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Tesla’s Struggle to Win Buyers Paints Grim US Economic Outlook – Bloomberg
- Tesla’s Struggle to Win Buyers Paints Grim US Economic Outlook Bloomberg
- Tesla’s stock is plummeting. Here’s why one analyst thinks it’s ‘one of the most overvalued’ on the market and could drop another 80% Yahoo Finance
- Podcast: more Tesla price cuts, TSLA earnings, and a ton of new EV unveilings Electrek
- Tesla’s stock FALLS 10% after weak earnings | Latest World News | English News | WION WION
- Tesla’s coming crash: As 7 analysts lower their price targets, one predicts the stock is heading to $28 Yahoo Finance
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Stewart Rhodes: Oath Keepers leader testifies 2020 election was ‘unconstitutional,’ paints himself as anti-violence
CNN
—
Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the right-wing Oath Keepers who prosecutors say called for a “bloody revolution” to keep then-President Donald Trump in power, painted himself as an anti-racist Libertarian who believed the 2020 election was unconstitutional as he testified in his own defense on Friday.
Rhodes is the first of the five defendants charged with seditious conspiracy in federal court in Washington, DC, to testify.
The courtroom was packed during his testimony, and Rhodes choked up several times discussing his family, suicide rates among veterans and other subjects highlighted by his lawyer, Phillip Linder. He spoke directly to the jury and appeared very comfortable on the stand.
Rhodes explained to the jury that he didn’t believe either Trump or Joe Biden won in 2020 because the election itself was “unconstitutional.”
“I believe the election was unconstitutional, and that made it invalid,” Rhodes testified. “You really can’t have a winner of an unconstitutional election.”
Rhodes told the jury that, as he saw it, election laws in several states were changed by “executive fiat” and not through the state legislature.
“In multiple states especially in the swing states … you had them putting in new rules in direct violation” of state laws, Rhodes said.
“Everyone kept focusing on the computers” and other theories of voter fraud, Rhodes said, instead of the constitutional issues, which they needed to discuss before figuring out “whether there’s fraud on the ground.”
Rhodes did not detail any specific laws that were changed. CNN has found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
Prosecutors have alleged that Rhodes wanted Trump to remain in power and that the militia leader supported a “bloody revolution” to secure the presidency.
Rhodes told the jury Friday how he was honorably discharged from the military and went on to study law at Yale, focusing his attention on the Bill of Rights – which Rhodes called “the crown jewel of our Constitution” – and protecting civilian rights in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Rhodes, a self-described Libertarian, testified that he founded the Oath Keepers in 2009 to “reach, change and inspire” people about what rights the Constitution afforded them.
Pushing back on what he saw as narratives that the Oath Keepers were racist or white nationalists, Rhodes said the organization traveled to various cities for racial justice protests, claiming the group protected “minority business owners” in Ferguson, Missouri.
“Frankly we kind of embarrassed the police, Rhodes testified, “because we showed them how to do it right, protecting the business owners while still respecting the rights of the protesters.”
Oath Keepers rules, Rhodes claimed, specifically bar any member who “advocates for the overthrow of the United States.”
During the first several weeks of the seditious conspiracy trial against the far-right organization, prosecutors presented evidence that the Oath Keepers stockpiled weapons at a hotel in Virginia on January 6 as part of a so-called quick reaction force. Prosecutors alleged that the five defendants intended to use those weapons in case called upon by Trump to stop the transfer of power to Biden.
Rhodes told the jury that wasn’t the case and claimed that the QRF’s were set up at an event the Oath Keepers attended to “respond in case there is an emergency,” including if his men were ever injured.
The Oath Keepers also used QRFs every time they provided security, Rhodes said, including several events in Washington, DC. After the election, Rhodes testified he was concerned Antifa would “attack the White House,” and claimed the leftist organization was threatening to “drag Trump out” if the president refused to concede.
In November, “I was concerned that this might actually happen,” Rhodes told the jury, citing his rhetoric on a recorded meeting prosecutors showed the jury in which Rhodes allegedly said that “there’s going to be a fight.”
