Online gamblers should prove they can afford losses ...

UPDATE – 26 January 2021
COVID has been in Canada for one year now.
The strange case of the CEO in disguise to get vaccine for himself.
COVID-19 tax tips.
COVID-19 and the world of work – the International Labor Organization.
A breakdown of cases among healthcare workers.
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If you’re having trouble regulating life while working from home, the fake commute might be for you, have a look: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/18/success/fake-commute-meaning-benefits-pandemic-wellness/index.html
“For the many who have been doing your part, you may be asking, what more can I do? Be the voice of support and encouragement for those who may be wavering in their resolve.” – Dr. Bonnie Henry.
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LOCAL:
· 82 cases among New West residents in the previous week.
· No new school exposures in New Westminster since that of the Queensborough Middle School on January 11th.
· Current outbreaks: Royal City Manor, declared Jan 21; Royal Columbian Hospital, declared Jan 20.
· The Rio Theatre in Vancouver has converted into a sports bar.
· The theatre is dealing with a full closure of movie theatres. But as restaurants and bars can remain open with safety protocols, the theatre is seeking other ways to do business. The move does show that the Rio cannot do business as a theatre right now, but can meet the safety requirements to operate as a sports bar.
· There are differences though. The theatre has to actually meet the requirements for a bar, such as taking orders from people’s seats rather than allowing a line-up at the concession.
· The move has stirred controversy, with some decrying the Rio as finding a loophole while the basic lay-out is still that of a theatre, with narrow entryways and tiny washrooms. Others welcome the move as innovative, a way for a theatre to survive during the closure.
Sources: CBC, Global News, Fraser Health
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PROVINCIAL:
· The strange case of the CEO in disguise.
· Vancouver couple Rod and Ekaterina Baker were fined $575 after sneaking into the Yukon to try to get the vaccine for themselves.
· The couple posed as local motel workers.
· The clinic at Beaver Creek normally has one nurse and a receptionist, but a team of six was flown in to do vaccinations. Beaver Creek was chosen because “of its remoteness, elderly and population, and limited access to health care,” said Chief Angela Demit of the White River First Nation in Beaver Creek.
· The story of the wealthy executive trying to get vaccine intended for remote elderly First Nations people has not gone over well.
· Rod Baker is the Chief Executive Officer of Great Canadian Gaming, since 2011, where he earns $900,000 per year as salary, but last year also made $45.9 million from company stock options.. The company announced his resignation yesterday. The gambling company cited it’s “core values.” Ekaterina Baker is an actor, but not apparently a good enough one to fool Yukon officials. The couple chartered a flight to the Yukon.
· “We had not been imagining that someone would go to this length to mislead or deceive.” John Streicker, Yukon’s Minister of Community Services.
· The manager of the 1202 Motor Inn, where the couple claimed to work, was also rather upset. “That’s a risk (serving travellers) that we take – not a risk that somebody enforces upon us because they are too ignorant.” Staff at the Beaver Creek clinic found the couple suspicious, and phoned the motel to check on their story. While at the clinic and pretending to live and work in town, the couple rather oddly asked if anyone could drive them to the airport afterwards.
· Story from the Globe and Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-great-canadian-gaming-ceo-resigns-after-being-charged-in-yukon-ove?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Coronavirus%20Update&utm_content=2021-1-25_19&utm_term=Coronavirus%20Update:%20Great%20Canadian%20Gaming%20CEO%20resigns%20after%20alleged%20botched%20disguise%20as%20Yukon%20motel%20worker%20in%20attempt%20to%20get%20COVID-19%20vaccine&utm_campaign=newsletter&cu_id=czq7hF%2BueFDcmmCKozRUQ1bduJl6paGe
· Ekaterina Baker is known for acting in productions such as Chick Fight, Fatman, The Asset, and The Comeback Trail, and as producer of Big Gold Brick.
· IMDB page: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9698063/
· BC has adopted a four phase vaccination plan.
· Phase 1, December to February: Residents, staff, essential visitors with long-term care and assisted living; people waiting for long-term care; people in remote Indigenous communities and hospital workers caring for patients with COVID-19.
· Phase 2, February to March: Seniors over 80; Indigenous seniors over 65, Indigenous elders; more health-care workers; vulnerable populations and nursing-home staff.
· Phase 3, April to June: Members of the general public aged 60 to 79.
· Phase 4, July to September: Members of the general public aged 18 to 59.
· Premier John Horgan says the plan is based on those who get most sick, and those most likely to die, so priority goes to the elderly and vulnerable, and those who work around them.
· The Premier said multiple groups argued that they were front-line workers and so should get priority. But with vaccine supply limited, it didn’t seem to make sense to vaccinate people on the basis of their job, like being a front-line worker, ahead people ahead of seniors or those more likely to be hospitalized or to die. Health care workers are not only the most likely to be exposed, but they also work with and have direct contact with patients and the vulnerable.
· Here is a good article with the numbers and the rationale behind the priorities: https://www.newwestrecord.ca/local-news/opinion-elderly-should-get-covid-19-vaccine-before-bc-teachers-3291898
· The dates might vary, depending on supply.
· Covid cases in BC have plateaued to an average of 500 per day.
· Dr. Bonnie Henry said that the number is still dangerously high. “For the last few weeks, we have plateaued at 500 new cases. This is too many. We are at a precipice. The virus continues to circulate in our communities. We are at the threshold of where we were in late October and November when cases started to rise.”
· “Over the next two week, I believe we can bend our curve. Not just plateau, but bend it back down…. More than you’ve done before, stay home, stop social interactions.”
· B.C. will receive no new doses of vaccine over the next two weeks. It is not sure how much will be received in February.
· Over the past three days – Saturday, Sunday, Monday:
· 1,344 new cases. 618 of those in Fraser Health. 527 reported on Saturday, 472 on Sunday, 346 on Monday. 64,828 cases to date.
· 26 new deaths. 1,154 total.
· 4,392 active cases.
· 57,831 recovered.
· 11 outbreaks in long-term care declared over.
· 6 cases of the UK variant in BC, 3 cases of the South Africa variant. No community transmission of the UK variant, but the South Africa variant cases are not connected to travel and are being investigated. Dr. Henry: “I’m very concerned. I’m concerned that if those variants start to spread, it’s just going to make our job that much more difficult.”
· 119,850 doses of vaccine administered to date.
· New numbers for Tuesday:
· 14 new deaths. 1,168 total.
· 407 new cases. 65,234 total. (Comparison: a high of 911 cases happened for Nov 27).
· 313 hospitalized, 71 in intensive care. (A high of 381 were hospitalized on January 6th).
· 4,260 active cases.
· 6,450 in self-isolation.
· 58,352 recovered.
· 122,359 doses of vaccine administered to date. 4,105 are second doses.
· No new outbreaks, one outbreak declared over.
· Dr. Bonnie Henry: “For the many who have been doing your part, you may be asking, what more can I do? Be the voice of support and encouragement for those who may be wavering in their resolve.”
· New restriction may be necessary if the number begins to climb again.
· 4,850 cases among health care workers, from January 2020 to 15 January 2021. About 8% of cases.
· From January to December 17th 2020, care aides had the highest number of cases among healthcare workers at 1,193 or 24.6%. Nurses were second at 833 or 17.2%. Below are the ten highest number of cases by healthcare worker category.
· 1,193 – care aids.
· 833 – nurse.
· 304 – licensed practical nurse.
· 280 – administration.
· 177 – housekeeping.
· 156 – dental professional.
· 151 – physician.
· 149 – kitchen staff, dietary aid, food services.
· 91 – occupational therapist, physiotherapist, respiratory therapist.
· 75 – student.
· The document is here: http://www.bccdc.ca/Health-Info-Site/Documents/COVID_sitrep/COVID19_healthcare_workers_2021_01_15.pdf
· BC has has opened 3 clinics for people with longer term Covid symptoms.
· Located at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver General, and the Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre in Surrey.
· Some people still have symptoms months after the start of the disease. Of patients who were hospitalized in BC, after three months half still had breathing issues. About 20% have permanent lung scarring.
· The St. Paul’s clinic already has 160 patients.
· Nanaimo Regional Hospital has had an outbreak.
· Two staff and a patient tested positive.
· Limited to the 4th Floor on the east wing.
· A homeless shelter in Surrey has had an outbreak.
· 2 staff and 24 clients test positive.
· The Surrey Emergency Response Centre was set up to make more shelter available to homeless people during the pandemic.
Sources: CBC, New Westminster Record, Globe and Mail, BC Centre for Disease Control.
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NATIONAL:
· Worked from home during Covid-19? Be sure to check out these tax tips: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/accountants-break-down-tips-for-working-from-home-expenses-1.5872477
· Covid has been in Canada for one year now, starting back on the 25th of January, 2020, with one case in Toronto.
· Long-terms care homes are particularly hard hit, and it continues to be so that care homes are getting outbreaks.
· From the CBC, “What we’re seeing in the long-term care facilities just demonstrates, unfortunately, years and years of neglect.” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-ontario-canada-first-case-one-year-1.5884630
· In those early days, the public was generally told in Canada that the risk was low, and that people should not wear masks, and emphasized into March that there was no community spread.
· In late February, community transmission was evidenced in the U.S., and people returning to Canada from the U.S. began to show Covid. The halt to non-essential travel, on the land border, came on March 20.
· Canada is considering more travel restrictions, says the Canadian government.
· 143 flights have arrived in Canada in past two weeks with confirmed Covid cases. Deputy Prime Minister Freeland has assured, “We are considering the issue very, very seriously.”
· In this story, you can see where Canadians are flying during the pandemic. There sure seems to be a lot of urgent need to travel to places that happen to be warm vacation spots: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/freeland-travel-restrictions-1.5887163
· There is an 8 p.m. curfew in Montreal, and that is hard on the city’s homeless people.
· Homeless people have seen a dramatic reduction in help since the pandemic began. Shelters have to have social distancing, if they are safe to open at all.
· The province has refused to exempt homeless people from the curfew. People who break the curfew are subject to fines that start at $1,000 and can go up to $6,000. Premier Legault says making an exception for homeless people could cause people to pretend to be homeless.
· Some shelters have been forced to close altogether, because they can’t meet the requirements.
· Story: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-homeless-covid-curfew-1.5880946
· 90 “adverse events following immunization,” 0.015% of the 601,901 doses administered as of January 9th 2021.
· 63 were non-serious, 0.010%. This includes things like a skin rash.
· 27 were serious, 0.004%. In Canada, this includes a wide range of symptoms from headache to nausea to anaphylaxis.
· Learn about the Canada Adverse Events Following Immunization Surveillance System (CAEFISS) here: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/immunization/canadian-adverse-events-following-immunization-surveillance-system-caefiss.html
· Here is where the numbers are updated every Friday (but not consistently): https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/vaccine-safety/#seriousNonSerious
· Manitoba is now requiring a 14 day quarantine for non-essential travel from other parts of Canada.
· The move is being made to attempt to prevent new variants of Covid-19 from entering the province.
· Applies to air and land travel.
· Includes Manitobans who are returning to the province from elsewhere.
Sources: CBC, Toronto Star, Public Health Canada
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INTERNATIONAL:
· The world is experiencing Covid-somnia – an epidemic of insomnia.
· Insomnia is now at one-quarter of the population in the UK, and at 40% in Italy and Greece.
· There is concern that this is affecting people’s health in other ways.
· Work productivity is also affected.
· A University of Ottawa study of health care workers in 55 countries and 190,000 people showed that depression, anxiety, and PTSD have all risen at least 15% since the start of the pandemic. Insomnia has risen by over 23%.
· People are advised to seek help, which many are not as people avoid medical services, or those services are unavailable. Seeking help is important, because sleep issues over time can become and ongoing sleep disorder. “Tele-health” now makes treatment more available despite the pandemic.
· Working and using screens in bed is a big part of it. The recommendation is to use your bed only as a place of sleep.
· Full article: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210121-the-coronasomnia-phenomenon-keeping-us-from-getting-sleep
· Vaccine delays are happening around the world.
· Canada is receiving zero doses this week.
· Health workers who were scheduled for vaccination were mostly notified by email of their cancellations.
· In Canada, 50% of doses will be delayed for up to four weeks, up to 400,000 doses delayed.
· Restoration of supply will happen in the European union before it happens in Canada. Pfizer explained this as differing contract deals but did not reveal details. Europe has also threatened to sue Pfizer for breach of contracts, and threatened to abandon Pfizer altogether as a supplier, perhaps in doing so catching the company’s attention.
· Pfizer and AstraZeneca say they will catch up to their commitments in the Spring. Pfizer says their delay is due to changing production systems, so a short-term shut down for a greater number of people vaccinated more rapidly overall. Pfizers says that they are upgrading to be able to produce 2 billion doses per year, from the current 1.3 billion. AstraZeneca has not given details.
· UPDATED: The Pfizer production facility in question is in Belgium. The European Union has threatened to ban exports of the vaccine if commitments to Europe are not met. The company is attempting to distribute the problem in the world somewhat equitably. If Europe followed through on the threat, that could mean delays for other countries would be longer, including Canada, which is served by the Belgium facility.
· The UK, having had Brexit and pulled out of the European Union, has realized that they, too, would be one of those outside countries. The UK, somewhat ironically, is now arguing against nationalism as government policy, referring to what they called “the dead end of vaccine nationalism.”
· The World Health Organization’s Covax program, to distribute vaccine around the world fairly to low-income countries, has not been affected, some good news in the mix. The Covax problem is still on schedule, as its vaccine supply is produced in India and South Korea. The program has also received a substantial boost, following US President Joe Biden’s decision to contribute $4 billion to the program.
· The CDC in the US says that allergic reactions to the vaccine are extremely rare.
· Out of 4 million given the Moderna vaccine, 10 had severe allergic reactions.
· Moderna – 2.5 per million doses have severe allergic reactions.
· Pfizer – 11.1 per million.
· Normal flu vaccine – 1.3 per million.
· Allergic reactions begin quickly, at a median of 7 and a half minutes, so people are able to be supported through it. The majority were known to have severe allergies in advance. In the US, all vaccination sites must have people trained in responding to anaphylaxis, or severe allergic reaction.
· Story: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/22/health/moderna-severe-allergic-reactions-rare/index.html
· A doctor in Texas has been arrested for stealing vaccine.
· The doctor stole 9 doses to give to his friends and family, authorities allege.
· A man lived in the Chicago O’Hare airport for three months because he was afraid to fly. Story: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55702003
· Los Angeles has lifted its air quality limitations for cremations. An emergency order was issued so that crematoriums can catch up with the number of bodies. One person every eight minutes was dying from Covid every 8 minutes. The rate of death in LA county is double the norm from past years. 13,800 deaths in the city, 7,400 currently hospitalized, and 23% of those in intensive care.
· Over 200 incidents with plane passengers over the wearing of masks have been reported in the U.S.
· The behaviour has included refusal to wear masks once onboard, shouting abusively at flight attendants, and even physical assault.
· On Thursday, President Biden issued an executive order requiring the wearing of masks across transportation, a move welcomed by flight unions.
· The FAA, Federal Air Administration, has introduced fines up to $35,000 and potential jailing for abusing aircraft personnel, a move made in December after two flight attendants were assaulted.
· One person has been fined $15,000 after hitting the flight attendant, and grabbing her phone away from her while she was notifying the captain of the problem. Another passenger was fined $7,500, who when asked to wear a mask approached other passengers without a mask and sexually harassed a flight attendant.
· Some airlines are banning passengers from their flights who refuse to follow the rules. United Airlines has banned 615 people from flying on the airline since June, Delta Airlines has banned 700.
· There is a lot of news about variants of the virus.
· New variants have appeared in Britain, South Africa, and Brazil, all countries that have had high rates of Covid.
· So, what about vaccines? Scientists have actually expected that vaccines would still work against the variants. Moderna says that antibodies triggered by their vaccine works on new variants in lab test results. More study will be needed of people who actually have been vaccinated and who had the variant. The study so far was a small sample of eight people. Early results with the Pfizer vaccine also show that it works against variants.
· Moderna is also studying to see if there is a benefit of giving a third booster shot.
· Reports vary almost daily about if the variants are more deadly or not. The truth is that data is too limited and it is too early to really tell.
· Covid job losses have been four times worse than in the financial crisis in 2009.
· That’s according to a report by the International Labor Organization.
· The report estimates that 8.8% of the world’s work hours were eliminated. The ILO looks not only at those who have become unemployed, but those who have had reduced hours of work as well. That loss is equivalent to 255 million full-time jobs, or $3.7 trillion dollars of income.
· Press release: https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_766949/lang--en/index.htm
· Study: COVID-19 and the world of work. Seventh edition. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/briefingnote/wcms_767028.pdf
· What’s the latest with the Tokyo Olympics?
· The government of Japan wants to go ahead with the Olympics that were delayed last summer.
· The Olympics are planned to start on July 23, and the Paralympics on August 24.
· The International Olympic Committee is currently planning on proceeding, but has not made a final decision. Efforts are underway to have Olympics that are Covid safe. That might mean no audiences, athletes restricted to their accommodation areas, and each sport would have to have protocols around training and competition areas.
· “We need the vaccine to come to Africa.” A note about Grandmothers in Zimbabwe. I encourage you to read this one: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55726054
Sources: BBC, Toronto Star, International Labor Organization, CNN, Los Angeles Times.
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STATS (as of end of Monday)
CANADA
· 144 new deaths. 19,238 total.
· 5,628 new cases. 753,011 total.
· 1,222 fewer active. 62,446 total.
· 849 in critical care.
· 6,706 new recovered. 671,327 total.
USA
· 1,887 new deaths. 431,392 total.
· 152,244 new cases. 25,861,597 total.
· 9,812,845 active.
· 26,259 in critical care.
· 207,426 new recovered. 15,617,360 total.
WORLD
· 2,149,496 deaths.
· 100,286,772 cases.
· 72,315,474 recovered.
Sources: www.covid-19us.live/, https://www.covid-19canada.com/
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Pandemic updates provided on a voluntary basis as a community service, on Tuesdays and Fridays unless circumstances do not allow (currently dealing with an injury that limits my typing).
To provide accurate and timely information, locally, provincially, nationally and internationally, all in one place.
Feel free to share.
With love and hope,
Jaimie McEvoy, City Councillor, New Westminster, B.C.

