The bodies of a mother and her young son were recovered on Wednesday hours after a tornado destroyed their home as it ripped through a rural town in northwest Louisiana – one of a swarm of twisters unleashed during the heavy winter storm system sweeping the United States.

First responders found the 8-year-old boy’s remains in a wooded area about a half mile (800 meters) away from his home in Keithville, Louisiana, a town of 300 people, after the tornado struck late on Tuesday night, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a written statement.

His mother’s body was discovered at about 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, under debris one street away from the destroyed house, the sheriff’s office said. An adult male injured in the storm was transported to a local hospital, where the extent of his injuries was unknown.

“I am heartbroken to learn of the mother and child who were killed in Southwest Caddo Parish due to one of numerous reported tornados,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said in a statement posted to Twitter. “My prayers go out to the family as well as those who were injured or lost their homes”

The tornado was one of 18 twisters reported in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi overnight on Tuesday into Wednesday that injured more than two dozen people and left homes in ruins.

In New Iberia, Louisiana, at least one person was injured and multiple others were pulled from debris after a tornado touched down in the city some 70 miles (113 km) southwest of Baton Rouge, police said. Multiple homes and a hospital were damaged, the New Iberia police confirmed on Facebook.

Police warned residents to stay away from the damaged area as rescue efforts were under way.

“We have received reports of a tornado that hit Killona,” the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office said on Twitter shortly before 1 p.m. central time (2 p.m. ET). “Responding deputies have advised of heavy damage to residences in the area of Schoolhouse Road. Deputies are checking residences.”

The sprawling winter storm has swept across the heart of the United States over the last two days, leaving parts of the Upper Plains and Midwest buried under blowing snow, closing schools and making roads impassible.

The storm system has prompted dozens of flight cancellations and delays at airports across the region and threatened to cover parts of the East Coast with ice and snow into Thursday.

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted late on Tuesday to make it easier for politicians to take roles at state-run firms, hammering shares of the state-run oil company, devastated by a political graft scandal over the past decade.

The proposed change to the State-Owned Enterprise Law, which now heads to the Senate, cuts the quarantine from three years to just a month for people with decision-making roles in political parties or campaigns to take positions at state-owned companies.

Shares in state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) closed 10% lower on Wednesday. State lender Banco do Brasil SA lost 2.5%.

Petrobras was at the center of a record-breaking political corruption scandal over the past decade, due in part to political appointments in its senior management under the Workers Party (PT), which returns to power next month.

Analysts at BTG Pactual said the revised law would be bad for governance at state-owned firms as it eliminates one of their main mechanisms of defense from political influence.

Goldman Sachs echoed the concerns, adding the large majority by which the bill passed showed “the new government could potentially have enough political capital to gather congressional support and make further adjustments to the law.”

Ratings agency Moody’s said the proposed changes were negative for public banks as they could raise governance risks and let political intervention affect their business strategies.

“The risk of extending credit at rates below market prices could result in profitability pressures amid a 2023 scenario of increased credit risk,” wrote Moody’s analysts.

Incoming Finance Minister Fernando Haddad did his best to downplay the looser controls on politicians running state firms, saying the most important way to fight corruption is with strong, independent auditors.

The proposal was approved on the same day that President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced Workers Party veteran Aloizio Mercadante as the next head of state development bank BNDES, in a move that rattled financial markets.

In a campaign interview with Reuters in late September, Congressman Alexandre Padilha – one of Lula’s key interlocutors with investors and business leaders – said Lula had no plans to change the State-Owned Enterprise Law.

Deforestation in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna rose to a seven-year high, government data showed on Wednesday, destroying a vital habitat for threatened species and releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases that drive climate change.

Destruction of native vegetation rose 25% to 10,689 square kilometers (4,127 square miles) – an area larger than Lebanon. The data from space research agency Inpe is for the 12 months through July, compared with the previous period.

Reuters first reported on Tuesday the surging destruction of the biome, citing sources. Brazil’s official deforestation statistics run from August to July to minimize clouds obscuring the destruction.

The Cerrado, the world’s most species-rich savanna, has given way to Brazil’s expanding agricultural frontier for decades. Roughly half of the savanna’s vegetation has already been destroyed, with much of it converted to farms and ranches.