If Antifa did try to attack the White House, Rhodes said that “President Trump could use the Insurrection Act, declare this an insurrection, and use myself and other veterans to protect the White House.”
No such attack at the White House occurred.
Rhodes is expected to continue his testimony on Monday.
Peter Meijer says Democrat meddling in his GOP primary ‘paints very telling picture’ of US politics
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Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., said Sunday that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) decision to meddle in the GOP House primary for Michigan’s 3rd District was “risky” and “paints a very telling picture of where our politics are in 2022.”
Meijer joined CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Sunday, following his loss to Trump-backed candidate John Gibbs on Tuesday.
“So we had a scenario where not only did I have the former president aligned against me but in a rare showing of bipartisan unity, Nancy Pelosi and the House Democratic Campaign Committee also united to try to knock me off the ballot. Now, this just highlights the cynicism and hypocrisy of our politics today. And frankly, it will be unknowable what that ultimate impact was. But the fact that we have the establishment left and the extreme right locking arms in common cause paints a very telling picture of where our politics are in 2022,” Meijer told CBS’ Margaret Brennan.
The DCCC said it was spending $425,000 on an ad boosting Gibbs in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area.
Michigan’s 3rd District Congressional Republican candidate Peter Meijer speaks at a campaign rally on Oct. 14, 2020, in Grand Rapids, Mich.
(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File))
REP. PETER MEIJER ON HOUSE DEMOCRATS’ CAMPAIGN ARM FUNDING HIS PRIMARY OPPONENT: POLITICAL JIU-JITSU
“Do you think that ad really made a difference? I mean, Democrats aren’t voting in this primary, it’s Republicans. Why did Michigan Republicans fall for this ad?” Brennan asked.
“I should note that this ad was not aimed at, it was not playing on MSNBC. It was not playing in places where Democratic voters might see it. It was targeted in places to try to sway and convince Republican primary voters to try to give my primary challenger a boost up and over. And I should add that my defeat was by roughly 3% out of over 100,000 votes cast, we lost by less than 4,000 votes,” Meijer said.
Brennan also asked if he believed the Democrats’ strategy was going to be successful.
“So while I think there is certainly a cynical calculus at play with the Democrats’ meddling, this is a risky, dangerous strategy. Where President Biden is in his approval is so in the gutter that it is hard to see that strategy – it is easy to see that strategy backfiring in a spectacular way, which is all the more reason why we should not be embracing the zero-sum idea of politics,” he said.
Rep. Peter Meijer appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. (Screenshot/CBS/FaceTheNation)
(Screenshot/CBS/FaceTheNation)
AFTER TRUMP-BACKED CANDIDATE VICTORIES, SOME DEMOCRATS QUESTION PARTY’S MEDDLING IN GOP PRIMARIES
Democratic groups across the U.S., including the Democratic Governors Association, have been throwing money behind Trump-backed candidates like Gibbs or Maryland Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox in an effort to elect GOP candidates they believe Democrats will have a better chance of beating in the general election.
Several House Democrats have spoken out against the DCCC’s strategy, including Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., who said the move was “unconscionable.”
John Gibbs a candidate for congress in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional district speaks at a rally hosted by former President Donald Trump on April 02, 2022 near Washington, Michigan.
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The DCCC celebrated Gibbs’ victory and suggested it would seal the deal for Democrats in the general election.
“Last night, Donald Trump’s dream became the GOP’s nightmare. John Gibbs’ winning this primary seals the fate of Republicans hoping to keep this now Democratic-leaning district,” the DCCC told Fox News Digital.
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Stock Futures Rise After Nasdaq Enters Correction
U.S. stock futures gained, putting indexes on course to pare some of the sharp losses that have come as investors reposition their portfolios, spooked by the prospect of tightening monetary policy and slowing growth.
Nasdaq-100 futures rose 0.9% Thursday, a day after a late tech selloff dragged down indexes. Futures tied to the S&P 500 rose 0.5% and blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 0.4%.
In premarket trading, Travelers Companies rose over 4% after reporting record net income in the fourth quarter.