Obviously this isn't set in England, but spiritually this piece is within my English Football series. The first six episodes covered Nottingham Forest's 21st century woes, the dickpic that consigned Notts County to the non-league, a reignited rivalry between Derby County and Leeds United, Stoke City's legendary shithouse era, the English Golden Generation of the 00s descending into farce, and Wimbledon FC's controversial relocation to Milton Keynes
This spin-off piece follows on from the main question raised by the Wimbledon FC/MK Dons saga. When does a club stop being a club? Is it the legal entity or something rather more intangible? These were questions posed with regards to one of the titans of Scottish football earlier this decade.
Background - The Establishment Club
Rangers FC has long cultivated an image as Scotland's 'establishment club', it isn't just a sports team, but an institution that embodies a particular way of living and worldview. Alongside other institutions like the Church of Scotland, the club is perceived as embodying traditional and small-C conservative Scottish values. Alongside Celtic (more on them in a bit) Rangers have dominated Scottish football since the league started. No club other than the two Glaswegian sides has won the league since 1985. Rangers have 54 league titles, Celtic have 51. The joint 3rd best sides (Aberdeen and the Edinburgh pair Hearts and Hibernian) have just four a piece. And yet as a legal entity the club ceased to exist in 2012. What happened? Does Rangers FC still exist?
It would be impossible to tell this tale without telling the tale of the Old Firm and the profound political, cultural, and religious divides involved. Glasgow's two largest clubs have a rivalry that defies comparison to anything in the rest of Scotland or in England. Essentially Rangers FC and its supporters represent Protestantism and British Unionism, while Celtic FC are considered to be aligned with Catholicism and Irish Nationalism. When the two sides meet, the Scottish saltire is rarely flown by supporters. Rangers supporters prefer the Union Jack or Ulster Banner, Celtic fans are likely to fly Irish tricolours. It is as if somebody took the socio-cultural conflict of Northern Ireland and transplanted it into a football ground.
Which is sort of what happened. Ultimately a big factor was migration to Glasgow in the early 20th century - Irish Catholics in Glasgow set up Celtic FC as their club, while Protestants from Northern Ireland (who are historically of largely Scottish extraction) who worked in the shipyards of the Clyde came to adopt Rangers which was located near the shipbuilding areas. Local Scots, being generally Protestant, inclined to support Rangers and many would have shared the religious and political feelings of the newcomers from Northern Ireland. This has meant that at matches both clubs have sections of support who chant about the Northern Irish conflict - some Rangers fans have a 'songbook' including the Loyalist anthem The Sash (which commemorates King William III, the Dutchman invited to become King of England and Scotland who defeated a Catholic army at the Boyne in 1690), while Celtic fans might sing in support of the Irish Republican Army. This involves by no means the majority of supporters, but it is important in setting the atmosphere at games.
Rangers FC had until the late 1980s an alleged policy of not signing any player known to be a Catholic. This led legendary Celtic manager Jock Stein to joke that if offered a Catholic or a Protestant to sign for Celtic, he would sign the Protestant in the knowledge that Rangers would never sign the Catholic. I cannot find evidence of any player ever transferring directly between Celtic and Rangers in the postwar era, with the low number of players who have turned out for both having had a 3rd club in between. Another example of the intensity is the way in which the clubs traditionally share shirt sponsors. This sounds innocuous, but the only way to sponsor one of the clubs without triggering a mass boycott by the other supporters was to simply sponsor both.
No other football rivalry in Britain has a dynamic like this (Liverpool and Everton did to a far lesser extent before about the 1960s, but sectarianism largely died out there decades ago), even in the days when hooliganism was a serious blight on English football it never quite reached the sort of scenes on display at the 1980 Scottish Cup Final.
Which club is the 'biggest'? It is impossible to say. Rangers have had more League titles, but Celtic being the first British club to win a European Cup in 1967 is a fairly potent trump card. What is without a doubt is that they are the two best supported Scottish clubs and their rivalry is possibly like no other.
Chasing the Rainbow
Avid readers of this series will notice a theme. The 1990s were a boom time for football and everyone involved in the sport. TV revenue started to really take off, as did the prizes for winning European competitions. Many clubs sought to capitalise on the windfall and Rangers were no exception.
Their chairman, Sir David Murray, had become one of Scotland's weathiest businessmen by leveraging debts against future revenue. He spent big on Rangers in the hope that they would win a major European trophy and repay his investment. Top players like Paul Gascoigne came to Rangers where before it was fairly rare for big name players from other leagues to move to Scotland. Domestically his investments paid off, from 1989-97 Rangers won nine League titles in a row, equalling the record set by Jock Stein's great Celtic side between 1966-74.
Unfortunately this did not translate to the windfall a Champion's League win would have given. While Murray was bankrolling Rangers, other clubs around Europe were likewise chasing the new massive financial prizes. Rangers came close to getting past the group stage of the new Champion's League format in 1992-93, but no Scottish club would enter a Champion's League knockout round until Rangers do so in 2005-06.
The debts mounted and Murray sought ways to manage the debts and hedge them against future revenue anticipated from TV fees and European prize money. He allowed the Bank of Scotland to buy a stake in the club with a mortgage allowing them to recover their losses in the event of the club defaulting on its repayments. Nothing to worry about, surely? David Murray had become a wildly successful businessman by effectively managing credit lines and debt against future income to fund expansion.
But a far bigger problem was just three small letters.
EBT
Put simply, Employee Benefit Trusts are a way of not paying tax, it was legal in some cases at the time but is generally illegal now.
Murray sought, from 2000, to pay his players through EBTs. This meant that they would be able to offer high net wages to players while cutting tax costs. In Britain most employees have all their tax payments deducted by the employer, so schemes like this and ones where employees are paid in dividends are a way of essentially not paying tax.
By 2010 HMRC had begun to investigate the case, concluding that Rangers may have evaded £49m in taxes, a vast amount for a club already overleveraged in debt in a league not known for being particularly wealthy.
By about 2008 Murray had had enough of Rangers and was looking to sell up. He had gambled and lost huge amounts of money on the club, which was now saddled with huge amounts of debt. The prospect of paying £49m to HMRC if the courts ruled against Rangers deterred any serious buyer and it took some years for a buyer to emerge. Another serious issue was the sheer amount of debt Rangers had to Lloyds (who had taken over the Bank of Scotland), with fans in 2009 threatening a boycott of the banking chain if the bank called in its debts.
Would a buyer emerge and save Rangers from this predicament?
Well, a buyer would emerge in 2011. Not the other bit, sadly.
Enter Craig Whyte
Craig Whyte had once been Scotland's youngest millionaire as a venture capitalist. He bought the club for £1 from Murray but desperately needed to leverage some funds to settle the Lloyds debt, so he borrowed a cool £26.7m against future season ticket sales. This on the face of it should have set alarm bells, even the biggest clubs don't make huge amounts of money on matchday tickets in relation to their massive costs.
Whyte also indulged in a bit of tax fiddling. But rather than setting up an avoidance mechanism and letting the lawyers fight it out, he just stopped sending Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs the income tax payments for the club players and staff. Definitely not the sophistication of Murray.
Matters only got worse. In early 2012 BBC Scotland aired a BAFTA-winning documentary about Whyte and Rangers, which revealed that Whyte had been once banned from working as a company director for seven years. The Scottish Football Association agreed, Whyte was not a 'Fit and Proper' person to own a football club.
At about this time Rangers entered administration. When this happens in Britain, the company's creditors can agree to a 'Company Voluntary Arrangement' (CVA) which essentially means agreeing a plan for the company to continue operating while in administration so the creditors can recover their debts. HMRC, with the outstanding £49m tax case from Murray's era plus the money owed by Whyte's outright failure to pay tax, voted against allowing this to happen.
In the absence of a CVA and agreement with creditors, this meant that Rangers FC as a company ceased to exist in June 2012, with all assets transferred to 'Sevco Scotland Ltd'.
Could this have been avoided? In the end, the £49m owed to HMRC which proved such a millstone has been substantially reduced and the cases around it are still ongoing. But ultimately, Rangers had vast amounts of debt not just to HMRC.
For his part Whyte would be bankrupted by his loan to buy the club and would be faced with a far longer ban on acting as a company director.
Sevco FC?
Sevco inherited everything Rangers had. The players had an opportunity to transfer their employment to Sevco, which also gained Ibrox Stadium and Ranger's membership of the Scottish Premier League.
For the club owned by Sevco to be able to play in the SPL next season, 2/3rds of members had to vote in favour. Clubs such as Aberdeen, Dundee United, and Hearts bowed to fan feeling that Rangers could not continue where they left off. In the end, no club voted in favour of Rangers remaning in the SPL with only Kilmarnock abstaining. This event would generate a huge amount of bad feeling and bitterness from Rangers fans who felt that supporters of other clubs were content to throw them under a bus for reasons not of their making. There was definitely a sense of schadenfreude from supporters of other clubs, watching Scotland's 'Establishment Club' go to the wall.
Could Rangers join the Scottish First Division and gain promotion to the Premier League? First Division clubs didn't want to face the consequences of a Premier League problem, so they also rejected it.
In the end, the Scottish Football League allowed Rangers FC to rejoin the league in the Third Division, a largely semi-professional league three divisions below the Premier League. Their first competitive game was a Challenge Cup (competition for the two lower leagues in the Scottish Football League) tie against Brechin City, who represent a sleepy town of just 7,000.
Clawing their way back up
Most of Ranger's players had refused their statutory right to transfer employment to the new company. Nonetheless, the 2012-13 season started well with their first home league game setting a world record for the best attended fourth division match in history as over 49,000 attended Rangers vs East Stirlingshire. A strong league performance saw Rangers confirm promotion into the 3rd tier by the end of March.
2013-14 saw another promotion as Rangers had an unbeaten season in League One (the leagues were renamed at about this time) to secure promotion to the Championship, the first league which would be wholly filled with professional clubs after the mix of professional and semi-professional that plies their trade in Scotland's lower leagues.
Rangers didn't make it three back-to-back promotions as they lost a promotion play-off final 6-1 to Motherwell, one of Scotland's more successful non-Old Firm clubs who had suffered a stint in the 2nd tier.
During this season they met Celtic in the cup. Some Celtic fans placed an advert in a newspaper claiming that the 'Old Firm' was over and while they had enjoyed a rivalry with Rangers FC they did not recognise the new club as the same entity. This caused some controversy, not just with Rangers fans, but with Celtic fans who were indeed looking forward to the first Old Firm in some time. The accusation that Rangers were 'Zombies' or 'Sevco FC' would become a common one from Celtic supporters at games and remains as such.
Rangers won the 2016-15 Scottish Championship to secure promotion, while also beating Celtic in a Scottish Cup semi-final. But, the 'Gruesome Twosome' of Scottish football would once again grace the top flight together.
Same as before?
Celtic had done very well out of the previous few years. They had won a succession of League titles at a canter with the accompanying European qualification giving them financial muscle the other clubs couldn't compete with. Rangers finished a respectable 3rd, but Celtic once again dominated the league.
After an embarrassing elimination out of the Europa League at the hands of a semi-professional side from Luxembourg, Rangers didn't improve on their 3rd place and Celtic won again. It wasn't until 2018-19 that Rangers finished 2nd.
With Celtic winning again.
Could Celtic's domination be broken before they won 10 titles in a row and broke the record jointly held by 1960s-70s Celtic and 1990s Rangers? Perhaps not yet.
2019-20 started well, Rangers had a fantastic run in the Europa League under Steven Gerrard and beat Celtic at their ground for the first time since 2010. COVID put paid to an increasingly close title race with Celtic awarded the title based on Points Per Game with the season abandoned.
This season has very much been Ranger's season though. At the time of writing they seem, barring a miracle/disaster, overwhemingly likely to win the League this year and deny Celtic the coveted ten in a year.
Postscript
Is the Rangers FC of today the same club as that pre-2012? Displays from Celtic fans would say not, and as a legal entity it certainly isn't the same. But UEFA allows for 'sporting continuity' for a club in terms of identity and honours even if the holding company or corporate structure changes. This suggests something that many football supporters would agree with - a club is as much as community asset as it is a company or business and the stories we have looked at explore the issues when the business and the community collide.
Next time, we'll take a look at how Arsenal Fan TV revolutionised football social media while turning their club into a laughing stock

