Raphael Stevens

A US Marine stands guard in front of the US embassy December 21, 2001 in Kabul, Afghanistan.Paula Bronstein | Getty ImagesWASHINGTON – The U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Thursday was placed on lockdown as Covid cases surge in Afghanistan, pushing the nation’s fragile health care system to its limits.At the embassy, 114 employees have tested positive for the coronavirus and are currently in isolation, one person has died and several people have been medically evacuated.”Military hospital ICU resources are at full capacity, forcing our health units to create temporary, on-compound Covid-19 wards to care for oxygen-dependent patients. 95% of our cases are individuals who are unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated,” the Embassy wrote in a statement.Effective immediately, the Embassy said, personnel would be confined to their quarters except to get food from dining facilities or to exercise or relax alone outdoors.”Individuals may walk, run, or relax outdoors without masks provided that they are ALONE, which means at least 20 feet from others. Any closer requires a mask,” the statement continued, adding that in-person indoor meetings are prohibited unless “absolutely mission-critical.”People who don’t follow the policies could face removal from the post “on the next available flight,” the Embassy added.”Restrictions will continue until the chain of transmission is broken,” the statement said.Afghan hospitals are rapidly running out of medical equipment and other resources as cases see a rise of 2,400% over the past month, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Thursday.Last week, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul suspended all consular visa services in order to deal with an “intense third wave of Covid-19 cases,” potentially hampering the visa status for thousands of Afghans who assisted the U.S. military through the conflict.Lawmakers on Capitol Hill raised concern Thursday on whether the backlog of more than 10,000 Afghan translators and their families would be cleared before the remaining U.S. troops withdraw from the war-weary country.Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing on the Pentagon’s budget request that “planning is ongoing” to safeguard Afghans who served alongside U.S. and NATO troops.The nation’s top-ranking military officer added that the U.S. military was capable of carrying out any request as the State Department works through the thorough visa process for eligible Afghans.On Tuesday, the Pentagon said it surpassed the midpoint in its herculean task of withdrawing troops and equipment out of Afghanistan.The U.S. military has removed the equivalent of approximately 611 loads of material flown out of the country by large cargo aircraft, according to an update from U.S. Central Command.Aircrew assigned to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, carry their gear into a C-17 Globemaster III assigned to Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, April 27, 2021.Staff Sgt. Kylee Gardner | U.S. Air Force photoApproximately 14,000 pieces of equipment that will not be left to the Afghan military have also been handed over to the Defense Logistics Agency for destruction. The U.S. has officially handed over six facilities to the Afghan military.Biden announced in April a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, which would end America’s longest war.Biden’s withdrawal timeline breaks with a proposed deadline brokered last year by the Trump administration with the Taliban. According to that deal, all foreign forces would have had to leave Afghanistan by May 1.The removal of approximately 3,000 U.S. service members coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which spurred America’s entry into lengthy wars in the Middle East and Central Asia. More

In this articleCLNEClean Energy Fuels CEO Andrew Littlefair on Thursday addressed the recent enthusiasm for his company’s stock forged on online forums like Reddit.”I’ve read a lot of these posts, it seems like they get it,” Littlefair told CNBC’s Jim Cramer in an interview on “Mad Money.””One of the things that comes through again and again is, they said, ‘Hey these guys at Clean Energy take something nobody wants, clean it up, put it in a vehicle, make money and save the planet. I kind of like that.’ So, I think they get it,” Littlefair said.Last week, Clean Energy Fuels entered the crosshairs of Reddit traders, who first captured Wall Street’s attention in late January when they piled into shares of GameStop and a few other companies.Clean Energy Fuels jumped more than 30% on June 9 to close at $13.02, as mentions of the California-based firm spiked online.Enthusiasm has seemed to wane a bit in recent days, although the stock rose almost 4% Thursday to finish at $11.12. Clean Energy Fuels is up about 41% year to date.The company is a provider of renewable natural gas, which is a “pipeline-quality gas that is fully interchangeable with conventional natural gas,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy.Clean Energy Fuels takes the methane from manure and processes it in such a way that it can be used as fuel for vehicles, Cramer explained. In April, the company reached an agreement with Amazon to provide the e-commerce giant with access to its RNG stations.”For us, it’s building them, now 19, new stations and making available 27 other stations, so they’ll be using 46 of our stations. We’ll be selling them all RNG, and so we’re very excited about that,” Littlefair said about the Amazon tie-up.Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – InstagramQuestions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? [email protected] More