American Airlines
Group gained 1.6% after saying it had trimmed its losses.
Netflix
will be one of the first tech giants to post its fourth-quarter results, after markets close, when
PPG Industries
will also report.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 1.1% on Wednesday.
Photo:
BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS
Hong Kong-listed Chinese stocks jumped after an interest-rate cut by China’s central bank lifted shares of property developers and tech giants. The Hang Seng Index rose 3.4%, while mainland China’s Shanghai Composite Index edged down 0.1%. Elsewhere in Asia, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.1%. The pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 edged up 0.1%.
Faced with the prospect of multiple interest-rate rises, cooling growth and inflation at multidecade highs, investors have been reassessing the pandemic-era playbook that focused on outsize gains for growth stocks, such as tech. In recent sessions, investors have rotated into sectors expected to perform better in the coming year, such as financials and energy.
“I don’t see a whole lot in the market that is really alarming me. There is no one out there saying ‘run for the hills,’ but there are those saying they are going to take off risk and reposition to other areas of the market,” said
Kara Murphy,
chief investment officer of Kestra Holdings.
That has prompted tumultuous trading. On Wednesday, the Nasdaq Composite closed more than 10% below its all-time closing high, putting it in correction territory.
Investors are selling government bonds in anticipation of higher interest rates, pushing up yields, and in the process, pressuring tech companies, whose future earnings become less attractive when compared with bonds with rising yields.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note crept down to 1.823% Thursday from 1.826% Wednesday, after rising steadily in recent weeks. Benchmark German bund yields fell further into negative territory, a day after they briefly turned positive. The yield on the 10-year German government bond fell to minus 0.037% Thursday from minus 0.014% Wednesday.
Investors are awaiting data on the U.S. housing market, a bright spot for the economy. The data, due at 10 a.m. ET, is expected to show that existing home sales slowed in December, but were still on track for the best year since 2006.
Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, fell 0.5% to $88.01 a barrel. This follows a rally partly driven by the potential for supply disruptions in Russia and the Middle East. On Wednesday, Brent crude futures hit their highest level since October 2014.
Write to Will Horner at william.horner@wsj.com
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Will this time be different? Bitcoin eyes drop to $35K as BTC price paints ‘death cross’
Bitcoin (BTC) formed a trading pattern on Jan. 8 that is widely watched by traditional chartists for its ability to anticipate further losses.
In detail, the cryptocurrency’s 50-day exponential moving average (50-day EMA) fell below its 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA), forming a so-called “death cross.” The pattern appeared as Bitcoin underwent a rough ride in the previous two months, falling over 40% from its record high of $69,000.
Death cross history
Previous death crosses were insignificant to Bitcoin over the past two years. For instance, a 50-200-day EMA bearish crossover in March 2020 appeared after the BTC price had fallen from nearly $9,000 to below $4,000, turning out to be lagging than predictive.
Additionally, its occurrence did little in preventing Bitcoin from rising to around $29,000 by the end of 2020, as shown in the chart below
Similarly, a death cross appeared on the Bitcoin daily charts in July 2021 that — like in March 2020 — was more lagging and less predictive. Its occurrence did not lead to a massive selloff. Instead, BTC’s price merely consolidated sideways before rallying to $69,000 by November 2021.
But the bearish moving average crossovers in both the instances, as mentioned above, accompanied a piece of good news, which may have limited their impact on the Bitcoin market.
For instance, the Bitcoin price recovery in July 2021 came majorly in the wake of rumors that Amazon would start accepting cryptocurrencies for payments — that later turned out to be false — and following a conference, dubbed “The B-Word,” which saw Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood speaking highly in favor of Bitcoin.
Similarly, Bitcoin recovered sharply from its below $4,000-levels in March 2020, primarily after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced its loose monetary policies to contain the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic-led stock market crash.
The death cross this time looks dangerous
Bitcoin’s latest decline reflected growing investor concern about the Fed’s decision to aggressively unwind its loose monetary policies—including the dialing back of its $120 billion a month asset purchasing program followed by three rate hikes—in 2022.