The European Union recently agreed on a law to prohibit companies from selling agricultural products linked to deforestation, which would apply to the Amazon rainforest but excluded much of the Cerrado.

Asked about rising Cerrado destruction, EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius said protections could be expanded.

“We have a review clause in just one year, we will have a look at it,” he said in an interview at the U.N. COP15 nature summit. “If we see patterns shifting to other ecosystems, we will be able to react relatively quickly.”

Countries at COP15 in Montreal aim to strike a deal to protect areas rich in biodiversity like the Cerrado. But with the summit set to end on Dec. 19, negotiators still disagree on some 200 points, according to conference documents.

“What we eat and how we produce our food are the main drivers of this large-scale obliteration,” said Jean-Francois Timmers, a policy expert for environmental advocates WWF.

“We need COP15 negotiators to prioritise ending deforestation and conversion in areas where the yearly rate of ecosystem losses prove alarming, like the Cerrado.”

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The United States is prepared to help China deal with a surge of COVID-19 infections if Beijing requests assistance, the White House said on Wednesday.

John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told reporters that China has not requested help at this stage.

“We have made that point that we are prepared to help in any way they might find acceptable. That was true back when the pandemic was raging, and that is true today,” Kirby told reporters.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters earlier this week that U.S. and Chinese officials had discussed COVID-19 and countries’ different response to the pandemic were discussed at U.S.-Chinese meetings, but gave no details.

“I want to give an opportunity for us to be able to have those conversations in sensitive diplomatic channels. And we’ll see what, if anything, comes out of it,” he said.

China Meheco Group Co Ltd (600056.SS) said on Wednesday it signed an agreement with U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) to import and distribute its oral COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid in mainland China, as the country braces for a surge in patients after scaling back its “zero COVID” policy. read more

Pfizer already signed a deal in August for Chinese drugmaker Zhejiang Huahai <600521.SS. to produce Paxlovid in mainland China solely for patients there.

China began shifting away from the “zero COVID” policy just this month, after protests against the economically-damaging curbs that had been championed by President Xi Jinping. The change has spurred concerns about a surge in COVID cases.

Survivors of mass shootings targeting U.S. LGBT nightclubs detailed the violence they endured and criticized inflammatory political rhetoric in a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

“We are being slaughtered and dehumanized across this country, in communities you took oaths to protect,” said Matthew Haynes, owner of the Club Q nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where five people were killed and 22 wounded in a mass shooting last month.

“LGBTQ issues are not political issues,” Haynes added. “They are not lifestyles. They are not beliefs or choices. They are basic human rights.”

The hearing by the U.S. House Oversight Committee was to explore anti-LGBT violence.

Michael Anderson told lawmakers he was bartending at Club Q, when the gunman entered the nightclub and began shooting.

“I saw my friend lying on the floor, bleeding out, knowing there was little to no chance of surviving that bullet wound,” Anderson said.

Experts on LGBT issues told the panel that the attack at Club Q and other acts of violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans in recent years have been fueled by state legislation that they said further marginalized the community.

They cited a 2016 bill in North Carolina that required transgender individuals to use restrooms, changing rooms and showers that corresponded to the sex on their birth certificates and legislation passed in Florida last year nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill which barred classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for many young students.

President Joe Biden signed a modest gun-safety bill into law in June in the wake of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, but anti-gun violence activists have called for more to be done.

There have been 628 mass shootings across the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. LGBT people are nearly four times as likely than non-LGBT people to be the victims of violent crime, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

“We just want to live. Is that so much to ask?” Brandon Wolf, an activist and survivor of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in which 49 people were killed and 69 wounded, told the hearing.

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China Meheco Group Co Ltd (600056.SS) said on Wednesday it signed an agreement with Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) to import and distribute the U.S. drugmaker’s oral COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid in mainland China, as the country braces for a surge in COVID patients after scaling back its “zero COVID” policy.

The agreement is valid between Dec. 14 and Nov. 30, 2023, China Meheco said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange.

Pfizer shares were up 3% at $54.72.

Paxlovid, which was approved by China in February, has been available through hospitals to treat high-risk patients in several provinces, Chinese media Yicai reported in March.