In this articleEMNCNBC’s Jim Cramer said Thursday he sees opportunity for investors to buy shares of Eastman Chemical at an attractive price.”With the harsh pullback over the last couple weeks, including today’s nearly 4% slide, I think Eastman’s becoming a lot more compelling,” the “Mad Money” host said.Eastman Chemical shares closed Thursday’s session at $116.97, down about 10% from its 52-week high of $130.47 on June 1.However, Cramer said he feels confident the stock has more upside from current levels due, in part, to his outlook on inflation and monetary policy from the Federal Reserve. Cramer said he still believes an interest rate hike from the Fed is years away, meaning it’s an attractive environment for cyclical stocks like Eastman Chemical to do well.”Of course, if you’re worried about the Fed, this is not the stock for you,” Cramer cautioned.Recent comments from the CEO of another chemical company, LyondellBasell, also inform Cramer’s optimistic outlook toward Tennessee-based Eastman Chemical, which makes a wide range of products including hydraulic fluids for airplanes and plastics.In an interview Wednesday on “Mad Money,” LyondellBasell CEO Bob Patel told Cramer he expects the supply-and-demand picture to remain out of balance for a while, saying the “business environment is going to be stronger for longer.”Cramer said remarks like Patel’s allow him to overlook Thursday’s rotation out of cyclical stocks because of “misguided” rate-hike worries.”I think you’re getting a terrific chance to buy some Eastman Chemical, which has great execution and also gives you the best sustainability kicker from [a plastics maker] that I have seen yet,” Cramer said.Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – InstagramQuestions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? [email protected] More

In this articleGOEVCanoo electric vehicleSource: CanooElectric vehicle start-up Canoo on Thursday sought to assure investors that it has a solid, and real, business plan following abrupt changes at the company, including the departure of its co-founder and CEO Ulrich Kranz, who recently joined Apple.Speaking at the company’s investor day, Canoo CEO and Chairman Tony Aquila reiterated many of the company’s technological claims as well as plans to build three new EVs, including a pickup, and three other EVs. He also provided additional details about its manufacturing plans, including a new U.S. assembly plant.”We’re in it for the long run. I’m in it for the long run,” he said during the event that took place in Dallas and was streamed online.Since going public through a SPAC deal in December, shares of Canoo have roughly been cut in half on executive departures, changes to its business plans and greater speculation about the viability of many EVs.It appears the Thursday event did little to calm those concerns. The stock declined as much as 5.8% during the event to less than $10 a share. They had slightly recovered to close down by about 3%.Canoo CEO and Chairman Tony Aquila speaks during an investor event for the company on June 17, 2021. The event was held in Dallas and broadcast onine.ScreenshotAquila said the leadership team is focused on executing its plans to provide long-term value for shareholders, not daily changes in the company’s stock.”We don’t concentrate on day trades. We concentrate on fundamentals ,” he told CNBC during an interview Thursday. “Companies, their stock doesn’t always immediately reflect what they’ve done.”Bank of America analyst John Murphy described the event as “as relatively constructive,” but said the company has a “long and crowded road ahead.””We remain a bit hesitant as the company still has no binding orders and its business model still appears to be evolving,” he wrote Thursday in a note to investors, reiterating the firm’s underperform rating.Here’s what investors should know about Canoo from the more than three-hour investor event.U.S. productionCanoo plans to build a plant, which it’s calling a “mega microfactory,” on a 400-acre property near Tulsa, Oklahoma, in Pryor. Vehicle production at the facility is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the company.Aquila, who is the third-largest investor in the company, called it a “high volume plant” that will take about 18 months to construct. He declined to disclose the expected cost and size of the facility, which Canoo says will employ more than 2,000 people.The company received an incentive package, including the land, to build the plant in Oklahoma worth more than $300 million, Aquila said. Several times he referred to the planned facility as a “partnership” with the state. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt shared the stage with Aquila during the event.Manufacturing partnerCanoo confirmed its manufacturing partner is Netherlands-based VDL Nedcar, which is scheduled to start building its Lifestyle Vehicle beginning late next year in Europe. The company also is expected to help with its U.S. plant, Canoo said.EV start-up Canoo unveiled its electric pickup on March 11, 2021.CanooCanoo said Nedcar’s facility in Europe is slated to build up to 1,000 vehicles for both the U.S. and European markets in 2022 with a target of 15,000 units in 2023, according to the company. Canoo expects to launch its lifestyle vehicle in the fourth quarter of 2022 followed by a “multi-purpose delivery vehicle” and a pickup truck.The company initially planned to produce vehicles through an outside contractor rather than producing the vehicles itself. It was a major change along with a significant reduction in its plans to offer a vehicle subscription ownership model and sell its technologies to other companies such as Hyundai.No binding ordersFollowing recent controversies involving preorders for Lordstown Motors, another SPAC-backed EV start-up, Canoo made it clear that it has more than 9,000 refundable deposits from customers but no binding orders.Canoo’s van – known as a multipurpose delivery vehicle, or MPDV, because of the ways it can be upfitted – is designed for commercial customers.CanooDisclosing the orders was part of a promise by the company to be disciplined, transparent and stable in its spending and communications with investors, executives said.”You will get a tremendous amount of transparency from Canoo,” CMO Mark Aikman, a former marketing manager at Mercedes-Benz USA, said during the event.The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an inquiry looking at Lordstown’s preorder claims, among other things involving the company’s merger with SPAC DiamondPeak Holdings in October.In May, Aquila confirmed the SEC also had opened an investigation into Canoo. He characterized it as a “fact-finding inquiry.” He declined to provide any additional details, saying the company would provide “timely updates as appropriate.”‘Big news or no news’In an attempt to set the company apart from other highly hyped EV start-up companies, Aquila promised Canoo will announce “big news or no news, real news or no news.””We’re long-term shareholders. We’re very focused on doing that, building strength and the ability to build market share with innovative products and platforms,” he said.Aquila promised Canoo’s current leadership team is “in it for the long term” following the departures of Kranz and other executives such Stefan Krause, another co-founder, and the company’s chief lawyer, Andrew Wolstan. More