What has happened in the last the days in this subreddit has been nothing short of an explosion of mass hysteria and delusion.
It's been a mix of a cult like following of the 'reddit stocks' where any alternative opinion shared is shot to hell and a tinfoil hat wearing brigade declaring any slight market movement not in their favour or platform issue, is due to some grand conspiracy and/or market manipulation. From an outside perspective it honestly felt like the Trump crowd proclaiming 'tHe elEctiON waS rIgGEd' just because it didn't go the way the way they wanted.
I have no issue with people sharing views on the next penny stock or with people that have wildly more speculative investing styles to my own, I think that it's completely normal and should be welcomed. But it felt as if overnight investors (as in people that got an account in the last few weeks, watched a few youtube videos on 'what's a stop loss' etc and built a confirmation bias from reading articles on reddit) were throwing completely baseless allegations at T212.
I remember it unfolding. Everyone was like 'F*** T212 let's go to FreeTrade where they aren't manipulators' or 'I can't wait til we get Robinhood in the UK' to, 'T212 is taking backhanders from HF's' & 'the whole industry is in on it'. Which is all completely baseless and false. I also remember when people were absolutely losing their marbles when they couldn't place orders despite having no knowledge NYSE had halted trading etc. Anyone who's been a market participant for more than 5 minutes knows that none of what happened was new or shocking. Brokers do unusual things in unusual times to protect themselves. I also posted on their fiduciary responsibility (which got shot to hell) which i'll share again beneath. There was also a great comment from u/dialectic_duck which i'll paste beneath for anyone that wants to read about what was happening behind the scenes.
There's also the massive issue to me that this is a FREE service. To expect lightning fast execution at the best prices and 100% server response at peak market times during a completely unexpected event like this, is an absolute joke. It's not what this platform is here for. It's a free service which to me, everyone that used this service prior to the frenzy understood. If you're new to the markets and want to dabble, or you want to invest without the fees of say HL, great T212's your guy. If you want a professional level broker, go get yourself a $10k minimum deposit and go elsewhere, or be willing to pay high account charges.
I was also downvoted for saying what would have happened if T212 hadn't suspended trading when the price was of GME was at $450. So many here would have flooded in and due to the reddit sentiment, would still be holding at a MASSIVE loss. Without realising, many people have been saved from losing a tonne of money by physically not being able to enter orders. You can't have your cake and eat it. I also think it's completely reckless when completely unqualified users are telling others 'to hold no matter what'. People that can't afford to lose money have lost £0000's on this. Holding onto a loser is completely against basic investing principles as you almost certainly lose more money. Google behavioural finance.
On risk & regulation etc. Again people who have been in the market for more than 5 minutes would have identified all the risks here INCLUDING counter-party risk and stepped back and happily watched the frenzy from the sidelines. When investing in risky stocks such as this you have to be prepared to lose money, and that loss can come from anywhere. If you honestly look for 100% risk free and feel entitled to this from a free service, you are probably better purchasing Gilts from the DMO. The FCA also regularly issues notices on the risks to retail investors on issues such as these so they quite frankly don't give a monkey's and complaints with the FOS will go nowhere. Here is the FCA's statement for anyone interested.
Prior to the WSBs crowd, there were generic discussions on investing tips, sharing investment ideas or gains, platform information and general financial news etc. I think people need to take a step back and remember that's what this is here for.
I have NO IDEA what will happen next, i'm not trying to say I do or share any opinion on what might happen to GME etc in the next few days. Could go to $10 or $10k. I also sympathise with those who were stuck in orders etc. But I think it's time we all took a step back and just chill a little. A lot of us like T212 for what it is. I like the updates to the web app and am looking forward to carrying on using it.
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u/dialectic_duck 's post:
It’s hilarious people think this has legs and I look forward to my downvotes.

1. when you buy a stock settlement is not immediate
2. orderly settlement is an important function of underlying market transactions (a tx isn’t complete until what you bought is delivered)
3. most brokers rely on settlement agents to handle settlement and clearing for them.
4. every day brokers post collateral on a continuous net settlement basis so that the clearing house knows that both sides of a transaction will be fulfilled at settlement time this allows brokers the confidence to know that even if the other side is at another brokerage there is enough cash/equity to fulfil.
5. the margin rate for brokers went from 10% to 100% overnight because there was concern that settlements may result in failures to deliver (simply put for clarity this means if you bought you might not end up getting what you think you bought**) and in that case the broker would be on the hook to pay this liability, as such they’re completely within their rights to manage this risk (that they cannot fulfil a delivery) not just in the case of a customer wanting to buy, but for the security of all their customers who would be adversely impacted if the broker itself imploded. (This is why Robinhood got caught short and pulled down a reported 500mm in bank lines and 1bb in emergency convertible debt funding from their investors in 24hrs, because half their customer base was buying GME and they wouldn’t have been able to meet short term clearing obligations without it)
6. my own broker made it very clear in multiple communications that they passed on the enhanced margin requirements (100% long and 300% short AND the liquidate only restrictions on to all customers - retail, professional and institutional customers). some of those customers are family offices, small hedge funds etc (anyone that doesn’t have a prime IB brokerage).
7. T212 uses IBKR as their intermediary, they literally had no choice but to comply, and neither did IBKR because they would have been in breach of settlement collateral posting obligations. As an aside HL uses a RFQ system and their is no obligation for the RFQ broker network to provide a quote to open new positions if they reasonably believe they cannot fulfil delivery to the client. (Btw when I checked I didn’t see restriction on buying with HL, but I only looked once).

** this is the fallacy in the argument, people are complaining they were prevented from buying, their only thesis for wanting to buy something that everyone “knows” is absurdly priced is because of XXX% short interest, by their (own logic) means there is limited shares actually available to buy. If you take this to the extreme they’re demanding someone sell them something that by their own logic might not exist for delivery to them.
It’s like going into Tesco and demanding to buy something they no longer can give you with any reasonable certainty, then writing to your MP about it, it’s stupid.
The only thing the outrage could guarantee is enhanced “retail protections” that will almost certainly result in a curtailment of retail investor freedom people have today.
Edit: if you have a complaint about not being able to buy ARK complain to ARK, it’s them that do not run a MIFID complaint fund nor report to HMRC for tax purposes (meaning gains anyway would be taxed as foreign overseas income, and not CGT).
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My post on 28/01:
They (T212) have a fiduciary responsibility to protect their customers' interests.
And yes they can control risk. It's exactly the same reason why they can't offer excess leverage to retail clients and can close out positions. Halting trading for this reason is not new. It has happened across the board with plenty of brokers in the past.
The FCA handbooks cover this. They could be liable to FCA sanctions if it transpired they were offering easy access to completely non-qualified investors and they all ended up losing huge sums and made FCA complaints.
Say GME dumps at open (which it is completely possible), I feel people won't be complaining.
They've said in that notification, this is partly to do with trading volumes (which have been crazy) and their servers will just melt again and people will be stuck in orders when the market potentially dumps this.
So T212, a free service, should upgrade all their servers and increase capacity in the space of 2 days, purely because every man and his dog has decided to pile into a handful of stocks the last few days (fuelled by a reddit forum)?
This happens, it's happened loads on the past with all brokers across the board and this issue wasn't specific to T212 yesterday.
People that have qualified themselves as pro investors, have literally become traders overnight and are complaining 'manipulation' etc...
Yes it's really shit to everyone stuck in orders, but what did you expect!!! Experienced investors will have stayed well clear of this and only invested what they can afford to lose, knowing it's a complete gamble!
The FOS are going to say T212 looks after the interests of all its users and were trying to decrease server volatility whilst literally millions of people were piling into a few names at a time there was also no liquidity. And that the platform isn't just for people trading risky instruments via CFDs. The FCA won't give a monkey's, they regularly issue risk warnings on stuff like this.

