committing suicide on live-stream for their own entertainment or their own sense of fame.”
“The FBI urges the public to exercise caution when posting or direct messaging personal photos, videos, and identifying information on social media, dating apps, and other online sites,” the announcement states. “Although seemingly innocuous when posted or shared, the images and videos can provide malicious actors an abundant supply of content to exploit for criminal activity.”
“Advancements in content creation technology and accessible personal images online present new opportunities for malicious actors to find and target minor victims. This leaves them vulnerable to embarrassment, harassment, extortion, financial loss, or continued long-term re-victimization.”
The agency also encouraged families to be aware of “warning signs” that children may be exposed to such abuse and inflicting self-harm.
The discovery of the group came after 23-year-old Angel Almeida was arrested on gun possession charges in Queens, New York, nearly two years ago. It was found amid this investigation, which unveiled social media posts pointing to a larger issue.
As originally reported by The Guardian, “The FBI was directed to Almeida by an anonymous tipster flagging his social media accounts, which contained images of violence against children and violence against animals.”
Law enforcement found “a 9mm handgun, bandoliers of rifle ammunition, books pertaining to the Order of Nine Angles [O9A], and a flag bearing the insignia of an American O9A offshoot, the Tempel ov Blood.”
“The most telling item was an O9A ‘blood covenant’ featuring a blood-smeared drawing of a hooded figure with glowing red eyes surrounded with sigils for four O9A deities and the caption Vindex, Nythra, Satan and Abatu. At the bottom of the page is an oath: ‘A covenant signed in blood. May the DEVIL walk with you always — SATANAE MANIBUS’ (‘by Satan’s Hand’ in Latin),” which was like those found in relation to other “O9A-influenced killers in Britain and Canada.”
Almeida was hit with additional charges of child pornography and exploitation in February, evidenced by “hundreds of thousands of digital files” found in his apartment. Specifically, “prosecutors allege Almeida coerced a teenage girl into having sexual relations with an older man and convinced another girl to cut herself, record the act on camera and send it to him.”
After being found fit to stand trial in September, Almeida is scheduled for court on December 4. He is being represented by a court-appointed attorney, who is the fourth to represent him “since his arrest in 2021,” after multiple attempted attacks of department staff and his own attorney. Depending on the outcome of the case, Almeida “faces a potential maximum of life in federal prison.”
The Guardian also explained that “documents and sources familiar with 764 indicate the group is an offshoot of the Order of Nine Angles (O9A), a violent, subversive amalgam of esoteric Hitler worship, Satanism and Wiccan tenets that American authorities recognize as a terrorist ideology that has been connected with murders and attempted terrorist attacks in countries including the US, Britain, Germany, Canada and Russia.”
Sources also shared that “the group has a network of a couple thousand participants and hundreds of highly active members who generate and disseminate the bulk of the child pornography and gore videos found in the group’s channels on Telegram, Discord and more obscure platforms like Matrix.”
-Jean Mondoro, Life Site News
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'It was apocalyptic': Terrified residents of sleepy Oxfordshire village recall their horror after lightning bolt ignited Severn Water gas tank sending fireball into the air and 'causing ground to shake'
An 'apocalyptic' fireball was seen for miles after lightning struck an Oxfordshire waste plant and a gas tank exploded into flames last night.
As storms battered southern England, a lightning strike caused gas canisters at the Severn Trent Green Power plant in Yarnton to combust.
Police urged residents to stay indoors and the A40 was closed as a fireball lit up the night sky, with the flames seen roaring from miles around.
Villagers in the surrounding areas filmed the column of flames rising above the site from a safe distance, with one saying he decided to record the dramatic scenes after he felt 'the ground shake'. Locals heard the blast up to 20 miles away.
Corinna Bird was in a Sainsbury's car park when she heard 'what we thought were fireworks, then this huge apocalyptic glow lit up the sky, we could see the flames.'
Speaking to The Times, she added: 'I just wanted to get home quickly and out of the storm, funny thing was it didn't feel like a storm, it wasn't even raining very much.'
A spokesperson for the food waste processing company said in a statement yesterday evening: 'Severn Trent Green Power can confirm that at around 19.20 this evening, a digester tank at its Cassington AD facility near Yarnton, Oxfordshire, was struck by lightning resulting in the biogas within that tank igniting.
They later added: 'Thankfully no one has been hurt and we are working with the emergency services to make sure the site is safe so that we can assess the damage as soon as possible.'
Energy supplier SSE, who operate in the area, told MailOnline there were 533 reported outages in the area, but stressed it was due to poor weather and not the explosion. Residents reported outages in Witney, Burford, Chipping Norton and Milton-under-Wychwood.
A yellow weather warning for thunderstorms and heavy rain was in place for Oxfordshire until 2am on Tuesday.
Thames Valley Police said that its officers attended the scene of a fire at a waste plant near Yarnton, Oxfordshire.
'It is believed that lightning struck gas containers at the site during bad weather this evening, causing a large fire,' they said in a statement.
'No one is believed to have been hurt, but emergency services remain at the scene. As a result of this, A40 has been closed between Wolvercote and Eynsham.
'To ensure public safety, residents are asked to stay home, shut windows and doors and not to attend the scene.'
Videos show how the night sky was turned an eerie orange after what locals described as a 'loud explosion'.
One resident shared a clip of the fire raging in the distance as he speculated what might have caused it.
'Saw this strange pulsing sky out of our windows looking north west of Oxford,' Kit Yates wrote on X.
'I'm guessing it's a fire caused by the lightning storm that passed over.'
It came after locals claimed an 'absolutely massive' clap of thunder erupted in west London yesterday evening as storms battered Britain.
The loud rumble sounded 'movie sound affects', one Chiswick resident said, jokingly adding that they 'expected an alien ship to arrive'. Another claimed the thunderclap 'scared the life out of us' and 'sounded like it hit something'.
The impact of the extreme weather came as the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning as storms are set to batter swathes of the country, including London.
Downpours are expected for the rest of the week, with yellow storm warnings over parts of the UK in place until Friday.
The warning read: 'Thunderstorms with frequent lightning have already affected parts of the warning area, these continuing into the evening in places. An increasing risk of longer-lasting intense downpours too, especially later this evening and further east across the warning area, for example towards south Lincolnshire and East Anglia.
'These storms are likely to be focused in relatively narrow bands, so some places will miss the worst, while a few locations might catch 25-50 mm of rain within 2 or 3 hours, along with frequent lightning and gusty winds.'
-Elena Salvoni, Daily Mail
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And This Year’s Nobel Prize Goes To… The mRNA Vaccine Creators!?
The scientists who developed the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in Sweden on Monday morning.
The Nobel Prize committee gave the prestigious award to University of Pennsylvania scientists Drew Weissman and Katalin Kariko as a result of their contribution to “the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.”
The committee further praised the scientist’s “groundbreaking findings” that “fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system.”
MRNA and other COVID vaccines have been administered over 13 billion times across the world since the coronavirus pandemic and were widely acknowledged as “experimental” throughout the scientific community.
There have been countless registered adverse effects linked to the vaccines, including menstrual disturbances, Tinnitus, severe neurological complications, Bell’s palsy, strokes, and even “reprogramming” children’s immune systems.
The pair will share the 11 million Swedish Krona (1,000,000) prize money between them. The scientists were also awarded a $2.2 million Breakthrough Prize in 2021 for their research.
-Jake Welch, The National Pulse