In this articleQSR-CABurger King’s new chicken sandwich “Ch’King” is seen on display in New York, NY, May 19, 2021.Aleksandra Michalska | ReutersWhen Burger King launched the Ch’King nationwide earlier in June, it wasn’t just releasing a new chicken sandwich.It was also marking a shift in the burger chain’s menu strategy, according to Jose Cil, chief executive of Burger King’s parent company, Restaurant Brands International.”Our focus on menu is shifting from promotional to foundational, doing the hard work on the core menu offering to make sure that we have great-tasting food that our customers can rely on, day in and day out,” Cil said at the Evercore ISI Consumer & Retail Summit on Thursday.He noted that average unit volume of a Burger King location rose from roughly $1 million in 2011 to $1.3 million by 2018. The burger chain achieved that by going after “low-hanging fruit,” he said, such as deals and limited-time menu items. Cil served as president of Burger King from 2014 to 2019, when he was handed the reins of Restaurant Brands.”I was at the helm of it, so I’m fully responsible and owning up to the outcomes of that, but we’ve been very focused on promotional work,” Cil said.In the burger chain’s first quarter this year, it reported U.S. same-store sales growth of 6.6%, helped by last year’s weaker results after lockdowns began hitting its sales.But to unlock the next level of growth, the company is going to work on the foundations of the business, including its core menu. For example, it took two years to develop the Ch’King, perfecting the handbreaded chicken sandwich’s recipe and ensuring that making it is as easy as possible for restaurant workers, Cil said.”I think the development of that product and how we’ve launched it should be an indicator of how we’re thinking about and reprioritizing the business at Burger King,” Cil said.Burger King’s sister chain Popeyes has found great success with its chicken sandwich. For 1½ years after its 2019 launch, the fried-chicken chain reported double-digit quarterly same-store sales growth, fueled by the strength of the sandwich.Shares of Restaurant Brands have risen 11% this year, giving it a market value of $31.4 billion. Domestic sales at its brands Burger King and Popeyes have bounced back quickly from the pandemic, but at its Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons, sales are taking longer to recover as Canada extends its lockdowns. More

Travelers look at Covid-19 results after being tested inside JFK International airport in New York on December 22, 2020.Kena Betancur | AFP | Getty ImagesFederal health officials keep pushing for more Americans to get vaccinated as the delta variant accounts for a bigger share of new cases in the United States.”You have to get vaccinated in order to be protected from Covid-19, the delta variant and any other variant that might come down the road,” White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeffrey Zients said Thursday.The variant, first detected by scientists in India, has now spread to more than 80 countries and accounts for more than 10% of new cases in the U.S. That’s up from 6% last week.”If you are vaccinated, you are protected, and if you are not, the threat of variants is real and growing,” U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said in the briefing Thursday after explaining that the delta variant is “significantly more transmissible and may be more dangerous than prior variants.”The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently designated the delta variant as a variant of concern “based on mounting evidence that the delta variant spreads more easily and causes more severe cases when compared to other variants, including B.1.1.7 (Alpha).”New cases and deaths are down dramatically in the U.S., thanks to generally successful vaccination campaigns in many states. Some pockets of the country are still seeing a rise in cases and hospitalizations.”We’re seeing that communities with the highest vaccination rates have lower rates of new cases and hospitalizations, and communities with the lowest vaccination rates have higher new cases and hospitalizations,” Zients said.The United Kingdom recently saw the delta variant become the dominant strain there, surpassing its native alpha variant, which was first detected in the country last fall. The delta variant now makes up more than 60% of new cases in the U.K.Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, said last week that “we cannot let that happen in the United States,” as he pushed to get more people vaccinated, especially young adults. More