Pfizer signed a deal in August for Chinese drugmaker Zhejiang Huahai (600521.SS) to produce Paxlovid in mainland China solely for patients there.

Three years into the pandemic, China began pivoting away from its signature “zero COVID” policy just this month, after protests against the economically-damaging curbs that had been championed by President Xi Jinping.

The sudden loosening of restrictions has sparked long queues outside fever clinics in a worrying sign that a wave of infections is building, even though official tallies of new COVID cases have trended lower recently as authorities eased back on testing.

Earlier in the week, a Chinese healthcare platform started selling Paxlovid in what appeared to be the first retail sale of the drug in the country.

The two-drug oral treatment sold out just over half an hour after the listing was reported in the media, the platform’s customer service said, underscoring surging demand for COVID and flu medicines in China.

Pfizer was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday. In an emailed statement on Tuesday, the company said it was “actively collaborating with all stakeholders to secure an adequate supply of Paxlovid in China and remains committed to fulfilling the COVID-19 treatment needs of patients in China”.

Pfizer last year said it could produce up to 120 million courses of Paxlovid this year. As of Nov. 30, Pfizer had shipped almost 37 million courses of Paxlovid to 52 countries around the world, it said in a statement.

The U.S. government announced a deal on Tuesday to buy an additional 3.7 million Paxlovid courses for nearly $2 billion, supplementing the 20 million courses already purchased by the United States.

Pfizer, which also sells the COVID-19 vaccine it developed with German partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE), is expected to top $100 billion in revenue this year, more than half projected to come from its COVID business.

Prior to announcement of the new U.S. contract, analysts had forecast Paxlovid sales would top $22 billion in 2022 and be close to $12 billion next year, according to Refinitiv data.

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Wall Street stocks dropped on Wednesday, while Treasury yields were flat and the dollar volatile, after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that it would raise interest rates by half a percentage point but projected additional increases by the end of 2023, a rise in unemployment and a near stalling of economic growth.

“The inflation data received so far in October and November show a welcome reduction…but it will take substantially more evidence to give confidence inflation is on a sustained downward path,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a press conference.

The U.S. consumer price index increased 0.1% last month, 0.2 percentage point slower than economists had expected. In the 12 months through November, headline CPI climbed 7.1% – its slowest pace in about a year. U.S. import prices also fell for a fifth straight month in November. And British inflation also moderated more than anticipated in November, data on Wednesday showed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) finished down 0.4%, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 0.76%. The MSCI All World stock index (.MIWD00000PUS) fell 0.2%.

“The Fed is taking away the punchbowl just as the party was getting started,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Independent Advisor Alliance in Charlotte, said in an email.

“Despite a lower-than-expected CPI inflation report yesterday, the Fed’s statement today signals that they are going to be even more restrictive than they had previously indicated.”

While the dollar index initially jumped on the Fed news, trading was choppy and was last down nearly 0.5% on the day. The euro was up 0.44% to $1.0677, the Japanese yen strengthened 0.19% versus the greenback and Sterling was last trading at $1.2425, up 0.57% on the day.

European stocks were flat, with the continent-wide Stoxx 600 (.STOXX) down 0.02% after rising 1.3% in the previous session.

In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) rose nearly 1%, with easing Chinese COVID-19 curbs boosting sentiment.

“The expected 50 basis point hike in rates is not what is causing the sell-off in the market,” Quincy Krosby, Chief Global Strategist for LPL Financial in Charlottesville, said in an email. “Rather it is dot plot expectations that the Fed will hold rates throughout 2023, and not begin rate cuts until 2024.”

U.S. Treasury yields were little changed to slightly lower in choppy trading after the Fed news. The yield on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries rose 2 basis points to 3.481% after tumbling 11 basis points on Tuesday.

In commodities, oil settled up more than $2 a barrel after OPEC and the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast a rebound in demand over the course of next year and as U.S. interest rate hikes are expected to ease further alongside slowing inflation.

U.S. crude settled up $1.94 at $77.28 per barrel and Brent finished $2.02 higher at $82.70 per barrel.

Expectations for a less aggressive monetary policy by the Fed also helped gold prices hold above the $1,800 per ounce pivot. Spot gold dropped 0.2% to $1,807.65 an ounce.