We all love to read stories about big wins and imagine ourselves in the shoes of those winners. But, have you ever thought about what happens at that very moment after successfully beating the slot machine? Usually, the slot machine locks up and, in most cases, you hear the music and see the flashing lights on top of the machine. But one of the first questions every player asks is whether they have to pay taxes on casino winnings? Well, you’re about to find out!

Taxes on Slot Machine Winnings in USA

In the USA, when a lucky player hits a jackpot, there’s the option of receiving the winnings in cash or check. In case it’s a large sum, it’s usually paid by check. However, the IRS only obliges the casinos to report winnings that are larger than $1,200.
Of course, all winners are obliged to show a proper identification— a valid ID or passport. When the casino checks for your identification they also look at your age to make sure you are officially and legally old enough to play. As the minimum legal age for gambling varies from state to state, be sure to check it out before you decide to play.

Do I Have to Report All Winnings?

All gambling winnings received from slot machines are subject to federal taxes, and both cash and non-cash winnings (like a car or a vacation) are fully taxable. Apart from slot machines, the same applies to winnings from lottery, bingo, keno, poker or other games of chance. So, if the amount won on a slot machine is higher than $1200, the casino is required to report it. In other words, all your gambling winnings have to be reported on your tax return as "other income" on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8.

Slot Machine Winnings in W-2G Form

In case it happens to you and you snag that big win (which we hope one day you will), it’s useful to know that casino or other payer must give you a W-2G Form, listing your name, address and Social Security number. So, if the winnings are reported through a W-2G Form, federal taxes will be withheld at a rate of 25%.
If, however, you didn’t provide your Social Security number (or your Tax Identification Number), in that case the withholding will be 28%. Either way, a copy of your Form W-2G should be issued, showing the amount you won alongside the amount of tax withheld. One copy needs to go to the IRS, as well.
Aside from slot winnings, Form W-2G is issued to winners of the following types of gambling activities like:

• bingo (for players who win $1,200 or more),
• keno (for at least $1,500 worth wins)
• poker tournament players (for the $5,000 win or more).
• a horse track (if the winnings are 300x your bet)

However, not all gambling winnings are subject to IRS Form W2-G. For instance, W2-G forms are not required for winnings from table games like blackjack, baccarat, and roulette, whatever the amount. You’d still have to report your winnings to the IRS, it’s just you won’t need to do it through W-2G Form.

Are My Slot Losses Deductible?

The good news is that you can deduct your slot losses (line 28 of Schedule A, Form 1040), while the bad news is gambling losses are deductible only up to the amount of your wins. In other words, you can use your losses to compensate for your winnings. So, let’s say you won $200 on one bet, but you lost $400 on one or a few others, you can only deduct the first $200 of losses. Meaning if you didn’t win anything for a year, you won’t be able to deduct any of your gambling losses.
In order to prove your losses, you need to keep good records and have suitable documents. So, whenever you lose, keep those losing tickets, cancelled checks and credit slips. Your documentation must include the amount you won or lost, a date and time, type of wager, type of your gambling activity, name of each casino/address of each casino you visited and the location of their gambling business. You may as well list the people who were with you.

Do State and Local Taxes Apply Separately?

Yes, you are required to pay your state or local taxes on your gambling winnings. In case you travel to another state, and snag some huge winning combo there, that other state would want to tax your winnings too. But don’t worry, you won't be taxed twice, as the state where you reside needs to give you a tax credit for the taxes you pay to that other state.
Keep in mind though that some states like Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Ohio don't allow gambling losses.

Online Slot Taxes

Whether you usually spin the reels of your favourite casino games in land-based casinos in the US, overseas casinos, or online casinos, all income for the citizens of the US is taxable. As a US citizen, you are required to send Form W2G for all winnings from a slot machine (not reduced by the wager) that equals to or is more than $1,200.

Taxes on Slot Machine Winnings in UK

As a resident of the United Kingdom, your gambling winnings won’t be taxed. Unlike the USA mentioned above, you’ll be allowed to keep whatever it is that you have won and earned in Britain, even in case you are a poker pro. Then again, you won’t be able to deduct any losses you might collect.
It doesn’t really matter if you win £5 or £5 million playing online slots, your winnings will be tax-free as long as you reside anywhere in the UK, be that in England, Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland.

Taxes on Slot Machine Winnings in Canada

If you are a recreational player who lives in Canada, we have good news for you. When it comes to gambling, you don't have to pay taxes as your winnings are totally tax free. According to laws in Canada, gambling activities don’t fall under the category of constant source of income, therefore your winnings will not be taxed.
Canadians don't even pay taxes on their lottery winnings. The only exception here are professional gamblers who make a living from betting and are, therefore, obliged to pay taxes. Keep in mind though, this is the current situation - laws in Canada change frequently, which may also include tax laws.

Taxes on Slot Machine Winnings in Australia

In case you reside in Australia and like to visit casinos from time to time, you’ll be happy to find out that your winnings in Australia will not taxed and here are 3 core reasons for that:

• Gambling is not treated a profession (it's treated as a hobby)
• The government doesn’t see profits from gambling activities as income, but as a result of good luck
• The Australian government taxes casino operators and lottery organisers instead.

Of course, taxation varies from state to state.

Taxes on Slot Machine Winnings in New Zealand

Unlike in Australia, where even professional players can claim they are recreational, in New Zealand slot machine winnings (and any other winnings from casino games) are considered taxable income, in case the player has little income from other resources.
But, apart from professional gambling, it is very unusual for winnings to be taxed in New Zealand. Most often, gambling is considered recreational and not income, so players can enjoy their gameplay as they do not have to pay taxes on their winnings.

Energy and financials led market gains:

• Energy was the strongest sector as WTI crude rose above $40 per barrell and oil field services and E&Ps outperformed. Financials finished well higher with banks, vehicle finance and consumer finance among the best groups. Consumer discretionary rose with apparel, auto suppliers, restaurants, hotels helping. Tech outperformed on semis strength though software a bit behind. Industrials were higher as airlines, machinery and building materials led the gainers. Industrial metals and commodity chemicals were strongest in materials. Comm services were weighed on as interactive media and telecom names lagged. Consumer staples underperformed with some softness in grocers and HPCs. Healthcare finished behind as managed care, pharma and biotech were up less than the tape. Utilities the weakest sector though still positive on the day.

Pelosi says bipartisan deal on fifth coronavirus relief package still possible:

• Bloomberg noted House Speaker Pelosi said on Sunday a bipartisan deal on a fifth coronavirus relief package is still possible. While stimulus prospects seemed to erode further last week with all of the politics surrounding the SCOTUS vacancy, the White House and Democrats on Thursday agreed to revive negotiations. However, there continues to be a lot of skepticism about any near-term path to a bipartisan compromise given the big differences between Democrats and Republicans over the size and scope of the package. House Speaker Pelosi has repeatedly insisted on a bill with a price tag of at least $2.2T while White House has indicated a willingness to go up to $1.5T (and GOP Senate has only voted on a ~$300B "skinny" package). Pelosi said today that Republicans need to come back to the table with "much more money" to get the job done (Bloomberg). The big sticking points have long revolved around levels of enhanced unemployment benefits and additional state and local government aid.

Monday M&A:

• Caesars Entertainment (CZR-US ) said the board of British gambling group William Hill would likely recommend its $3.9B takeover price, adding that it has finalized due diligence and expects any deal to be completed in second half of 2021. William Hill said last week it received offers from both Caesars and Apollo Management (APO-US ). Devon Energy (DVN-US ) and WPX Energy (WPX-US ), which both have holdings in the Permian Basin, agreed to combine in an all-stock deal that will create an entity with an enterprise value of ~$12B. Deal could be announced as soon as this week. Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF-US ) to acquire US operations of ArcelorMittal SA (MT-US ) for $1.4B in cash and stock to become biggest flat-rolled steel producer in North America. SINA (SINA-US ), which owns the social media platform Weibo, to be taken private by company's CEO in a $2.6B deal. MobileIron (MOBL-US ) to be acquired by Ivanti in an all-cash deal valued at $827M.

Government to ship millions of rapid tests to states to help reopen schools:

• Bloomberg and others reported that President Trump will announce on Monday that the US government will ship millions of the Abbott (ABT-US ) 15-minute Covid-19 test in the coming weeks. Government will send out 6.5M rapid tests to governors this week and expects to ship 100M tests over the next several weeks, based on states' populations. States will be able to make the final decision on how to distribute the tests though the government will encourage them to use the tests to facilitate the reopening of schools. While there has been concern about a recent uptick in US coronavirus cases, it has been accompanied by an uptick in testing. According to BofA, the number of daily tests is up by a third since mid-September to a new high of 900K. In addition, there have been a number of headlines as of late about how cruise ships (The Hill) and airlines (Reuters) expect to use rapid testing to get people more comfortable with the idea of traveling.

Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey beats estimates, highest in nearly two years:

• September Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index rose six points m/m to 13.6, ahead of the consensus 8.5 and the highest print since Nov-18. It was the fourth-straight increase following the post-pandemic contraction. The company outlook index held at an above-average 14.9, while the uncertainty index was little changed at 6.7. The production index was up nine points to 22.3, the highest in two years. New orders index up five points to 14.7, growth rate of orders held steady at 133.2. Capacity utilization also up 6.6 points to 17.5. The labor market index another highlight, up 3.9 points m/m to 14.5. Report the latest in a string of positive regional manufacturing reports. September Richmond Fed Empire Manufacturing indexes both well ahead of estimates. Philadelphia Fed Index fell from August, but in line with consensus.

FDA puts partial hold on Inovio's coronavirus vaccine trial:

• Inovio (INO-US ) said FDA put a partial clinical hold on its Phase 2/3 coronavirus vaccine trial. FDA raised questions about its Cellectra 2000 delivery device, which is being used in the trial, and request was not due to the occurrence of any adverse events related to an expanded Phase 1 study of the vaccine. Inovio plans to respond to the FDA in October, after which agency will have up to 30 days to notify company as to whether the trial may proceed. AstraZeneca (AZN-US ) trial still on hold in the US despite having restarted in the UK. Pfizer (PFE-US ) and Moderna (MRNA-US ) have said their respective trials could start providing some key results in late October or November, with the former reportedly on track to be first to find out if it works (Bloomberg). Near-term vaccine developments expected to be a big directional driver for the market but upside risk greater than downside risk given number of candidates in late-stage trials (Reuters).

Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court:

• As widely expected, President Trump on Saturday nominated Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. Barrett said her philosophy is similar to that of the late staunch conservative Antonin Scalia, noting that judges are not policymakers and must apply the law as written. The WSJ said Barrett's known views fall to the right of Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, Trump's prior two Supreme Court picks, and somewhat to the left of Thomas and Alito. Her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee will start in just over two weeks on 12-Oct, setting up a final vote before the election (The Hill). Democrats do not have the votes to stop her confirmation. Multiple reports (Washington Post, Bloomberg) over the last few days have discussed how they will frame Trump's nomination of Barrett as an attack on Obamacare. Just a week after the election, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear another challenge to the ACA.

Trump has set a low debate bar for Biden:

• The most important event this week will be the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden on Tuesday. Politico recently discussed how the setup into the debate is particularly interesting given the contrast between the efforts on the part of White House allies to cast Biden as an accomplished debater, and Trump's longstanding attacks targeting his mental health. The NY Times also discussed this dynamic, noting that Trump's efforts to cast Biden as addled and incoherent could backfire. It pointed out that more recently, Trump has claimed that Biden's improved debate performances during the Democratic primary were due to performance-enhancing drugs. Over the weekend, Trump reiterated calls for Biden to take a drug test before the debate. The Times article noted that Biden's campaign has been telling people that no debate outcome will fundamentally change the contours of the race. However, Democrats are concerned about how Biden may react to Trump's comments about his son, Hunter.