Typically, rising interest rates make holding volatile assets like Bitcoin less appealing than government bonds, which offer guaranteed yields.
“This is proof that bitcoin acts like a risk asset,” Noelle Acheson, head of market insights at crypto lender Genesis Global Trading, told the Wall Street Journal, adding that the short-term holders would be the “closest to the exit.”
Related: Bitcoin may pass $30K September lows, trader warns
As a result, the overall reduction in cash liquidity, coupled with the death cross formation, could trigger further selloffs in the Bitcoin market. However, that is unless the BTC price rebounds from its current support level around $40,000, the 0.382 Fib line shown in the chart below.
Nonetheless, a break below $40,000 may risk sending the Bitcoin price to the next Fib line support near $35,000.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Stock Market Today: Dow Rose as Moderna Slumped Again
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
had one of its best days this year on Monday, as value and defensive stocks led a rebound from last week’s market declines.
The news Monday was relatively positive, with signs that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 might be less severe than earlier strains and reports that China is considering easing monetary policy. On the Federal Reserve policy front, the latest reporting suggested that the central bank could announce plans at its next meeting to more quickly pull back from its bond-buying program.
The Dow surged 647 points, or 1.9%, for its best one-day point gain since November 2020 and the largest percentage increase since last March. The
S&P 500
closed up 1.2% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9%, while the small-cap
Russell 2000
gained 2.1%, for its fourth-straight daily move of 2% or more.
Post-pandemic reopening stocks were among the biggest gainers on Monday. The
U.S. Global Jets
exchange-traded fund (ticker: JETS) added 5.3%, as
American Airlines Group
(AAL) added 7.9% and
United Airlines Holdings
(UAL) jumped 8.3%. Cruise lines
Carnival
(CCL) and
Royal Caribbean Cruises
(RCL) surged 8.0% and 8.3%, respectively.
Marriott International
(MAR) added 4.5%,
Live Nation Entertainment
(LYV) rose 6.1%, and
Cinemark Holdings
(CNK) gained 7.7%.
S&P 500 value stocks as a group gained 1.4% on Monday, versus a 0.9% rise for growth stocks in the index.
Investor attention remains focused on the newly discovered Omicron variant of coronavirus, news of which recently brought about the Dow’s worst day of the year and saw volatility rock markets last week. The latest headline driving sentiment comes from South Africa, where data—though from a small sample size—suggest that symptoms caused by Omicron were milder than with other variants.
Investors aren’t out of the woods yet, however. The broad market will remain sensitive to daily headlines about Omicron—both good and bad.
“It still feels like we’re in the guesswork stage of working out what the impact of Omicron will be,” said Russ Mould, an analyst at broker AJ Bell. “It would be naive to rule out further volatility as markets attempt to work out exactly what’s going on.”
On Monday, the news was positive and investors bought the market. All 11 S&P 500 sectors closed in the green.
Fed policy has been pushing investor sentiment the other way. Chair Jerome Powell indicated last week that the central bank would consider speeding up its slowing, or tapering, of monthly asset purchases, which add liquidity to markets, amid higher inflation.
“We’re really at a fascinating crossroads in markets at the moment,” said Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank. “The market sentiment on the virus and the policy makers at the Fed are moving in opposite directions.”
Those trends mean different things for different kinds of stocks and indexes.
If Omicron is less severe than feared, then the economy might hold up better than expected. That would be good for economically-sensitive cyclical stocks, like many of those in the Dow. Higher bond yields and interest rates, however, can put downward pressure on stock valuations, particularly those with nosebleed price-to-earnings ratios, many of which are found in the Nasdaq.
“Like Friday, how the Nasdaq trades will likely determine the day, as markets want to see the tech sector stabilize after intense weakness late last week,” wrote the Sevens Report’s Tom Essaye. “If the Nasdaq can stabilize, the broad market can bounce.”
The tech-heavy index bounced from a loss of about 1% shortly after Monday’s opening bell.
In the commodity space, oil prices rose Monday after Saudi Arabia raised its January prices for Asian and U.S. customers over the weekend by $0.60, in a sign of firmer demand expectations.