President Joe Biden speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, June 2, 2021.Samuel Corum | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesWith less than three weeks to go until Independence Day, President Joe Biden’s latest vaccination goals are in jeopardy.The country is not on pace to hit his two main targets outlined in early May: fully vaccinating 160 million adult Americans and administering at least one shot to 70% of adults across the U.S. by July 4, according to a CNBC analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.About 65% of adults are at least partially vaccinated as of Wednesday, CDC data shows. Roughly 13.6 million would have to receive their first shot over the next 18 days to get that figure to 70%, an average of about 756,000 new vaccinations each day. The U.S., however, is averaging 336,000 newly vaccinated adults per day over the past week.If the U.S. maintains that latest seven-day average, 67% of adults will be at least partially vaccinated by that day.When asked about the consequences of missing the 70% target at a news briefing last week, the White House’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the Fourth of July would not be the end of the country’s vaccination efforts as the risk of infection and illness remains for those who haven’t gotten a shot.”If you don’t meet the precise goal and you fall short by a few percent, that doesn’t mean you stop in your effort to get people vaccinated,” Fauci said. “We want to reach 70% of the adult population by the Fourth of July. I believe we can, I hope we will, and if we don’t we’re going to continue to keep pushing.”Fauci emphasized that people who don’t get vaccinated, are still at risk. “If you get vaccinated, you dramatically, dramatically diminish the risk of getting infected and almost eliminate the risk of serious disease,” he said.Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, also stressed the importance of vaccination in preventing the delta variant, which was first identified in India and is rapidly emerging as the dominant strain in the U.K, from taking hold in the United States.White House Covid czar Jeff Zients told reporters Thursday that the U.S. would cross the 70% mark and “continue across the summer months to push beyond 70%,” but did not specify whether he expects the country to reach that mark by the goal deadline.Biden’s goal of 160 million fully vaccinated adults is also on track to fall short if the pace of shots does not pick up in the next few weeks. Nearly 142 million adults have completed a vaccination program, on pace to land at around 152 million on the Fourth of July assuming the current pace of daily reported vaccinations holds steady.When Biden first announced the two goals on May 4, the country was on pace to hit both. But the vaccination rate has fallen in the weeks since, from a seven-day average of 2.2 million shots per day across all age groups on the day of the announcement to 1.2 million per day as of June 16, according to the CDC.The White House has doubled down on recent efforts to boost the vaccination rate. Biden announced June as a “national month of action” in which his administration would mobilize national organizations, community- and faith-based partners, celebrities, athletes, and other influential groups to be part of the vaccination campaign. The White House also asked pharmacies to extend hours for the month of June and partnered with Uber and Lyft to offer free rides to vaccination sites.CNBC Health & Science Read CNBC’s latest global coverage of the Covid pandemic:The fast-spreading delta Covid variant could have different symptoms, experts sayCosta Rica rejects delivery of China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine, says it is not effective enough  Africa sees 44% spike in new Covid infections, 20% increase in deaths  WHO says delta Covid variant has now spread to 80 countries, and it keeps mutating States are also offering incentives ranging from free beer to $1 million lotteries to try to convince Americans to get jabbed. Though the nationwide rate is still about 5 percentage points away, 14 states and the District of Columbia have already crossed the 70% milestone. New York is the latest to get there, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that the state would lift most of its Covid restrictions as a result. Other states lag, with 22 of them below the 60% mark. That includes Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Wyoming, which have each reached less than 50% of adult residents with one or more shots.The U.S. has undoubtedly made progress in fighting Covid, and nationwide case counts are down to levels not seen since the start of the pandemic, which U.S. officials attribute to the country’s vaccination campaign. American life is closer to its pre-pandemic normal than at any point since last March now that the CDC’s lifted most of its mask recommendations and started to ease travel restrictions.Even so, pockets of the U.S. with low vaccination rates are a risk for the country’s ability to control the pandemic, said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University. “Once you have an unvaccinated population, that’s a vulnerable population likely to see surges in cases,” she said. Ongoing spread means the potential for new variants to emerge, with the possibility that one will be able to evade the protection offered by vaccines.”It is valuable to have aspirations and very ambitious targets ahead of us and I think we should do our best to reach those targets,” El-Sadr said of Biden’s July 4 goals. “If we don’t reach them, it doesn’t mean that we accept it as a failure and stop doing what we’re doing. It means we redouble our efforts.” More