Trump's tax history exposed:

• NY Times reported President Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017. Also said he paid nothing in ten of the past 15 years, because of losses. Noted Trump has reduced his tax bill with questionable measures, including a $72.9M tax refund that is the subject of an audit by the IRS. Also discussed how Trump faces mounting business losses and has more than $300M coming due within the next four years for which he is personally responsible. Paper said all of the information was provided by sources with legal access to it. While Biden campaign has already released an ad targeting Trump on tax payments, latest report unlikely to have much impact on the election given the entrenched opinions on the election (Axios) and the loyalty of Trump's base (Washington Post).

Polls show Biden with comfortable lead over Trump, but markets priced for volatility:

• Washington Post said latest Washington Post-ABC News poll showed Joe Biden with a 10-point lead over President Trump among both registered and likely voters, statistically unchanged from the 12-point led in August's poll. The paper discussed how Biden remains helped by a big advantage with female voters. Separately, NY Times said a NY Times-Siena College poll showed Biden with an 8-point lead over Trump, underpinned by his wide advantage among women and Black and Latino voters and by his gains among some constituencies that strongly favored the president in 2016. WSJ latest to discuss how investors are betting one of the most volatile US elections seasons on record. Noted futures and options prices show an ambiguous election result is now the stock market's baseline expectation. Highlighted expectations for volatility to continue through December. Also discussed thoughts that if the election goes smoothly, multiple asset classes could extend this year's rally in tandem.

Uncertainty around direction of the dollar headed into election:

• Though dollar index a bit weaker in Monday trading, it is still sitting near the best levels since late July. FT noted that some analysts and traders say rising expectations for election-driven volatility across financial markets has pushed investors scrambling for the safety of the dollar, even though the stresses originate in Washington. Positioning also under scrutiny, as a trader noted the overwhelming consensus among investors that the dollar will keep falling. Bloomberg also said that hedge funds have racked up the largest bets against the dollar in nearly three years, which may be setting up a short squeeze. However, Deutsche Bank strategists said a unified government could lead to a weaker dollar given larger fiscal deficits. However, they argued a divided government will likely keep the dollar trend choppier.

Trump's ban on TikTok temporarily blocked by federal judge:

• Bloomberg reported President Trump's ban on TikTok was temporarily blocked. District Judge Carl Nichols granted a preliminary injunction against the ban, refusing to grant an injunction against a November deadline for a sale. ByteDance had requested the hold after the president ordered TikTok out of American app stores unless the company sold a stake in its US operations to a domestic buyer. TikTok lawyer John Hall argued ban was irrational given that ByteDance is in talks to strike a deal the president himself has demanded. In a separate case, a federal judge in Pennsylvania on Saturday rejected a request by TikTok users to halt the ban, saying the consequences of the ban wouldn't be severe enough for the users to justify an injunction temporarily blocking the order while the litigation continues.

First, I am from Denmark, huge soccer fanatic and I occasionally do some sports betting once in a while.
So, I have been reading all the fuzz about DKNG and I know that the majority of the people here are US based, so I understand that sports betting apparently have been illegal in several states (all?), correct? So, I just quickly ran some numbers - please read this through and down downvote me yet haha, but from 2019 DKNG had"According to filings posted Thursday, 2019 revenues came in at $323 million*, but the company’s net loss almost doubled year-on-year from* $76 million to $142 million*."* (https://www.legalsportsreport.com/39020/draftkings-2019-revenue-report/) and comparing with the stocks market cap of 12.292B atm, it seems outright crazy (unless there's something I don't know about).Alright, why look back though, when you invest for future gains, I know. You say it is the technology and platform which is great and therefore it will grow a lot. But is it just because you are not aware of the big sports betting companies outside the US?
Again, I am from Denmark and in Europe sports betting is huge and there are some super big players. Check companies like BET365 "gaming revenue hit £2.98b, up 10% from fiscal 2017-18, while operating profit rose 12% to £767.1m and after-tax profit gained 16% to £681.7m."
Ladbrokes-Coral Group 2.5 Billion GBP / 30000 employeesPaddy Power Betfair Plc 1.75 Billion GBP / 8000 employeesWilliam Hill Plc 1.7 Billion GBP / 16000 employeesBet365 Group Ltd 2.3 Billion GBP / 3500employees888 Holdings Plc 600 Million GBP /1600 employeesBetfred 800 Million GBP / 1000 employees (https://playright.co.uk/betting/biggest-companies/)
These companies above are just UK based. There are a lot more in Europe - you get the gist.
So, why is it that DKNG has so much value? I have a super hard time imagining that the platform is better than all of those above, which have huge budgets and honestly I use Bet365 personally, they livesteam the games on your phone etc., great platform, super responsive etc. Is it because the majority in here has narrowed down their focus on US based companies only? I see no reason why the above mentioned companies shouldn't be able to gain huge chunks of the US market? I mean, I can bet on anything there, even US college/lower tier football/basketball, I can bet on who's going to be the next POTUS (Biden has a lead according to Bet365), all sorts of E-sport events, there's literally ANYTHING. I'm genuinely curious and want to know why it is such a "good" investment?
EDIT: Okay, so to write it super quick. If, and this "IF" is crucial, the US sports betting market is regulated such that US customers are exclusive to US sports betting companies, I can see where the hype is coming from ish. However, IF, the regulations lift and the European companies can enter the US market, I believe that you underestimate these monsters of betting companies and I do believe with the cash that they're sitting, can take a huge piece of the market, which means that DKNG's valuation based on % of the marketshare is wrong.

Hi all,
Firstly, I completely understand the risks about owning individual stocks, and that you should invest for at least 5+ years, could lose everything etc. I understand that completely and I know that some view it as akin to gambling, but I had a few questions about buying and selling shares and was wondering if anyone knows about them.
Suppose I opened up a Stocks and Shares ISA with trading 212, and put in £1000 and then used that to buy a share in Tesla. Suppose it then rose to £1010 and I sold it and then bought a share in Apple which rose to £1020, and continued doing this as long as I didn’t contribute more than £20,000 per tax year. Is it correct that I could buy and sell shares freely like this within the app in the s and s isa? Are there any other considerations at all, or do I have to report any profits or losses to HMRC at all? Any forms to fill out? Is there anything at all that I’d have to do if it’s all in an isa? Does it make a difference investing in EU, US or UK companies?
Thank you very much

​
Matched betting is the ultimate side hustle. It involves profiting from the free bets and incentives that bookmakers offer to entice you to use their gambling services. It is a completely legal, effective and risk-free way of making money (when done properly).
HOW MUCH CAN I EARN?
Earnings vary depending on how much time you put in. The bigger the offer the more profitable they are, and after that you move onto the reload offers. These are offers that bookmakers give out to retain customers.
For each matched bet, you will be left with up to 80% of the free bet amount as profit (e.g. a £25 free bet could earn you £20). You are likely to make a small loss on your first bet, but will make this back up once you claim your free bet. It’s also worth pointing out that earnings from the gambling industry are currently tax-free in the UK!
Tons of people report earning a full-time income from matched betting. But if you don’t have that much time to dedicate to finding the offers and placing your bets, you can still earn a substantial amount of money. Odds Maker report that with as little as 3 hours worth of work a week you can earn over £300! You can increase your profits even more by signing up to the bookmakers through Topcashback (and earning cashback for signing up too). Ref Link
HOW DOES MATCHED BETTING WORK?
To start your matched betting hustle, you will need to use mathematical equations to match a lay bet with a back bet, cancelling out any risk of losing money and profiting from your free bet (or similar incentive). The best way to ensure that you don’t make any mistakes is by using an odds calculator. Odds calculators often come at a small cost but will speed up and maximise your profits. I’d recommend signing up to Profit Accumulator; they can talk you through the process and guide you to making money quickly!
Ref Link
Non Ref
Here are the two types of bets you need to place to cash in on your free money:
THE ‘BACK’ BET
The back bet is the most traditional form of bet, essentially you’re backing your predicted outcome and saying “I think this will win”. If the team, horse, or whatever else you place your back bet on wins, then you’ll win your bet and the profit along with it.
THE ‘LAY’ BET
The lay bet is the exact opposite to the back bet, you’re betting on every eventually other than a specific outcome and saying “I don’t think this will win”. If the team that you bet on don’t win the match (they draw or lose), you win your lay bet.
Betfair is the most commonly used betting exchange website that allows you to place ‘lay’ bets. Keep in mind that you’ll be charged 5% commission on your winnings from Betfair.
THE FREE BET
Following your ‘qualifying’ bet, you are then given the free bet (or similar incentive) to play with. This is where you make your profit! Repeat the process of placing your back bet and lay bet using your free bet and cash out your winnings!
Any questions and I'll be more than happy to help!

President Trump says he is announcing today that the U.S. will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, and he will sign a memo to reinstate the highest levels of sanctions against Iran, and any nation who supports Iran will be sanctioned by the U.S.