Futures contracts for the international oil benchmark Brent rose 4.6%, to above $73 a barrel, with U.S. futures for West Texas Intermediate crude up 4.9% to about $69.50 a barrel.
“Given that OPEC+ is proceeding with its planned 400,000 barrels per day increase this month, it appears that Saudi Arabia is taking a punt that Omicron is a virus in a teacup,” said Jeffrey Halley, an analyst at broker Oanda. “Saudi Arabia’s confidence, along with the South African Omicron article over the weekend, is a boost to markets looking for good news in any corner they can find it.”
Cryptocurrency markets remained depressed after digital assets took a tumble over the weekend.
Bitcoin
and
Ether,
the two leading cryptos, remained off their lows following the stark fall Saturday, but were slipping after steadying Sunday. Bitcoin was trading hands around $49,000—down from more than $57,000 as recently as Friday—with Ether holding above $4,000.
Here are several stocks on the move Monday:
Nvidia
(ticker: NVDA) was among the most actively traded stocks in the U.S. Monday, closing down about 2.1%. Shares of fellow semiconductor firm Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) lost 3.4%.
Lucid Group
(LCID) stock dropped 5.1% after the electric-vehicle startup revealed that it had received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission, without offering many details.
Kohl’s
(KSS) gained 5.4% after an activist investor said it should explore selling itself.
Moderna
(MRNA) fell 13.5% after its president said that the risk that vaccines don’t work as well against Omicron is high. Pfizer (PFE) stock slid more than 5%.
Alibaba Group Holding (BABA) stock closed up 10.4% after a management shakeup at the e-commerce giant.
Deutsche Bank
(DB) rose 3.6% after JPMorgan upgraded the bank to Overweight from Neutral, adding that the group shows positive revenue developments in key divisions.
Pharma giant
Roche
(ROG.Switzerland) rose 1.5% in Zurich after announcing that it would release rapid antigen tests for Covid-19 and flu viruses next month.
Food delivery group
Just Eat Takeaway.com
(JET.U.K.) fell 4.9% in London following a price target cut and downgrade to Market Perform from Outperform by Bernstein, which sees few positive catalysts in the pipeline for the company.
Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@dowjones.com
Stock Market Today: S&P 500, Nasdaq Dip After Apple and Amazon Woes
Text size
Oil companies Chevron and Exxon Mobil will be in the earnings spotlight at the end of a busy week.
David McNew/Getty Images
The stock market retreated from earlier gains Friday after
Apple
and
Amazon.com
reported disappointing quarterly results. Plus, signs of caution about the economy weighed on stocks across the board.
In afternoon trading, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
was flat, after the index climbed 239 points Thursday to close at 35,780. The
S&P 500
and the
Nasdaq Composite
were both down 0.1% Both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 hit record highs at the close Thursday.
Despite the weak finish, October has been a strong month for stocks. The S&P 500 has gained 5.5% for the month of October, which saw the market rebound from an early autumn drawdown. In September, concerns about supply chain constraints and rising bond yields pushed stocks lower.
Several factors enabled stocks to rebound this month. Bond yields have paused in their larger ascent. Companies have mostly beat earnings estimates. And while risks still remain—yields aren’t necessarily finished rising and supply chain constraints aren’t easing much—retail investors bought the dip.
“They [retail investors] saw the 5% [market decline] and so when they see the opportunity to buy down 5% they step in and they do that,” said John Ham, wealth advisor at New England Investments & Retirement Group.
Big Tech earnings put the issue of shortages on center stage on Friday.
Apple
(ticker: AAPL) stock fell 2.1% after the company reported a profit of $1.24 a share, in line with estimates, on sales of $83.4 billion, below expectations for $84.9 billion. The company said supply-chain constraints due to chip shortages were worse than expected. iPhone sales were $38.9 billion, below expectations for $41.5 billion.