Bitcoin was flat at around $17,774 following the arrest of FTX exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was accused by U.S. prosecutors of fraud.

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Since Independent Kyrsten Sinema decided to grab the spotlight by leaving the Democratic party, she’s been speaking out. But others are speaking out as well – against the Senator. One of them is a former friend of hers by the name of David Schapira.

Schapira gave an interview with the Daily Beast and revealed that, in his opinion, Sinema’s grasping and needy desire for attention might be behind her latest move.

Schapira recounted an interesting story of how at one time, he was thinking about a run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Sinema, however, asked him to stall the run — because she wanted that seat for herself. However, it’s what she promised him in return for not running that has tongues wagging.

Sinema reportedly told her “friend” that if he would hold off on running and let her have the seat, she’d only serve for four years and then help him nab her seat.

She told him the reason she’d only serve one term was that she was too ambitious to stay, and remaining “a mere House member” was not for her. A “mere house member?” He also claims she told him the following:

“If the most important thing I ever do is serve in the U.S. House, I’ll be disappointed.” Wow. If these statements are true, they certainly expose Sinema as the liar she is. Schapira said her comments “shocked” him but also revealed her for who she is.

“All she cares about is how relevant she is — what her level of notoriety is,” he said. Since leaving the Democratic party, Sinema has taken a lot of incoming. I don’t blame people for being upset. It’s far too early to know what will happen in 2024. But it isn’t too early to make a bit of a prediction.

I think this will be the woman’s only term in office. I do know the popularity of senators can come back. Ron Johnson was looking at historically bad approval numbers, but he managed to keep his seat in Wisconsin. I suppose Sinema could do the same.

I don’t think so, though. And the reason I do not think so is that the “Senator” has alienated EVERYBODY. I doubt Arizonians will forget. She has burned many bridges and shattered the trust of so many I do not see a comeback in her future.

However, what I do see are a few more attention-getting antics in the future. Grabbing the spotlight seems to be far more important to Sinema than giving a damn about her own voters.

The post Former Kyrsten Sinema friend comes out against her appeared first on Palmer Report.

U.S. senators on Wednesday pressed Congress to regulate cryptocurrency under existing financial rules, as lawmakers scramble to rein in the troubled industry after prosecutors filed criminal charges against FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried.

Lawmakers are generally in agreement that crypto firms should have greater regulation, but there are divergent views on how the industry should be regulated.

Critics say the crypto world is riddled with fraud and misconduct, but proponents say the industry has simply suffered from a lack of regulation.

U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday charged FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried with money laundering and fraud, among other violations. The charges capped a stunning downfall for Bankman-Fried, who amassed a fortune valued over $20 billion as he rode a cryptocurrency boom to build FTX into one of the world’s largest exchanges before it abruptly collapsed this year.

“It is time for Congress to make the crypto industry follow the same money-laundering rules as everyone else,” U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren said during a hearing of the key Senate Banking Committee.

She and Republican Senator Roger Marshall from Kansas earlier announced legislation aimed at closing money laundering loopholes in the crypto industry.

Republican Senator Pat Toomey, the ranking member of the Banking Committee, said he did not think the money-laundering rules were well-suited to crypto, describing existing anti-money laundering technology as “archaic.”

Warren wants to hand control of crypto oversight to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis said at the hearing that she plans to reintroduce a bill that would give more authority to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), an agency critics worry would not go far enough to rein in the industry.

When asked whether he believed Washington bears some blame for FTX’s collapse, Toomey agreed.

“The absence of legislation that creates the guardrails for regulation and the corresponding absence of any certainty has driven activity offshore to places like the Bahamas,” he said after Wednesday’s hearing. “That doesn’t always end well for American consumers and others.”

Each of the hearing’s witnesses – which included actor and crypto skeptic Ben McKenzie Schenkkan and “SharkTank” television personality and FTX investor Kevin O’Leary – said they believe there is likely more fraud to be found in the crypto world.

Without U.S. regulation, the value of crypto investments could disappear, said hearing witness and American University law professor Hilary Allen.

“Whilst that is very bad news for the people who’ve already invested, I think it’s very good news for the rest of us because it’s been kept out of the broader financial system and we won’t suffer the consequences of its broader failure.”