Submissions that may interest you

SUBMISSION	DOMAIN
U.S. withdraws from Iran nuclear deal. What's Trump's ultimate goal?	usatoday.com
Trump announces withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal	washingtonpost.com
BBC News: Trump pulls US out of Iran deal	bbc.com
Trump Withdraws U.S. From ‘One-Sided’ Iran Nuclear Deal	nytimes.com
President Donald Trump Announces His Decision On The Iran Deal At The Wh...	youtube.com
Trump withdraws from Iran nuclear deal: Live updates	cnn.com
Trump pulls US out of Iran deal	bbc.co.uk
Iran deal: Donald Trump withdraws US from nuclear agreement The Guardian	theguardian.com
Trump announces he's withdrawing from Iran deal	businessinsider.com
Trump withdraws US from Iran Nuclear Deal	independent.co.uk
Wall Street drops in choppy session on uncertainty over Iran deal	reuters.com
Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, explained	vox.com
Trump announces U.S. withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal	axios.com
Trump Announces U.S. Withdrawal From Iran Nuclear Deal: Partial Transcript	nytimes.com
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Watch live: Trump announces his decision on the Iran deal	thehill.com
President Trump Announcement on Iran Nuclear Deal	c-span.org
Trump’s Reckless Decision Puts US on Path to War with Iran	commondreams.org
Trump: Iran nuclear deal is ‘defective at its core,’ announces US withdrawing from global agreement	washingtonpost.com
Trump decides to exit nuclear accord with Iran	apnews.com
Trump To Withdraw from Iran Deal, Sources Say	nbcnews.com
Trump expected to withdraw from Iran nuclear deal	foxnews.com
Donald Trump to withdraw from Iran nuclear deal	globalnews.ca
Trump’s Iran decision shows allies no longer count	axios.com
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Traveled to North Korea as Trump Killed Iran Deal	thedailybeast.com
Trump To Violate Iran Nuclear Deal, Vows To Reimpose Sanctions	huffingtonpost.com
Pelosi Statement on President Trump’s Decision to Terminate U.S. Participation in the Iran Nuclear Agreement	democraticleader.gov
Trump: U.S. ‘Will Withdraw’ From Iran Nuclear Deal	npr.org
Trump withdraws US from Iran nuclear deal	edition.cnn.com
Quitting the Iran deal cements America’s place outside the global order	qz.com
Donald Trump announces US pulling out of Iran nuclear deal	abc.net.au
Trump announces withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal, isolating him further from world	edition.cnn.com
The Latest: Trump announces US withdrawal from Iran deal	miamiherald.com
Trump undermines nuclear talks with North Korea with Iran deal withdrawal, experts say	cnbc.com
European allies dismayed and Iran furious	bbc.co.uk
Less than one in three Americans support U.S. pullout from Iran deal	reuters.com
Florida reaction to President Trump’s decision to pull out of Iran deal	tampabay.com
Trump Ends Iran Deal: We Have ‘Definitive Proof’ They Lied	thedailybeast.com
The Dishonest Case Against the Iran Deal	commondreams.org
Trump couldn’t answer the most basic question about his decision to violate Iran nuclear deal	thinkprogress.org
Poll: Less Than 1 in 3 Americans Support U.S. Pullout From Iran Deal	haaretz.com
Trump pulls U.S. from Iran nuclear deal, to revive sanctions	reuters.com
Israel goes on high alert over Syria as Trump quits Iran deal	reuters.com
Israel Golan Heights alert over Iran 'irregular activity' in Syria	bbc.com
Trump just abandoned the Iran deal. Does he have any idea what to do next?	washingtonpost.com
Schiff: Trump made mistake of 'historic proportions' by scrapping Iran deal	thehill.com
Iran leader Hassan Rouhani says Trump will not win ‘psychological war’ as he orders preparations for uranium enrichment	independent.co.uk
Iran ‘prepared for all scenarios’ after Trump nixes nuclear deal, officials say	washingtonpost.com
Iran to negotiate with Europeans, Russia and China about remaining in nuclear deal	washingtonpost.com
Trump announces US will exit nuclear accord with Iran	apnews.com
Trump pulls US out of Iran nuke deal	thehill.com
Trump blows up Iran nuclear deal with nothing to replace it	axios.com
Kerry: U.S. departure from Iran deal risks 'dragging the world back to the brink we faced a few years ago'	thehill.com
John Bolton says Iran deal decision isn't prelude to US invasion	washingtonexaminer.com
President Trump bucks allies, pulls US out of 'defective at its core' Obama-era Iran inspection deal	foxnews.com
Iran's President Warns Uranium Enrichment May Resume if Nuclear Deal Fails	time.com
Trump scraps the Iran nuclear deal. Now what?	nbcnews.com
Obama's statement on Trump's decision to pull out of Iran deal	cnbc.com
Obama: Withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal 'misguided'	thehill.com
Trump killing deeply flawed Iran deal is the right move	foxnews.com
US politics Iran nuclear deal - live updates: Trump withdraws US from accord as UK, France and Germany express 'regret and concern'	independent.co.uk
Obama Calls Trump’s Withdrawal From Iran Deal A ‘Serious Mistake’	talkingpointsmemo.com
READ: President Trump's announcement the US is withdrawing from Iran deal	edition.cnn.com
Israel on “high alert” during Trump Iran deal announcement as prepares for possible Iran attack	vox.com
John Bolton Wants Regime Change in Iran. What’s His Alternative?	nytimes.com
Explosions Heard Near Damascus; Israeli Military Believes Iran Planning Imminent Attack	haaretz.com
Obama: Iran deal pullout is a 'serious mistake'	apnews.com
Iran president: Uranium enrichment may resume if deal fails	apnews.com
Obama: Leaving Iran deal 'misguided'	cnn.com
Trump's decision to drop out of the Iran nuclear deal could torpedo the GOP's big tax cut win	businessinsider.com
Obama: Trump’s Withdrawal From Iran Deal Is a ‘Serious Mistake’ - The Daily Beast	thedailybeast.com
Boeing’s $8 billion Iran deal, always uncertain, is now effectively dead	seattletimes.com
Jeff Flake on Trump's Iran deal decision: 'I just don't think it's a wise move	us.cnn.com
Syria 'Strongly Condemns' U.S. Withdrawal From Iran Nuclear Deal	usnews.com
UK, France and Germany issue joint statement attacking Trump's withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal	independent.co.uk
Trump's clear message on the Iran deal: America is not to be trusted	theweek.com
Dems hammer Trump over withdrawal from Iran deal	thehill.com
Trump Violates the Iran Nuclear Deal - Ignoring U.S. and Israeli Generals Who Support It	theintercept.com
Russia warns return of 'axis of resistance' with Iran if deal collapses	jpost.com
Obama calls Trump's decision on Iran nuclear deal 'misguided'	reuters.com
Kim Jong Un Is Watching Trump's Iran Decision, Chinese Envoy Says	bloomberg.com
Trump: U.S. 'Will Withdraw' From Iran Nuclear Deal	npr.org
'So Misguided.' Barack Obama Weighs In On Trump's Decision to Pull U.S. From Iran Nuclear Deal	time.com
Where’s That Better Iran Deal, Mr. Trump?	nytimes.com
The Latest: New US Ambassador: Stop Doing Business With Iran	usnews.com
Trump's Iran decision is another huge blow to America’s relationship with Europe	news.vice.com
5 big consequences of Trump’s Iran blunder	washingtonpost.com
Rouhani says Iran will remain in nuclear deal without U.S.	reuters.com
Why Trump nixing the Iran deal will likely make your gas pricier	nbcnews.com
Obama condemns 'misguided' violation of Iran deal as Republicans cheer move	theguardian.com
Trump’s Iran sanctions are a bitter blow for giant European companies	qz.com
Wall Street down after Trump quits Iran deal	theglobeandmail.com
2 winners and 5 losers from Trump’s Iran deal withdrawal	vox.com
UK, France and Germany pledge to remain in Iran nuclear deal as US withdraws	telegraph.co.uk
Biden slams Trump over pulling out of Iran deal: ‘It took years’ to achieve	thehill.com
GOP senator: Withdrawing from Iran deal not in 'national interest'	thehill.com
Trump Vandalizes the Iran Deal	nytimes.com
Trump withdraws U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal. Here’s what you need to know	politifact.com
Barack Obama responds to Donald Trump's decision to pull US out of Iran nuclear deal	independent.co.uk
US officials growing increasingly concerned Iran could attack Israel	cnn.com
Peter Thiel and Palantir Are at the Heart of the Iran Nuclear Deal	bloomberg.com
Syria Hit By New Strikes As Trump Cancels Iran Deal And Israel Calls High Alert	newsweek.com
Obama: Trump pulling U.S. out of Iran nuclear deal "a serious mistake"	cbsnews.com
Wall Street erases losses after Trump quits Iran deal	reuters.com
Kim Jung UN probably hates what Trump just did to the Iran deal	news.vice.com
Israel Prepares for Iran Attack With Bomb Shelters as Trump Calls Off Nuclear Deal	newsweek.com
Obama calls Trump's decision to leave Iran deal a 'serious mistake'	pbs.org
‪President Trump Announces Withdraw from the JCPOA Iran Deal ‬	youtube.com
Read Trump and Obama Statements on Iran Deal	nbcchicago.com
Trump Pulls Out of Iran Deal, Reimposes Sanctions	rollcall.com
Trump’s Iran-Deal Decision Will Hurt American Businesses and American Workers	newyorker.com
Trump Scraps the Iran Deal, Echoes the Bad Judgments of Bush	thedailybeast.com
Boeing may lose $20 billion in aircraft deals as Trump to pull US out of Iran nuclear pact	cnbc.com
Iran Will Never Trust America Again	commondreams.org
Israel Says Secret Files Detail Iran’s Nuclear Subterfuge	nytimes.com
Barack Obama says President Trump’s Iran deal withdrawal could lead to 'another war in the Middle East'	nydailynews.com
All the Ways Trump Has Undone Obama's Legacy After Iran Nuclear Deal Withdrawal	newsweek.com
Israel Attacked Syria an Hour After the Iran Deal Was Ended, Says Report	time.com
Europe, Iran pledge to uphold pact without United States	reuters.com
Democrats pan Trump's withdrawal from Iran deal: 'Senseless, disturbing and dangerous'	nbcnews.com
An easy to read straightforward guide to understanding the Iran Deal and today’s news around it	vox.com
Oil prices push higher after U.S. walks away from Iran nuclear deal	reuters.com
‘An Illusion to Think That He Wouldn’t Do This’: Trump Iran Deal Withdrawal Fulfills Wish to Nullify Obama	thedailybeast.com
Mnuchin: Boeing’s sales licenses to Iran will be revoked	washingtonpost.com
Obama Blasts Trump’s “Misguided” Decision to Withdraw from Iran Deal	motherjones.com
Trump’s Iran decision just brought us closer to war	washingtonpost.com
Increasing war danger, Trump pulls out of Iran nuke deal	peoplesworld.org
Trump walked away from Obama’s Iran deal—and back into the Mideast swamp	newsweek.com
Obama and Kerry blast Trump decision to withdraw from Iran deal	yahoo.com
Iran Hawks Are the New Iraq Hawks	defenseone.com
Trump declares US leaving 'horrible' Iran nuclear accord	foxnews.com
Trump is exactly right about Iran's misdeeds	cnn.com
Why Trump torpedoed Obama’s Iran deal	washingtonpost.com
US allies lament Trump's decision to pull out of Iran deal	newsobserver.com
Opinion - A Courageous Trump Call on a Lousy Iran Deal	nytimes.com
Former President Obama slams decision to withdraw U.S from Iran deal: "Walking away from the JCPOA turns our back on America’s closest allies, and an agreement that our country’s leading diplomats, scientists, and intelligence professionals negotiated."	abcnews.go.com
Boeing and Airbus to lose nearly $40bn due Trump's decision to pull US out of Iran nuclear deal	independent.co.uk
Obama reacts to Trump's withdrawal from Iran deal	axios.com
As Trump pulls out of Iran deal, Asia grapples with impact on oil supplies	reuters.com
World Report 2018: Iran	hrw.org
Trump announces decision to "withdraw" from Iran nuclear deal	cbsnews.com
U.S. ambassador tells German businesses to stop trade in Iran 'immediately'	japantimes.co.jp
Donald Trump’s huge Iran gamble	economist.com
Trump's Iran nuclear deal pullout reveals a risky bet to 'break the regime.'	smh.com.au
Trump’s Iran Deal Exit Is A Win For Russia	huffingtonpost.com
Trump does not have mental capacity to deal with issues: Iran parliament speaker	reuters.com
Trump kept his promise on Iran. But was it the right promise?	nbcnews.com
Shepard Smith: You Can't Say Trump Pulled Out Of Iran Deal; He Made Decision To Violate It	huffingtonpost.com
Obama reacts to Trump's pullout from Iran nuclear deal	aljazeera.com
Everything scrapping the Iran deal says about Donald Trump	edition.cnn.com
President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran deal. Here’s what you need to know.	washingtonpost.com
Long in coming, Trump’s turnabout on Iran was always looming	myajc.com
Iran nuclear deal not dead despite US exit, France says	bbc.com
Iran Is Now Unfettered	theatlantic.com
Boeing and Airbus to lose nearly $40bn due Trump's decision to pull US out of Iran nuclear deal	independent.co.uk
Trump's pull out from Iran deal deepens US isolation	finance.yahoo.com
Europe must make Trump pay for wrecking the Iran nuclear deal	theguardian.com
Fact-checking President Trump’s reasons for leaving the Iran nuclear deal	washingtonpost.com
Boeing will lose out on $20 billion in Iran deals as Airbus, GE impacted	marketwatch.com
What does Trump's Iran move mean for a potential agreement with North Korea?	usatoday.com
Trump is reportedly happy that 'egghead' experts are freaking out on CNN about the Iran deal	businessinsider.com
Iran lawmakers shout 'death to America,' burn U.S. flag after Trump nixes nuclear deal	usatoday.com
Obama: Withdrawing from Iran nuclear deal ‘is a serious mistake’	politico.com
Iran lawmakers shout 'death to America,' burn U.S. flag after Trump nixes nuclear deal	usatoday.com
Oil hits $77 but carmaker shares fall after Trump quits Iran nuclear deal - business live	theguardian.com
EU moves to protect European firms from US sanctions on Iran	theguardian.com
Iran blasts Donald Trump's "mistake," European allies try to salvage nuke deal	cbsnews.com
Iran’s top leader, lawmakers lash out at US on nuclear deal	apnews.com
Iran’s top leader, lawmakers lash out at US on nuclear deal	apnews.com
Trump pulls U.S. from Iran nuclear deal, to revive sanctions	reuters.com
European Companies Rushed to Invest in Iran. What Now?	nytimes.com
John Bolton: Iran is bringing us closer to war	cnn.com
Iran Mocks Trump as Lacking ‘Mental Capacity’ to Do His Job	thedailybeast.com
Americans will pay more for gas after Trump's Iran move sends oil prices up	nydailynews.com
EU tells Trump he doesn’t have the power to unilaterally scrap the Iran nuclear deal	independent.co.uk
White House Sources: John Kerry's Stealth Lobbying Backfired, Helped Kill The Iran Deal	dailycaller.com
Brzezinski: Trump may have pulled out of Iran deal to ‘deflect’ from scandals	thehill.com
Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen fire missiles at Saudi capital	reuters.com
Trump Just Shredded The Iran Deal. Here Are 5 Reasons He Was Absolutely Right To Do So.	dailywire.com
Oil jumps to the highest level since 2014 after US quits the Iran nuclear deal	cnbc.com
Could withdrawing from the Iran deal bring down Trump?	marketwatch.com
The body of this man will turn to ashes': Iran's supreme leader slams Trump as U.S. flag is burned in parliament	nationalpost.com
Less than 1 in 3 Americans support U.S. pullout from Iran deal - Reuters/Ipsos poll	uk.reuters.com
Killing the Iran Deal Was Only the First Step	bloomberg.com
After the Iran Deal, Here’s What the US Military Is Worried About Next	defenseone.com
Trump Tells World to Drop Dead as Netanyahu Dictates His Nixing of Iran Deal	haaretz.com
Iran nuclear deal - live: Donald Trump must offer 'concrete steps on the way ahead' after pulling out of pact, says Boris Johnson	independent.co.uk
Iran parliament chants ‘Death to America’	thehill.com
‘You cannot do a damn thing’: Iran lashes out at U.S. over withdrawal from nuclear pact	theglobeandmail.com
UK will not follow Trump in ditching Iran deal, Boris Johnson vows	theguardian.com
Analysis: Crumbling of Nuclear Deal Boosts Iran Hard-Liners	nytimes.com
Europe's clash with Trump over Iran nuclear deal is a durability test - World news	theguardian.com
End of the Iran deal: Shredding diplomacy for spite, not gain	bostonglobe.com
It’s nearly unanimous: foreign policy experts think Trump made the wrong choice on Iran	vox.com
Watch: Iran Politicians Burn U.S. Flag, Vow ‘Death to America’ and Response ‘Zionists will Regret’	breitbart.com
Trump has put the US on a path to bombing Iran	vox.com
Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal seeks to further destabilise the Middle East – and, in fact, the entire world	independent.co.uk
Trump's Iran deal withdrawal sets off needless international crisis	axios.com
Boeing, Airbus to lose $39 billion in contracts because of Trump sanctions on Iran	washingtonpost.com