Amazon
(AMZN) stock dropped 2.9% after the company reported a profit of $6.12 a share, missing estimates of $8.92 a share, on sales of $110.8 billion, below expectations for $111.6 billion. The company said labor shortages, higher shipping costs, and other rising expenses are eating into profits. Management also guided for current quarter sales of $135 billion at the midpoint of its range, below analysts’ expectations for $142 billion.
Even if Apple and Amazon stocks were having a better day, the stock market would still look fairly weak. Just over half of S&P 500 stocks were in the red, according to FactSet.
This comes as the yield curve—the difference in yield between long-dated and short-term debt—declined. The 10-Year Treasury yield slipped to 1.56% from hitting 1.61% earlier. The 2-Year yield held at 0.5%, where it has mostly sat since Tuesday. Higher short-term rates indicate markets anticipate a Federal Reserve rate hike sooner rather than later, which could lower long-term economic demand and inflation. Some on Wall Street have recently flagged the falling yield curve as a potential risk to monitor.
In cryptocurrency markets, Ethereum—the leading crypto asset after Bitcoin—hit an all-time high above $4,400, according to data from CoinDesk.
Here are six stocks on the move Friday:
Chevron
(CVX) gained 0.9% after the company reported a profit of $2.96 a share, beating estimates of $2.21 a share, on sales of $44.7 billion, above expectations for $40.5 billion.
Starbucks
(SBUX) stock dropped 7.4% after the company reported a profit of $1, beating estimates of 99 cents, on sales of $8.1 billion, below expectations for $8.2 billion.
Newell Brands
(NWL) stock rose 5.1% after the company reported a profit of 54 cents a share, beating estimates of 50 cents a share, on sales of $2.79 billion, above expectations for $2.78 billion.
Caterpillar
(CAT) stock rose 0.3% after getting upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
Synchrony Financial
(SYF) stock rose 0.3% after getting upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.
U.S. Steel
(X) soared 12% following third-quarter earnings Thursday that smashed expectations and an announcement that the company would raise its dividend.
Write to Jacob Sonenshine at jacob.sonenshine@barrons.com
Imran Khan paints Pakistan as victim of US ungratefulness
NEW YORK (AP) — Prime Minister Imran Khan sought to cast Pakistan as the victim of American ungratefulness and an international double standard in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
In a prerecorded speech aired during the evening, the Pakistani prime minister touched on a range of topics that included climate change, global Islamophobia and “the plunder of the developing world by their corrupt elites” — the latter of which he likened to what the East India Company did to India.
It was for India’s government that Khan reserved his harshest words, once again labeling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government “fascist.” But the cricketer turned posh international celebrity turned politician was in turn indignant and plaintive as he painted the United States as an abandoner of both Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan.
“For the current situation in Afghanistan, for some reason, Pakistan has been blamed for the turn of events, by politicians in the United States and some politicians in Europe,” Khan said. “From this platform, I want them all to know, the country that suffered the most, apart from Afghanistan, was Pakistan when we joined the U.S. war on terror after 9/11.”
He launched into a narrative that began with the United States and Pakistan training mujahedeen — regarded as heroes by the likes of then-President Ronald Reagan, he said — during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. But Pakistan was left to pick up the pieces — millions of refugees and new sectarian militant groups — when the Soviets and the Americans left in 1989.
Khan said the U.S. sanctioned its former partner a year later, but then came calling again after the 9/11 attacks. Khan said Pakistan’s aid to the U.S. cost 80,000 Pakistani lives and caused internal strife and dissent directed at the state, all while the U.S. conducted drone attacks.
“So, when we hear this at the end. There is a lot of worry in the U.S. about taking care of the interpreters and everyone who helped the U.S.,” he said, referring to Afghanistan. “What about us?”
Instead of a mere “word of appreciation,” Pakistan has received blame, Khan said.
Despite Khan’s rhetoric espousing a desire for peace, many Afghans have blamed Pakistan for the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan because of close links. The United Nations in August also rejected Pakistan’s request to give its side at a special meeting on Afghanistan, indicating the international community’s shared skepticism.
In his speech, Khan echoed what his foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, told The Associated Press earlier this week on the sidelines at the U.N.: the international community should not isolate the Taliban, but instead strengthen the current Afghan government for the sake of the people.