Matched betting is the ultimate side hustle. It involves profiting from the free bets and incentives that bookmakers offer to entice you to use their gambling services. It is a completely legal, effective and risk-free way of making money (when done properly).
Ref Link
HOW MUCH CAN I EARN?
Earnings vary depending on how much time you put in. The bigger the offer the more profitable they are, and after that you move onto the reload offers. These are offers that bookmakers give out to retain customers.
For each matched bet, you will be left with up to 80% of the free bet amount as profit (e.g. a £25 free bet could earn you £20). You are likely to make a small loss on your first bet, but will make this back up once you claim your free bet. It’s also worth pointing out that earnings from the gambling industry are currently tax-free in the UK!
Tons of people report earning a full-time income from matched betting. But if you don’t have that much time to dedicate to finding the offers and placing your bets, you can still earn a substantial amount of money. Odds Maker report that with as little as 3 hours worth of work a week you can earn over £300! You can increase your profits even more by signing up to the bookmakers through Topcashback (and earning cashback for signing up too). Ref Link
HOW DOES MATCHED BETTING WORK?
To start your matched betting hustle, you will need to use mathematical equations to match a lay bet with a back bet, cancelling out any risk of losing money and profiting from your free bet (or similar incentive). The best way to ensure that you don’t make any mistakes is by using an odds calculator. Odds calculators often come at a small cost but will speed up and maximise your profits. I’d recommend signing up to Profit Accumulator; they can talk you through the process and guide you to making money quickly!
Sign up here today and get your first month free : Ref Link
Non Ref
Here are the two types of bets you need to place to cash in on your free money:
THE ‘BACK’ BET
The back bet is the most traditional form of bet, essentially you’re backing your predicted outcome and saying “I think this will win”. If the team, horse, or whatever else you place your back bet on wins, then you’ll win your bet and the profit along with it.
THE ‘LAY’ BET
The lay bet is the exact opposite to the back bet, you’re betting on every eventually other than a specific outcome and saying “I don’t think this will win”. If the team that you bet on don’t win the match (they draw or lose), you win your lay bet.
Betfair is the most commonly used betting exchange website that allows you to place ‘lay’ bets. Keep in mind that you’ll be charged 5% commission on your winnings from Betfair.
THE FREE BET
Following your ‘qualifying’ bet, you are then given the free bet (or similar incentive) to play with. This is where you make your profit! Repeat the process of placing your back bet and lay bet using your free bet and cash out your winnings!
Any questions and I'll be more than happy to help!
Ref Link

States are not homogenous entities. They are composed of dozens of different interest groups and cliques, each with their own vision for what the state ought to do and what society ought to look like. In functioning states, these groups agree on more things than they disagree on--or at least, the powerful groups are able to monopolize power enough to keep dissident voices drowned out. Carefully crafted power sharing arrangements, usually aided along by some sort of common enemy or common mission, keep states functioning well enough to work as coherent actors in the international arena.
But these alliances are not set in stone. Like the sands of the Rub’ al Khali, they shift with the winds. One day, two factions may be the closest of allies. The next, one might overreach. One might think they have become too powerful to need to be held down by the commitments they’ve made to their erstwhile allies.
And what happens when they’re wrong?
Chaos.
Power in Saudi Arabia
On paper, the King of Saudi Arabia holds near-absolute power over the country. With no constitutional constraints, it would seem that the King (or more recently, the Crown Prince) enjoys unlimited power in Saudi society. There is no elected--nor even appointed--legislature to serve as a check on the King’s power. If the King wishes to permit women to drive, he need nearly decree it, and so shall it be.
Viewing Saudi Arabia through this lens, however, flattens the existing power dynamics in the country. The King’s absolute power is in practice constrained by the varied interest groups that help to lend legitimacy to the institution of the monarchy, such as (to name a few) the military, the House of Saud, and the religious establishment (the ulema).
The relationship between the ulema and the monarchy has been critical to the continued existence of the Saudi Arabian state. Starting with the 1744 alliance between Muhammad ibn Saud, the founder of the al-Saud dynasty, and Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, the two groups have formed something of a symbiotic relationship. The House of Saud provides the Wahhabist movement with protection and propagates its beliefs, and in exchange the Wahhabist movement lends legitimacy to the monarchy.
The Grand Mosque Seizure; or, Why Saudi Arabia is the Way it Is
In November 1979, hundreds of armed religious militants took control of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca--the holiest site in Islam. Their leader, Juhayman al-Otaybi, declared his brother-in-law, Mohammed Abdullah al-Qahtani, to be the *Mahdi--a redeeming figure in Islami prophesied to arrive on Earth several years before Judgement Day. For a period of two weeks, al-Otaybi and his supporters managed to maintain control of the Mosque. The ensuing assault led to the deaths of hundreds of fighters and pilgrims.
The Grand Mosque Seizure was, in part, a response to the growth of “western influence” within Saudi Arabia. Al-Otaybi condemned the West calling for the abolition of television and radio, the expulsion of non-Muslims, and the removal of women from the workplace. For al-Otaybi, the ruling al-Saud family’s refusal to resist this western influence had robbed them of their right to rule.
While al-Otaybi was ultimately unsuccessful in overthrowing the House of Saud, his insurrection did led to an important revelation for the Saudi monarchy: religious extremism was perhaps the single greatest threat to their continued hold on power in Saudi Arabia. Rather than restricting the power of the ulema in an attempt to curtail this threat, King Khalid dramatically expanded the role of the ulema and the religious police, surrendering some of the House of Saud’s power in exchange for additional stability and security. This state of affairs, with some tinkering, would remain the status quo for the next three decades.
Shifting Sands
Since the September 11th, 2001 attacks and the beginning of the Global War on Terror, the monarchy has taken significant steps to attempt to curtail the influence of the ulema. The monarchy has become much less tolerant of clerics that speak out against the monarchy, often arresting them (though these arrests are usually temporary, they are enough to scare the dissident clerics into silence).
The rise of Mohammad bin Salman in the mid-2010s accelerated this curtailment of the ulema’s power. Viewed as a youthful reformer, MbS has undone many of the laws that were put in place following the Grand Mosque Seizure: in 2018, he removed the ban on female drivers, while in 2021, he legalized gambling and the consumption of alcohol. While he was within his rights to do so--again, the monarchy has no formal restrictions on its authority--these actions flew in the face of the alliance struck between the House of Saud and the ulema.
Had the Crown Prince stopped there, conservative opposition to his rule might have been vocal, but nevertheless manageable. Resistance in this period was largely restricted to existing Saudi exile groups like Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia and Hizb ut-Tahrir. A collection of senior clerics in Saudi Arabia rallied together to compose a new Memorandum of Exhortation--a call-back to the 1992 Memorandum written in the aftermath of Gulf War--condemning the Kingdom’s slide away from righteousness and towards western hedonism. The participating clerics were quickly stripped of their positions, arrested, or forced into exile, but their memorandum nevertheless made the rounds--especially in more rural, more conservative communities, where the monarchy had less power (relatively) than the ulema. Still, it spawned little but discontent whispers and prayers that someone would do something to set the Kingdom back on the righteous path.
But he didn’t stop there. No more than four months later, Saudi Arabia invited the Bahraini Shi’a cleric Isa Qassim to Saudi Arabia. By itself, this would have created a diplomatic incident--Qassim was, in essence, the leader of the Shi’a opposition to the Saudi-aligned Sunni ruling dynasty of Bahrain, serving as a persistent thorn in the side of the Bahraini royal family. The fact that the House of Saud was inviting him to Saudi Arabia not just as a guest, but paying for the construction of a Hawza (a Shi’a seminary), was nothing short of sacreligious.
The moment this news went public, conservative Saudi society flew into an outrage. How dare the monarchy collaborate with the radifa. Whatever control the monarchy had over the clergy melted away overnight, with most every Sunni cleric in the country denouncing the government’s support of the heretics in some form or another. Eight of the twenty-one members of the Council of Senior Scholars, the highest religious body in the country (and also one of the religious institutions most aligned with the House of Saud) resigned in protest. Among those resigning included several members of the al ash-Sheikh family, the foremost family of religious scholars and the direct descendents of al-Wahhab. Even Abdul-Rahman Al Sudais, the Imam of the Great Mosque of Mecca, issued a public denouncement of the government’s decision to fund the Hawza.
Protests broke out throughout the country, especially in Mecca, Medina, and the Nejd, and while Saudi security forces were able to break their resolve after a week or two of protests, their discontent did not dissipate. The Saudi government’s 2022 decision to invite sixteen new American military bases only reignited tensions. Overnight, Saudi Arabia went from having no American bases to being the country with the sixth most American military bases. That anger stayed, bubbling beneath the surface. Waiting for an outlet.
It finally found that outlet in 2022. At the opening ceremony of the new Hawza 'Ilmiya Dammam, a car bomb ripped through the crowd, destroying the largest building in the compound. When first responders arrived at the scene to treat the casualties, another suicide bomber--this one disguised as a first responder himself--detonated his vest, killing several dozen paramedics and security personnel. Several hours later, on the other side of the country in Jazan, a car bomber struck an under-construction American base, killing several Saudi construction workers (most of whom were migrant workers from South Asia or the Philippines), two American contractors leading the construction effort, and three American officers. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks the next day.
In total, some eighty-four people, including three American servicemen, two American contractors, and forty Saudi nationals, died in the attacks, while another two- to three-hundred were wounded. Among those dead were several of the most important clerics of the new Hawza, including Qassim and the Pakistani marja’ Muhammad Hussain Najafi. The other Pakistani marja’ involved in the Hawza, Bashir al-Najafi, succumbed to his injuries a week later. The response from the predominantly Wahhabi Sunni clergy in the country ranged from silence (for those not willing to risk the ire of the monarchy) to celebratory (for those more dedicated to their faith than self-preservation). For the Saudi government, this was a concerning sign of what was to come. Older members draw comparisons between the current political moment and that of the 1990s, when outrage against the monarchy led to the formation of conversative opposition groups and an increase in terror attacks by groups like al Qaeda.
And indeed, their fears may be legitimate. Anti-American protests are becoming increasingly common throughout the country, with the country’s American embassies, consulates, and base construction sites under near constant siege by conservative protesters. The Sahwa movement, a peaceful Islamist group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood opposed to American bases on the Arabian peninsula, has returned in full force after being all but crushed by government repression in the 1990s. Increasing numbers of Saudi clerics are issuing open criticisms and condemnations of the government and its recent activities, posing a serious challenge to the legitimacy of the rule of King Salman and the Crown Prince.
In a different world, the monarchy might have been able to find some way to placate these dissidents. The warnings were there. But once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s impossible to put it back in.
In April 2022, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman launched an unprecedented purge of the religious establishment and the non-ruling branches of the House of Saud. Over the course of 48 hours, Saudi security forces rounded up and arrested numerous prominent figures on corruption charges. While this was in and of itself insignificant--MbS had already used corruption arrests to establish his power in the House of Saud in the past--the scale of them was substantially larger than any previous arrests. Moreover, those royals detained through this process found themselves stripped of the rights and comforts they had come to expect during detentions like these: rather than the Ritz Carlton, they instead found themselves thrown into dank, musty jail cells, as though they were any other criminal. This was a signal to the rest of the House of Saud: Mohammad bin Salman would no longer tolerate anything even remotely resembling opposition to his agenda.
The Prince’s seizure of power did not end there. Later that week, King Salman announced that the Wahhabi religious clerics would no longer have any temporal power outside of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina. Saudi Arabia, according to the King, was going to become a more tolerant, progressive nation. Non-Muslims would have the same rights as Muslims for the first time in the Kingdom’s history.
As if this weren’t an insult enough to the religious establishment, the King then declared that the Kingdom would be holding an interfaith celebration in the city of Mecca. This celebration would mark the first time that non-Muslims were (legally) allowed entrance into the Grand Mosque in over a thousand years--flying in the face of a restriction that predated the House of Saud itself.
While King Salman’s decree robbed the Wahhabi religious establishment of its temporal power, it could never hope to so suddenly deprive them of their ability to sway the hearts and minds of the masses. Almost every cleric in the country, Salafi or Sufi, Wahhabi or Shafi’i, Sunni or Shi’a, immediately and unequivocally condemned the King’s decision to reverse a thousand years of tradition and allow non-Muslims into the holiest site of Islam. The Imam of the Grand Mosque resigned in disgust, stating that he would rather die than preside over kafirs gaining entrance to Holy City. Most of the Mosque’s clerics resigned with him.

The Situation on the Ground

The country has exploded into massive protests, attended by millions of people across the country. There are near-constant masses of people in the streets of Saudi Arabia’s major cities, while construction work on the proposed Church in Riyadh has been unable to continue due to the hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters surrounding the site at all times. Every day, their grip on Saudi society seems to slip further. Saudi Arabia has long relied on the cooperation of the religious establishment to quash dissent and break up protests. With that alliance shattered by King Salman’s recent actions, Saudi Arabia has had a harder time containing these protests than ever before. There are frequent reports of Saudi security personnel collaborating with the protesters, often sneaking advance warning of police crackdowns to protesters or allowing protest leaders to slip away from arrest warrants.
This environment has allowed numerous critics of the government a new lease on life, as dissent is simply too large and too widespread for the government to crack down on all dissidents at once. One major resurfaced critic of the Saudi government has been the Muslim Brotherhood. Once an ally of the Saudis, the Muslim Brotherhood was declared a terrorist organization in 2014, after its Egyptian leadership was deposed in the 2013 coup d’etat. Since then, the group’s Saudi Arabian leaders were forced to flee into hiding in Qatar, Iraq, and, to a lesser extent, Bahrain. While the Muslim Brotherhood itself is not Wahhabist, and has many doctrinal disputes with the leading branch of Islam in Saudi Arabia, it has nevertheless made significant inroads into Saudi society over the past several months. As clerics and Saudi conservatives have become convinced that monarchy is unable to deliver the Sharia-adherent society they so desire (and worse, that they have little ability to coerce the monarchy into doing so), many have turned towards the Muslim Brotherhood and its promises of democracy. If nothing else, at least the system promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood would allow them to vote out incompetent royals like Mohammad bin Salman!
While many of these groups are not openly violent and are content to continue peaceful (if still terribly disruptive) means of protest against the government, other groups are not. Saudi intelligence is reporting a large surge in the membership numbers of extremist groups like Al Qaeda, Islamic State, and their affiliates. These groups are able to tap into the discontent that has manifested in Saudi society, using the more peaceful groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Sahwa Movement as a front for radicalizing and recruiting disenfranchised and disgruntled Saudi conservatives. Saudi intelligence suspects that the Kingdom’s sky-high youth unemployment rate--about 25 percent in 2019--has not helped matters, with many of the new recruits coming from the under-30 age group. Saudi intelligence suspects that the growth of these dissident and jihadi groups has also been assisted by covert funding from Qatar and the Qatari nobility (and in the case of the Muslim Brotherhood only, from Turkey as well), though as of yet, they have been unable to find concrete proof.
Perhaps the most major opposition to Saudi rule, though, comes from the Wahhabi clerics that once lent so much legitimacy to the Saudi monarchy. Wahhabi clerics that had erstwhile been major supporters of the Saudi government took to every venue available to them--the pulpit, the streets, the internet, the radio--and loudly and repeatedly condemned the actions of the King and the Crown Prince, declaring that they had strayed from the path of the righteous and no longer had the moral authority to lead. Throughout the country, these Saudi intelligence and security forces have been overwhelmed trying to track down and arrest all of the clerics that have broken the law--either by insulting the King, calling for the death of unbelievers, or some other crime. Increasingly, they find that the public is providing a great deal of assistance in avoiding security personnel, providing housing, food, and other essentials that allow the clerics to go to ground and avoid arrest. Worse still, upper levels of the Saudi security apparatus have reported that their subordinates are, in some cases, simply refusing to carry out these arrest orders.
Finally, elements of Saudi intelligence loyal to the Crown Prince himself are reporting rumors that should have Mohammad bin Salman very concerned. The recent instability in Saudi Arabia has led several members of the House of Saud to think that they could do a much better job running the country than this upstart reformer. While intelligence is unable to pinpoint exactly who is a threat to Mohammad bin Salman at this time, they have managed to suss out that there are ongoing talks between some members of the House of Saud and some members of the religious establishment that a palace coup might be the best way to ensure that their interests are protected. King Salman and MbS go away, the House of Saud can continue with its graft and corruption, and Sharia law and the power of the Wahhabis comes back. It’s a win for everyone.
In short, Mohammad bin Salman faces a great number of issues that must be addressed--quickly--if he is to retain power.

Government Pockets Dry Up

(Written by Erhard)
Saudi Arabia has been largely discounting oil export revenues to favor stronger relationships with its allies. This was destined to cause problems when $200 Bn, over 90% of total Saudi exports, come from revenues off of the oil they export. These oil revenues are so critical to the Saudi economy, that cutting off the revenue would send the economy into recession. The targets of these discounts were namely strong Saudi allies like the US, UK, Australia, India, Japan, and many more who are all known to be heavy oil consumers. Saudi Aramco, one of the largest companies on Earth by revenue, had shored up many of its accounts and had begun selling off assets to private investors and other companies just to keep itself afloat. The company, a state-owned enterprise, had to consult the government for this, but had really no other way to save itself. There were rumors in the company of bankruptcy, in one of the most profitable organizations, and layoffs had begun. Of the 76,000 employees, the company quickly shrunk down to 40,000 to recoup the losses. Oil prices across the world had never ever been lower. Fuel across the US was reporting record prices of $1.12 per gallon, which made consumers very happy while the Saudi economy was doing damage control, preparing for an implosion. It would seem the only way the company could recover would be to cut oil operations to slow the quantity to the market, and jack up the price to 20% over market value, effectively eliminating the discount and charging premiums to those who formerly had discounts. If implemented, the US consumer’s dream would be short-lived as they would approach prices of $4.15 per gallon, but would likely save the economy.

The Paper Tiger

A recent series of arrests has also brought to light an unanticipated vulnerability in the Saudi security establishment. Early in 2022, the Ministry of Defense announced plans to double the number of active-duty personnel in the Saudi Land Forces in a period of just two years. Assuming no retirements or fatalities (something that is hard to assume, given the ongoing Saudi intervention in Yemen), the Royal Land Forces will have to hire over three hundred people per day. Meeting this requirement in a country without conscription has required a massive increase in recruitment targets, coupled with a corresponding decrease in the standards used in hiring. In essence, anyone with a warm body that can hold a rifle and walk is being allowed into the military. Moreover, the massive increase in junior enlisted personnel has further taxed the brass’s ability to maintain discipline and unit cohesion: the army’s absenteeism rate has sky-rocketed, as there are simply too many recruits and too few skilled officers and NCOs in order to adequately enforce punishments.
While the drop in Saudi Arabia’s combat capacity that this has caused is concerning on its own, far more concerning is the fact that not all of the recruits to the Saudi military have the country’s best interests at heart. A recent arrest of an Al Qaeda member in Riyadh revealed that numerous terrorist organizations, as well as other dissident organizations, have infiltrated substantial amounts of their members into the newly-expanded Saudi military. If left unchecked, these cells will pose a significant threat to the security of Saudi Arabia, and will be able to use their military training to greatly improve the efficiency of their parent organizations in the future. Moreover, it will give their parent organizations access to classified intelligence on Saudi (read: American) weapons systems, and likely lead to some of these systems ending up in the hands of militant groups in countries like Yemen.
Similarly worrying is the monarchy’s deteriorating control of the Saudi Arabian National Guard. Separate from the traditional command structures of the Saudi military, the SANG has long served as the anti-coup, counter-insurgency, and counter-protest wing of the Saudi security establishment. It is comprised of a mixture of (largely conservative) tribal militias and personnel recruited from the Wahhabi religious establishment. Traditionally, these affiliations have helped protect the government from coups by the more liberal-minded military. In this instance, where the threat to the regime’s existence comes from conservative, religious parts of society, the loyalty of the National Guard has been called directly into question. Some worry that the ousted clerics and the more conservative elements of the House of Saud have compromised the integrity of the SANG, and may be able to use it in order to depose the current ruling family. Whatever the case, most agree that something needs to be done--and soon.

Issues Abroad

Naturally, when things go badly in a country as large as Saudi Arabia, they have a tendency to spill over into their neighbors. Below is a brief summary of some of the spillover effects in neighboring countries.
The United Arab Emirates
While the United Arab Emirates has long been the most “progressive” of the Gulf States, it is not without hardliners and conservatives. The country’s recent decision to decriminalize gay marriage has been met with considerable criticism from the country’s right-wing. Outrage against this decision--coupled with, Emirati intelligence suspects, but cannot prove, some assistance and funding from Qatar--has led to a revival of Al Islah, the UAE-branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The US presence in the UAE at Al Dhafra Air Base has also under scrutiny as the Sahwa Movement has spread across the border into the UAE, but so far, the movements are still content to resort to peaceful protest.
Bahrain
The death of Isa Qassim has sent shockwaves throughout Bahraini society, worsening already-existing tensions in the Shi’a-majority, Sunni-dominated nation. An important leader of the Shi’a community and political movement on the island, Qassim served as a constant voice for peace, frequently working to curtail the more militant wings of the Shi’a rights movement and channel them into peaceful activities like protest and, before the suspension of the legislature, voting. His martyrdom (and indeed, he is viewed as a martyr now in Bahrain) on Saudi territory has led to a great deal of suspicion in the Shi’a community of Bahrain, with many believing that Saudi security forces let the assassination occur in order to eliminate one of the peninsula’s largest Shi’a opposition leaders. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant: enough people believe it that the new leaders of the opposition who have risen to fill the void have become more convinced that the only way to have their demands met is through violence. In the future, Shi’a opposition groups on the island will be more likely to turn to violence in order to have their demands met.
The royal family has become increasingly skeptical of Saudi Arabia’s commitment to their continued existence and independence following its actions in Qatar. While they are not brave enough to stand up to Saudi Arabia (yet) owing to their proximity to the country, the Royal Family is deeply uncomfortable with the Saudi coup in Qatar. In essence, it appears to the Royal Family that Saudi Arabia will abuse the Crown Prince’s marriage ties in order to replace other leaders of the GCC as punishment for working against Saudi interests. Given the marriage ties between the grand daughter of the King of Bahrain and the Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Bahrain considers itself to be at heavy risk of one of these new “succession coups.” As such, Bahrain has started to (quietly) search for new allies to help guarantee its security against an aggressive Saudi Arabia.
Iraq
The death of Grand Ayatollah Basheer al-Najafi on Saudi territory at the hands of Sunni jihadists has led to a dramatic flare-up in sectarian tensions in Iraq. As one of the Big Four clerics in the holy city of Najaf, al-Najafi was one of the preeminent leaders of the Shi’a faith. Candlelight vigils and other mourning ceremonies have been held throughout the country to mark the passing of one of Shi’a Islam’s greatest minds, while anti-Saudi sentiment has been further cemented in the country.
tl;dr

• Saudi Arabia has dramatically curtailed the powers of the religious establishment, and broken a thousand-year-old prohibition on non-Muslims entering the Holy City of Mecca
  
• There are massive conservative protests in Saudi Arabia. The largely conservative security establishment is sympathetic to these protests, hampering the Saudi response.
  
• The threat of terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia has increased dramatically
  
• So far, two Al Qaeda attacks have led to the destruction of the Hawza in Dammam (and the death of three very important Shi'a marja') the death of 84 people (including forty Saudi nationals, three American servicemen, and two American contractors), and the injury of another two- to three-hundred
  
• Saudi Arabia is facing a massive revenue crisis due to its heavy discounting of oil exports
  
• There is large resistance to the rule of MbS and King Salman within conservative circles, with some suspecting that they will not be in power for much longer.
  
• Smaller conservative protests are occurring in the UAE