He struck an optimistic tone about Taliban rule, saying their leaders had committed to human rights, an inclusive government and not allowing terrorists on Afghan soil. But messages from the Taliban have been mixed.
A Taliban founder told the AP earlier this week that the hard-liners would once again carry out executions and amputated hands — though this time after adjudication by judges, including women, and potentially not in public.
“If the world community incentivizes them, and encourages them to walk this talk, it will be a win-win situation for everyone,” he said.
Khan also turned his ire on that same community for what he perceives as a free pass given to India.
“It is unfortunate, very unfortunate, that the world’s approach to violations of human rights lacks even-handedness, and even is selective. Geopolitical considerations, or corporate interests, commercial interests often compel major powers to overlook the transgressions of their affiliated countries,” Khan said.
He went through a litany of actions that have “unleashed a reign of fear and violence against India’s 200 million strong Muslim community,” he said, including lynchings, pogroms and discriminatory citizenship laws.
As in years past, Khan — who favors delivering his speeches in his British-inflected English, in contrast to Modi’s Hindi addresses — devoted substantial time to Kashmir.
“New Delhi has also embarked on what it ominously calls the ‘final solution’ for the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” Khan said, rattling off a list of what he termed “gross and systematic violations of human rights” committed by Indian forces. He specifically decried the “forcible snatching of the mortal remains of the great Kashmiri leader, ” Syed Ali Geelani , who died earlier this month at 91.
Geelani’s family has said authorities took his body and buried him discreetly and without their consent, denying the separatist leader revered in Kashmir a proper Islamic burial. Khan called upon the General Assembly to demand Geelani’s proper burial and rites.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and has been claimed by both since they won independence from the British empire and began fighting over their rival claims.
He said Pakistan desires peace, but it is India’s responsibility to meaningfully engage.
India exercised its right of reply after the last leader spoke Friday, saying it was upon Pakistan, not India, to demonstrate good faith in engagement. An Indian diplomat said Pakistan needed to look inward before making accusations, and stressed that Kashmir was inalienably India’s. Pakistan then exercised its own right of reply, excoriating India once more.
Modi is set to address the U.N. General Assembly in person on Saturday, a day after a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.
___
Follow Sen on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mallikavsen
Metro Health medical director paints grim picture amid COVID-19 hospitalization surge in Bexar County
SAN ANTONIO – Bexar County and San Antonio leaders are seeing a surge in hospitalizations and more people getting tested amid an increase of COVID-19 cases in our area and across the state.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said during Tuesday night’s COVID-19 briefing that there were 209 people admitted to the hospital within the last 24 hours, 24 of which were pediatric cases.
See today’s COVID-19 numbers and what to know about the latest rise in San Antonio and surrounding areas here.
Nirenberg said he learned Monday that the state had asked for refrigerated trucks weeks ago to hold bodies of people who have succumed to COVID-19. He said it was indicative of what the state expects, given the recent court battles across the state over mask mandates and vaccine hesitancy.
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The mayor continued to push common-sense COVID-19 precautions, like masks, social distancing, vaccines and other measures.
Bexar County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez says the Fusion Center is seeing an average of about 100 patients a day. He said the antibody treatment can hopefully prevent some people from having to go to the hospital.
San Antonio Metropolitan Health District Director Claude Jacob said the city’s facilities have plenty of capacity for testing, and the city is well-equipped to test more people, if needed.
Dr. Junda Woo, medical director of Metro Health, agreed and said the severity of the pandemic will depend on the measures people take now. She said depending on how vaccination rates trend, and if proper precautions are taken, it could mean the difference between months of more cases to come or years if conditions don’t improve.
“It’s still tight,” Woo said. “… Do we want to be in this for another few months? Or do we want to be in the pandemic for another year or more? A lot of it depends on how much we get vaccinated now and take these measures, like wearing a mask. If we get to where another variant goes free the way the Delta variant has with the number of unvaccinated people we have, this is not going to end anytime soon.”
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